The Way Of Practice

This talk is about how the path unfolds. It unfolds differently for people. It unfolds differently at different phases of life and different phases of practice. The way it’s been described to me is there are three modes of understanding the different phases of our practice; there is the path of cultivation, then there’s the path of letting go and the path of no path. This talk explores these three paths that lead to one.

Transcript

So today I would like to talk a little bit about how the path unfolds.

It unfolds differently for different people and it unfolds differently at different phases of life and at different phases of practice,

Of your practice life.

And the way that it's been described to me and the way that I've experienced it is there's kind of three modes of understanding the different phases of practice.

So to kind of get to know them,

There is the path of cultivation and that is a lot of what I offer you is the cultivation path.

And then there's the path of letting go and sometimes that is the most appropriate response and that arises in practice.

And then there's the path of no path and that's another flavor of practice.

So I'll briefly describe these three sort of ways in which our practice gradually evolves.

And the path of cultivation,

It points to our capacity to develop ourselves,

Our growing.

You know,

In the most basic sense,

We see it in children,

Like through the developmental stages as they grow up.

And we too as adults continue to grow.

Like we can look back at our early adulthood and see that we've changed,

You know,

Quite a bit from who we were.

You know,

We've grown in wisdom,

We've developed certain capacities,

And I would hope and I think that in some ways we're different people than we were in our 20s,

Right?

So the Buddha,

He describes the path of cultivation as starting with ethics.

And we've talked about this,

You know,

And then so teaching laypeople first the ethical foundations of generosity and the five precepts.

And then moving into meditation and concentration practice.

And this in turn,

Like leads to wisdom.

And so liberation in this path of cultivation is often seen as the end result of this gradual path of practice.

Like there's this goal,

And the goal is found by walking this gradual path.

And for some people,

This walking of the gradual path is very inspiring.

You know,

I speak for myself,

It's very inspiring to have a path.

It's something to do,

You know,

With this is my life,

My life is to walk this path.

And so it can really it meets this deep existential part of our humanity in a way.

It's more meaningful to walk this path than to have sort of the traditional career or to have a lot of money.

And for other people,

This gradual path can be discouraging,

You know,

It's sort of like people think,

I can't do this.

You know,

I have my circumstances,

I can't go on retreat,

Like cultivating wisdom,

When I have children,

And I have work,

And I have bills,

And I have all this stuff to do.

You know,

This perception is that this Buddhist path is really meant for monastics.

And it really doesn't work with all the things that I've got going on.

So this can be the response to the cultivation path.

And so this sort of leads to the path of letting go.

And in Zen practice,

You know,

I know many teachers that really specialize in letting go as the whole path.

You know,

I heard that if you're focusing on a goal,

You know,

That what's happening is you're missing the present moment.

So that it could get like the path of cultivation.

There's sort of this end of like,

Gradual liberation,

Right?

But if you know,

What they're saying in the path of letting go is,

You know,

Forget about the goal.

Focus on here and now.

Every time the mind gets involved in something,

Let it go,

And let it go and let it go.

So there's continually letting go of attachments,

Letting go of things,

Letting go of people,

Letting go of mindsets.

This is the path of letting go.

And it's a really useful practice at times in our lives.

Most stress comes from our preoccupation of being attached to something.

So letting go can relieve a tremendous amount of suffering.

And it's hard.

You know,

The path of letting go is challenging,

Because it doesn't really offer anything.

You know,

You're not getting anything out of it,

Except letting go.

It can feel more like,

I'm not developing myself.

I'm not getting that sort of badge of honor.

It leaves us with nothing.

So it can feel empty,

You know,

And you can go to your teacher,

Which this has happened for me,

Like,

Sort of like this path.

It leads me to nothing.

And you know,

The teacher's like beaming and happy and like,

Yeah,

That's right.

That's great.

You're right on target.

So it's,

You know,

That is one way of practicing.

But because this path isn't leading to anything,

It sometimes isn't helpful,

Because for many,

Many people,

Letting go is the hardest thing to do.

It doesn't account for the complexities of our lives.

You know,

Sometimes the path of letting go feels like it's not okay to develop yourself.

It's not okay to develop patience,

Or it's not okay to work on your anger,

If there is anger in your life.

So the path of letting go is not always the useful,

The useful path.

Given that we,

You know,

As part of our human growth and maturation,

You know,

We,

There is an attachment.

I think there's an attachment.

We're not giving it respect to our growth and maturation as humans on this path of letting go.

So that can be the resistance for people.

And this actually informs the third understanding of the path,

Which is the path of no path.

And the path of no path is,

The emphasis is on just being,

Is just be.

Just be as it is.

It's enough to be mindful.

That a moment of mindfulness,

That's freedom.

The path,

I,

So we each work,

And just to say that each of these three ways of practicing,

They arise in our practice in different,

Throughout our lives.

And so right now I'm practicing this,

The path of no path,

Just being here.

And so much of that path for,

In my experience,

Is to name what's arising.

So then the mental noting,

That practice of mental noting is pretty much how I move through the entire day.

Just noting,

Being mindful,

Being mindful.

That's where the freedom lies.

Freedom's not obtained in the future.

Freedom's not obtained in any future moment.

It's just right here and now.

So sometimes the path of no path is couched in the language of non-dualism.

So the focus on the path of no path is that the present moment is perfect the way that it is.

And the emphasis is on waking up to that.

So the path of no path is describing the world from the point of view of how the Buddha would see it.

From someone who has finished the path.

There's no more path to go.

And often times,

Sort of the challenge of the path of no path,

Is it can be more teacher reliant.

Often times a charismatic teacher is there to sort of keep on showing you,

Kind of bringing about waking up for you.

In the presence of a powerful teacher like Nisargadatta or Ramana Maharishi or Eckhart Tolle,

They are pointing out the places of non-dualism.

The place of no attainment.

The place of no path.

Just here.

Just now.

And it's through these charismatic teachers that the student,

You know,

They get really present because they sort of get jolted.

Something happens in their contact with a charismatic teacher and they experience that immediate and present here and now.

But what happens is that often times people have to keep going back to that teacher to get that jolt of non-dualism.

And what's so wonderful about having all of these teachings now available on the internet is that you can just go in and listen to a talk from a non-dual teacher and you can work with the path of no path.

And it's similar.

The path of no path is similar to the path of letting go.

It points to full presence.

And like I said,

What's very helpful when we're choosing or when this becomes the tool of our practice,

The path that we're on,

There's not only a sense that being alive is enough,

There's a deep trust in the dharma of just mental noting.

A deep trust in awareness.

So I find that the path of no path is really helpful to concentrate the mind in this way when there's a lot of.

.

.

So I struggle in my own body with depression and I don't take medication for it.

So when depression arises in my experience,

I just have to stick with the noting and stick with the noting practice.

And that will help me from floundering off of the path.

I don't get hung up on the story.

For some people,

This is a challenging practice because they can flounder.

Their mind and their attachments and their suffering kind of just sort of swirl around.

So I think that the path of no path in some ways is something that we move towards as our practice matures because we have to remember to keep on working with mental noting throughout the day.

It's just seeing and accepting,

Seeing and accepting.

There's nothing to do.

If you're deluded or you're seeing through a fog of depression or anxiety,

You're just noting,

Diluting.

I'm diluted right now.

I'm not seeing clearly right now.

And we just get over it.

We just relax with it.

So this is how it's been described to me,

These three paths,

The path of cultivation,

The path of letting go,

And the path of no path.

And again,

To say that at different phases in our lives,

Different ones stand out.

So if you're following the cultivation path,

The developmental path,

There are times when clearly you're cultivating something.

You can feel it in the body,

The cultivation of something.

And there are times that mostly what we're doing is letting go.

And other times we come to realize that it doesn't even make sense to let go.

What's required is just to see,

Clear seeing,

Being rather than doing.

And maybe that changes and then you go back to this cultivation.

So over months and years of practice,

You might go in and out of these three practices at different times,

One gets more emphasized.

So my hope is that you start to experience these three and sort of see them as three different ways and tools and paths that kind of,

They all lead towards one.

They're all,

Like all of the paths kind of are onward leading.

They just lead to greater freedom that you will experience in yourself.

Like it's sort of like one path with three lanes.

So I hope this is useful and I thank you for your kind attention and your consideration.

Reviews

This is very helpful thank you. I recognize all 3 of these in my own practice. The 3 paths are like 3 cords braided together. As I move down the braid I pick up and use a different strand with each twist

Very interesting to look at the different ways/paths and to see what is needed now. Thank you!