Sustaining Practice

The Buddha put a tremendous emphasis on direct experience, much more so than beliefs and ideas.The practice he said was meant for people who have the ability or the interest to really feel deeply what's going on in this life. To feel into themselves and into their lives. It's possible to read Buddhist books and learn the ideas of Buddhism, but that's very different from feeling down into the depths of ourselves.

Transcript

So,

There was a request from one of our practitioners to talk about the ways of sustaining practice,

And I really appreciated this inquiry,

And I'm very inspired to support other people in this practice,

And so if there is a practice question or a request for a particular exploration,

I'm very willing to go that way.

For me personally,

To have this practice has been one of the greatest blessings of my life.

It's unimaginable to consider what my life might be like if I didn't have meditation practice and mindfulness as my north star,

And I feel really grateful to have had a chance to do so much practice and engage with the teachings and to keep it going now for over 26 years.

It's really the greatest blessing.

The Buddha,

He put a tremendous amount of emphasis on your direct experience,

Much more so than beliefs or ideas.

The practice,

He said,

Was meant for people who take their time or have the ability or the interest to really feel deeply what's going on in this life,

To feel into themselves and into their lives.

It's possible to read Buddhist books and learn the ideas of Buddhism,

But that is very very different from feeling down into the depths of ourselves,

Our being.

The other thing that he said is that my teaching is a teaching of action,

And so it's not a passive practice that we do,

It's an active practice,

And even though part of the activity of practice is to sit still in meditation,

It's still understood to be an active engagement,

An engagement to wake up in the present,

To be attentive and engaged here.

Meditation practice,

And especially mindfulness,

Is actually very easy to do.

What's difficult is to continue to do it,

And to keep it up and to sustain it,

Both over the minutes in which we're meditating,

But also throughout our life,

The years of our lives.

So the Dharma is to be felt deeply,

This is the instruction,

And the Dharma is to be engaged with.

So how do we engage with it?

How do we sustain it?

So one of the ways is to understand and to have a clear sense of how is it important to us,

To be very clear about what's really valuable for us in our lives.

I think this question of what is most valuable,

What is most important,

Is something that's very helpful to keep close to ourselves and to keep asking,

What is most valuable?

Because you know,

It changes,

It changes over time.

Meditation practice supports this inquiry,

Because it gives us space to ask the question.

Instead of seeking answers in books and learning ethical conduct,

Basically learning through somebody else's ideas of what we should do,

Meditation is the way of reading the book of oneself and discovering for oneself how this is done.

I have real confidence in the profound value of this practice.

I wouldn't be sitting here today if I didn't.

I have discovered for myself in my direct experience some depth of peace and some depth of stillness,

Some depth of freedom from being caught up in the reactivity that people often get caught up in.

So you might have your own understanding and ideas of why meditation is important or how it fits into your life,

But reflecting on your intention,

The value of practice is one of the ways to have a kind of intellectual support for sustaining the practice.

Once you're clear and understand how meditation is important,

Then it's more inspiring to do once you understand what's important,

To have a degree of trust or faith or enthusiasm for just doing it.

And one of the questions to consider also is,

What is it that gives you enthusiasm?

What is it that gives you faith or inspiration?

How can you tap into sources of inspiration so that you have greater trust in the value of meditating every day,

Greater trust in meditating every day than checking the news every day,

Greater trust in meditating every day than watching a show?

I think what initially inspired me was to start to see that I am not my thoughts.

There's just thinking.

It's not who I am.

It's just coming and going all the time.

Like having this,

It verifies my faith in the practice to be like,

Oh,

This whole piece around not-self,

Like I am not these thoughts and perceptions and views and vows.

I am not that.

And to tap into the greater sense of being.

This is really,

This really inspires me.

So to ask that question for yourself,

So what has been inspiring for me in this practice?

Asking that.

What sustains practice over the long term is if you have a really strong intention and strong motivation,

Then there is nothing.

Nothing will get in your way.

You'll just do it.

Your motivation will be there.

You'll get up in the morning and you'll sit,

Or you'll apply yourself to practice in whatever way practice means to you,

And you'll be motivated to do it.

One of the keys of my practice and how it's developed over time is continuity.

I've maintained continuity of practice over many,

Many years,

Sitting every day.

And sometimes it's a short meditation,

And other times it's long.

But it's every day,

Day in and day out.

It's just kind of like brushing my teeth.

I just do it.

I think an issue that many people face is there's so many pulls and pushes on our time and on our interests and on our effort.

Given all the other things that you're motivated to do,

Or the other obligations that you have or demands on your time,

For people who are really busy or have a lot of projects,

It's really important to look at not just your intentions for practice,

But your intentions for your life.

What are the most sustaining,

Important intentions that you want to base your life on?

And then prioritize it a little bit.

Look more carefully and see,

Is it doable?

Is it workable?

What my intentions are?

If you have too many things going on,

You know this,

You won't do any of it well.

If you want to receive some benefit from spiritual life,

You maybe need to do it well in some way.

You could be a weekday Buddhist or a weekend practitioner,

And that's fine and nice and no one's going to knock you for doing it that way.

But if you're only doing it on the weekends or getting this couple times a week,

It's not really going to sustain your life in times of crisis and difficulty.

Like when difficulty arises in your life,

Like you get sick or you're dying or a loved one is sick and is dying,

Or whatever the crisis may be,

We all have different experiences.

What really helps is to have built up some momentum and some practice,

To have some stability,

Some ability to concentrate,

Some strength of patience,

Some compassion,

Some skills with working with your mind so that we're not completely derailed in a time of crisis.

To have an appropriate response,

Like we talked about on Tuesday,

All of practice is an appropriate response to what is happening in the moment.

Some people come to me in times of crisis and I'll offer what advice I can,

But it's a whole different discussion with a person who has had a strong meditation practice leading up to that meeting.

It's a completely different conversation because we can cut through the story a lot easier.

So the more busy life is,

The more important the intention is.

I've known people who kind of want it all,

And then they want to add a spiritual life on top of wanting it all.

And there's a lot of amazing,

Wonderful things to do in life,

Wonderful things to attain and experiences to have and to get,

But one human being can't have it all.

You know,

It's just,

It's interesting because all kinds of things are dangled in front of us like carrots by our consumer culture and popular culture.

You know,

All the travel brochures that you receive in the mail that says,

Oh,

This is where you need to go and do and have.

So we have all these choices.

So looking at our intentions and making choices,

Having a sense of purpose for our life as part of those choices,

That sustains practice.

So my last point on sustaining practice,

You know,

I think it can go,

The list goes on and on for sustaining practice,

But what I find has been very helpful is to periodically go on retreat.

I retreat at least once a year and have for,

Gosh,

The 26 years that I think that was the only year that I didn't retreat was the year that my son was born because that was a whole retreat in and of itself.

But whether it's a one day retreat or a weekend retreat like we do here,

Like we do that every year through Roaring Fork Insight or a residential retreat where you're practicing in a more sustained way throughout the day,

Many people find that kind of jumpstarts their practice and really supports their intention and their priorities.

So I hope this was helpful.

I kind of think of our spiritual life like a marriage.

You know,

There's the honeymoon phase and times that are just really,

Really great.

And sometimes it's just lousy.

You know,

It's just not working so well,

But you're married.

So you kind of hang in there with it and you just stay,

You know,

You stay in it because marriage can be quite trying at times.

But when there's love and commitment,

You stick it out.

And it's the same with spiritual life.

When there's a love and a commitment in spiritual life and spiritual practice,

It's the same thing.

You just kind of like work with it.

So the only one that makes it really hard in the spiritual practice,

You know,

In a marriage,

There's two of you.

So there's a lot of projection and blame that can happen.

But in spiritual practice,

There's only going to be one partner.

So if you're having difficulty,

The relationship,

It's with you.

So thank you.

Thank you for your consideration.

And thank you for bringing this question,

This request to me to consider with all of you.