Spirituality Cannot Be Learned from Books

You can read hundreds of books about spirituality, learn about traditions, concepts and teachings, without ever having the spiritual experience they speak of. Just as a cookbook does not feed someone who is hungry, knowledge cannot replace what must be experienced. The quest for essential happiness, inner awareness and the relationship with the soul begin where explanations are no longer enough.

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A Cookbook Does Not Satisfy Hunger

You can read hundreds of books about spirituality*, learn about traditions, concepts and teachings, without ever having the* spiritual experience they speak of. Just as a cookbook does not feed someone who is hungry, knowledge cannot replace what must be experienced. The quest for essential happiness*,* inner awareness and the relationship with the soul begin where explanations are no longer enough.

We always have the choice between living our life and thinking about it. Some people believe they are following a spiritual path because they immerse themselves in books in search of knowledge, explanations and concepts.

It is good to read books, even books about spirituality, but it is not enough: books can inspire you and nourish your thirst for truth, but no book can ever give you the experience of spirituality. Even someone who cannot read or write can know essential happiness.

Those who are hungry can open cookbooks, read the recipes, study them, analyse every word, every ingredient and every method. They can become experts on cooking without ever eating anything; a cookbook does not satisfy hunger.

Not everything in life comes from reflection. The mind is a wonderful tool. It allows us to understand, learn, compare, organise and anticipate. It is indispensable. But not everything belongs to its domain.

Even the most intellectual lover will eventually have to let “the beast” have its say when the person they love says “yes”. Let us draw a veil of modesty over this perfectly natural but intimate scene.

It is the same with spirituality as it is with love: you have to know how to let the beast have its say. Spirituality is not meant to remain a matter of concepts, reasoning and knowledge. You also have to take pleasure in it and live it.

Human beings have fundamental needs: drinking, eating, sleeping and being safe. But they also carry within themselves a higher need: the need for spirituality, for a deepening of consciousness. This need often manifests itself as the quest for happiness.

This need for essential happiness will not be satisfied by material things. Through ignorance, we often confuse this higher need with the desire to possess, obtain, succeed or enjoy more.

Pleasure is a good thing; desire is less so. A simple pleasure comes and goes. Desire, on the other hand, often calls for another desire. We obtain what we wanted, then something else appears. And so we continue searching in the world for something that might satisfy a thirst that does not come from the world.

Satisfied desires do not quench the spiritual thirst. Dissatisfaction remains, without us always knowing why. So we continue running after things, situations, pleasures and projects, thinking that the next one will finally provide what the previous one lacked.

A clarification in passing: there is a difference between desire and need, just as there is a difference between desire and simply wanting something. When I speak of desire, I mean desire that has become attachment, which some Indian sages count among the “afflictions” that hinder spiritual realisation.

“Men, struck by fear, seek refuge in mountains, woods, gardens, trees or sacred places. But these refuges are neither safe nor supreme. They offer no shelter from suffering.” (Dhammapada, 188-189)

“When the senses are turned only outward, human beings no longer see, hear or perceive what is essential. Without inner awareness, a person becomes mad. Desire drives them into behaviour that harms them; this is why the sage closes his eyes and turns inward, and thus wisely chooses what to take and what to leave.” (Tao Te Ching, chapter 12)

This pursuit is futile. It is not in the things of the world, however beautiful and precious they may be, that the fundamental need for essential happiness will be satisfied. Even the love of others, the love of a partner, children, friends or parents, cannot fulfil that particular thirst.

These forms of love are precious and essential to human balance and earthly happiness; it is good to experience them and to love fully. But they belong to another level and cannot give what belongs to the soul.

The mistake, then, is not to love the world, to enjoy what it offers or to love the people around us. The mistake is to ask these things to give what they cannot give.

The only way to satisfy this thirst is to go to the source of essential happiness, that is, to the essence. This happiness is spiritual. It comes from the soul. If the thirst comes from the soul, then it must be satisfied on the level of the soul. To do this, turn towards it, not only towards your mind. The mind can tell you about spirituality, allow you to study its texts, understand its ideas and discuss them for years. But knowing the recipe is still not eating.

Book knowledge is interesting and can even be useful. It can point in a direction, answer certain questions and help us avoid certain mistakes. But it cannot replace what comes from consciousness turned in the right direction.

Human beings do not exist on only one level, but on three. There is the material level, that of the body, its needs and instincts. There is the level of the mind, that of thought, concepts, emotions, feelings and acquired knowledge.

Finally, there is the level of the soul, that of deep consciousness and spiritual life. Each of these levels has its place. Neglecting any one of them would be a mistake. The body must receive what it needs, the mind must fulfil its function, and the soul must receive what it thirsts for.

We do not nourish the body with ideas. We do not nourish the mind with food. And we do not nourish the soul with concepts. We need to know what, within us, is hungry, and then give it the nourishment it needs.

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