Esoteric for Now: Is Your Spiritual Awakening a Phase?

Written by Aaliyah Smith

“See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no Evil.”

The starting ground of profound spiritual insight and esotericism, the phrase used by all the divas on your FYP. While it has become a bit of a digital joke, these words existed long before users decided to make pink text videos claiming it as their‘ vibe for the rest of the year.’

It’s been borrowed, repackaged and translated so many times that almost nobody using it knows where it actually came from. 

Before we can talk about the esoteric baddies, crystal warriors, and everyone’s sudden fluency in the laws of manifestation, we need to talk about some several thousand year old monkeys.

The Monkeys Did it First

The three wise monkeys—Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru, if we want to refer to them by their government—are usually characterized by  their“ ancient Japanese wisdom”. Except, they’re not Japanese at all, at least not originally. In fact, the proverb most likely traces back to a Confucian principle out of China. It goes something like“ don’t look at, listen to, or speak what goes against propriety”, and this sentiment was transferred to Japan by Buddhist teaching.. The most iconic depiction of the three monkeys is a 17th century carving on a shrine in Nikko, Japan, but the philosophy behind it came from somewhere else entirely, and picked up a totally different meaning once it hit the West.

In the original Buddhist framing, the point was to  not dwell on evil thoughts. It’s an inward, mental discipline sort of thing. But somewhere between Japan and your group chat, it got flattened into a phrase about willful ignorance, about looking the other way when something is wrong. And because it felt so“ right”, the meaning just stuck.

Okay, but what does “Esoteric” even mean?

As you may or may not know, the word“ esoteric” comes from the Greek word esōterikos. The lore is that Aristotle split his teaching schedule in two: morning lectures for his advanced students and afternoon lectures open to the general public, and the word“ esoteric” describes the former. It is, by definition, the opposite of mass-produced. It means not for everyone.

So, when a video with 4 million views captions itself“ the esoteric girlies know”, it’s a complete contradiction. You cannot have a viral secret. The moment it’s viral, it has failed at being a secret, a rare knowledge.

when a video with 4 million views captions itself “the esoteric girlies know”, it’s a complete contradiction. You cannot have a viral secret. The moment it’s viral, it has failed at being a secret, a rare knowledge.

The Om Symbol

We all know what the Om symbol looks like. It's everywhere. However, in Hinduism, Om isn’t a decoration; it's a sacred sound and matra representing the divine, functioning as one of the most important symbols in the religion. This orientalist dilution goes back to colonization and the way that it  interacts with Eastern spirituality. You take the aesthetics, discard the people and the history that made said aesthetics mean something.

Critics of the wellness-industrial complex have echoed these sentiments—when practices like yoga get appreciated, the actual teaching gets overshadowed by aesthetics and profit. And trust, it isn’t a small industry: global wellness is valued at $4.2 trillion, built largely on tradition borrowed from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism with barely any acknowledgement flowing back.

Right now, people crave calm. They want to feel grounded and connected to something bigger than their phone, because we are living through a genuinely disorienting stretch of time. It tracks that people are reaching for stillness and that“ See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no Evil” hits differently when the evil in question feels like it’s everywhere you look. An understandable response to an absurd environment.

“‘See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no Evil’ hits differently when the evil in question feels like it’s everywhere you look.”

When a 19 year old finds yoga for the first time in a college gym or on her FYP, it is esoteric to her. Not because it’s hidden but because she has never touched anything like it before, and it lands like divine secret knowledge, no matter how many people got there first. That instinct deserves some grace. The industry built around exploiting it does not. 

“When a 19 year old finds yoga for the first time in a college gym or on her FYP, it is esoteric to her. Not because it’s hidden but because she has never touched anything like it before, and it lands like divine secret knowledge, no matter how many people got there first. That instinct deserves some grace. The industry built around exploiting it does not.”

All of this to say: let the girls have their moment! The trend cycle will do what trend cycles do. The ones who were only there for the aesthetic will move on in a few months. The ones who actually got something out of it will still be on their mat long after the relaxing audios and YouTube videos go out of style.

If you’re going to engage with spirituality, actually engage with it. Learn where it comes from and sit with it. It’s genuinely fascinating, life changing stuff when you go into it for real. Do that, and it stops being a phase you’ll cringe at in four months. It becomes something that’s actually yours.