Do YOU Need to Practice?
Which path do you take? The path of wisdom? OR the path of conditioning?
Each one of us in the world needs to decide which road to take. When we look carefully we discern what we want - or more importantly what we need.
Let me ask it again. Do you have a need to practice a spiritual practice?
The swamp of material world conditioning dulls your ability to practice.
Meditation has become somewhat of an old hat in this 3rd millennium. There have been many attempts and try-outs in yoga, meditation & learning some form or another of an ancient tradition. Despite the pervasive offering of meditation, yoga and various traditions, many become bored and uninterested in going deeply into the practice.
SURE. SURE. Many exclaim they have done yoga. Have meditated. “Yeah,” it goes, “I know it.” and “I lost interest.”
This is when a spiritual practice loses its glamour and becomes that old hat I mentioned above. People, many people, lose interest.
There are reasons that we lose interest. It may seem too foreign, not easily understood, takes up too much time, other interests which are rooted in the material world dominate the mind. The list goes on and on.
STOP for a moment and contemplate what hinders your interest in a spiritual practice?
You may find that you are interested but you think it requires more time than you feel you have or that it is just not interesting or you just couldn’t stick with it.
Some of us get very invested in taking up a spiritual practice only to find out they have lost interest. And again it is the old hat syndrome of becoming uninteresting, loss of luster with an attitude of been there, done that!
This is when we start to look around or go in another direction or we realize we do not wanna waste our time sitting, studying and silence. The world is too exciting to get involved with something that seems to require soooooooooo much time and effort.
We might start out interested only to find out we have lost interest and seek something else. Seeking something else arises from our disappointment, attachment and desire for something new & shiny like a little kid wanting something more or something else.
We lose interest and energy when we are attached to our body and mind. This interest rests upon our desires. And desires often pair up with our impulses. Even those of us who are devoted to spiritual practice find ourselves at some point wandering away into the wolf’s lair. This is NOT unusual for the spiritual adept.
The adept, however, at some point encounters someone or even a community who offers enough wisdom to counter the adept’s foolish action so that the adept returns to their path of practice tout de suite. Relief and strong determination return. The foolish adept is relieved because a lesson was learned.
Discipline becomes the basis of practice. It is essential to have a constant practice, otherwise we risk sliding off yet again.
When we are without attachment to our selfishness, calm and peace develop.
Those who are sincere in their spiritual practice learn and teach themselves to dis-identify themselves from their body and mental formations. We train the mind to protect the mind from mental formations. This is often followed by a new strength of determination to practice.
We learn to NOT identify with the mental thoughts and the conditions of the body. But we must be willing to study our mind in such a manner we remove all the various identities that we have counted on.
When we are able to free the mind from our conditioning in the material realm, we have taken the backward step toward the mind of the greatest sages of enlightenment.
Let this mind be in you - the mind of the great sage that is intimately communicated.
Do Not Worry. Keep Going.
www.asinglethread.net ————- www.zatma.org
Each one of us in the world needs to decide which road to take. When we look carefully we discern what we want - or more importantly what we need.
Let me ask it again. Do you have a need to practice a spiritual practice?
Meditation has become somewhat of an old hat in this 3rd millennium. There have been many attempts and try-outs in yoga, meditation & learning some form or another of an ancient tradition. Despite the pervasive offering of meditation, yoga and various traditions, many become bored and uninterested in going deeply into the practice.
SURE. SURE. Many exclaim they have done yoga. Have meditated. “Yeah,” it goes, “I know it.” and “I lost interest.”
This is when a spiritual practice loses its glamour and becomes that old hat I mentioned above. People, many people, lose interest.
There are reasons that we lose interest. It may seem too foreign, not easily understood, takes up too much time, other interests which are rooted in the material world. The list goes on and on.
STOP for a moment and contemplate what hinders your interest in a spiritual practice?
You may find that you are interested but you think it requires more time than you feel you have or that it is just not interesting or you just couldn’t stick with it.
Some of us get very invested in taking up a spiritual practice only to find out they have lost interest. And again it is the old hat syndrome of becoming uninteresting, loss of luster with an attitude of been there, done that!
This is when we start to look around or go in another direction or we realize we do not wanna waste our time sitting, studying and silence. The world is too exciting to get involved with something that seems to requires soooooooooo much time and effort.
We might start out interested only to find out we have lost interest and seek something else. The seeking something else arises from our disappointent, attachments and desires for something new & shiny like a litle kid wanting something more or something else.
We lose interest and energy when we are attached to our body and mind. This interest rests upon our desires. And desires often pair up with our impulses. Even those of us who are devoted to spiritual practice find ourselves at some point wandering away into the wolf’s lair. This is NOT unusual for the spiritual adept.
The adept, however, at some point encounters someone or even a community who offers enough wisdom to the adept’s foolish action that the adept returns to their path of practice tout de suite. Relief and strong determination returns. The foolish adept is relieved because a lesson was learned.
Discipline becomes the basis of practice. It is essential to have a constant practice, otherwise we risk sliding off yet again.
When we are without attachment to our selfishness, calm and peace develop.
Those who are sincere in their spiritual practice learn and teach themselves to disidentify themselves from their body and mental formations. We train the mind to protect the mind from mental formations. This ois often followed by determination to practice.
We learn to NOT identify with the mental thoughts and the condition of the body.