The Million Dollar Question

I am a person who is quite dedicated to my daily personal integrative practice.

There are, of course, deeper levels of dedication that I aspire to, but I have at least managed to develop the ability to get myself on the mat or cushion at least 6 times every week.

People who are having difficulty establishing their own practice with the consistency that they'd like sometimes ask me how I have so much discipline.

In thinking about it, I've come to feel that it is not so much discipline, but motivation.

In the Tibetan Buddhist meditation tradition, the first obstacle to getting anywhere with one's practice is called "laziness" - this doesn't mean any kind of laziness, it specifically means the thought "i don't feel like practicing today".

When i look into my own heart, it is not even so much a matter of "I don't feel like practicing", it is a feeling of "I'd rather be doing this, that, or the other thing". The things on my list of rather-be-doing might be tasks or chores, might be rest, or might be frivolous activities.

All of the "other options" that might divert my daily practice share one thing in common - that I think I know what they are going to get me, and it is something that I want.

If I'm distracted by work, for example, it's because I believe that by going to work, or doing work related tasks, I am going to receive money. If it's about some recreational activity, I have a projection about what kind of pleasant thoughts and feelings that activity is going to bring me.

When it comes down to meditating, yoga, or any other personal cultivation practice, I believe that the greatest bar to doing it consistently is that one either doesn't know what one is going to get - or else that thing is not considered a high priority.

The question that sparked this line of thinking for me today was like this: you're in a downward dog pose (or some other challenging posture) and you are starting to tire. You get very fatigued and decide it's time to come out of the pose because you "can't" stay in it any longer. If someone offered you a million dollars to just stay in the pose for a minute longer, do you think you could do it? Many of us would find the strength from somewhere.

When I apply this line of thinking to a daily cultivation practice, it seems to me that it wouldn't be difficult to maintain at all if one was being paid for it.

The truth is, though, that you will be paid for your cultivation practice, and it is worth more than a million dollars. Imagine that by spending 15-90 minutes per day, you could have access to the control over what kind of feelings take place in your body and mind. The various systems of yoga and internal development are offering nothing less. How valuable could it be to have the ability to be happy at all times? How valuable would it be to be able to see through to a deeper strata of reality so that you could make strong and lasting change in your world? How valuable could a healthy body that lasts till a ripe old age be?

To me, these things are worth more than a million dollars - and because I know this, I practice with great dedication. The "cure" for the first obstacle in Tibetan Buddhist meditation is called "developing faith" - the faith it means is just faith in the benefits of your practice. If you know that the practice is something that will bring you happiness - and that it has been shown to do so consistently for others - why would you wait any longer?

The higher levels of yoga become even more interesting - how fascinating could it be to go into a state of orgasmic bliss, just by meditating upon it? How fascinating could it be to enter deep meditation at will and have access to total peace at any time? How wonderful could it be to have full access to the intuitive abilities in a human mind? What else do you think might be possible?

Beyond all of these very wonderful goals, the tradition of inner training offers us a final one, which is perhaps the most important. It is said that the culmination of one's regular and persistent practice is the resolution of all spiritual doubt - because you see the truth directly.

With benefits like these, I can feel safe that I'll feel motivated to get on the mat and put love toward my practice again tomorrow.

Wild Success

I am currently studying the book 'Light on Hatha Yoga' by Yogi Swatmarama.

In this text, the master describes six qualities that bring "Wild Success" to the yoga practitioner. In reviewing these qualities, I'm struck by how they are so applicable to creating success in any endeavor - and particularly in cultivating our personal integrative or developmental practice.

The first of these 6 qualities he lists is enthusiasm.

What does enthusiasm mean to our practice? Quite simply, it means that we are excited about it. If one is cultivating yoga, there is a certain excitement about being able to master a new pose. Experienced practitioners will recognize that this excitement only really comes when you have a regular (daily, or many times per week) practice, because it is only then that we can really see much progress.

Sometimes, this excitement can be harder to generate about a practice like meditation - particularly if you have hit a "dry spell". It often happens that you will start a practice of meditation and have a sort of "beginners luck" - you'll be sitting and happily blissing out in your newly found calm mind. Then you'll have a breakthrough. Literally, you break through to a new level of awareness - and when this happens, you get a glimpse of what's really down there under what we're conscious of. Or, it can happen that you receive some new instructions from your Teacher, and you are no longer satisfied with the level of awareness you have during your meditation practice. It is times like these that test your enthusiasm.

Really, many of us get caught up in an expectation around states and fantastic experiences related to our meditation. These can be many of the amazing and extraordinary things that we experience during a practice session - lights or sounds in the inner awareness, sensations of floating or falling, even visionary experience, or "psychic powers". On a subtler level, we often get caught up in thinking that our meditation is somehow supposed to work, in the short term, to make our lives "better", or make us calmer people.

Wait a minute! All of these things about meditation are great! What's wrong with being a calm and happy person with psychic powers and visionary experiences?

There is nothing wrong with these things, it's just that they are not, ultimately, what meditation practice is about. The reason these are not what meditation is about is that all of these things can go away. Long-term meditators can tell you that sometimes it's blissful, other times, it's just work. Sometimes your meditation really makes life easier, other times, you have realizations that make it very difficult to go about your normal business during the day.

The small benefits like extraordinary states are wonderful, and will actually happen with increasing frequency if you are practicing well, but they are not what the cultivation of meditation is about. We are really trying to reach a different stage all together. We are attempting to make the mind and body into a whole new form that isn't subject to the same old twists of fate that it was before. How this happens is a subject all of its own, but it will suffice to say here that thinking of this is a great way to generate enthusiasm.

If you are really going to practice, you have to love it. You have to find what it is about your practice that really inspires you to succeed. We are not talking here about just settling in and not aspiring in some pseudo-zen trance, we're talking about a yoga that calls you ever onward to greater and greater joys, until the ultimate joy of complete liberation.

Anyone who has ever manifested a lasting success and relationship with anything has been inspired about it. If you look at any master in the world who is truly inspiring, they all share one quality, the quality of passion about their practice.

If we want Wild Success in our own cultivation, we must learn to be Wildly enthusiastic about our practice. Only then can we really invest deeply enough in it to see the results we hope for.

Finally, it is important for us to ask ourselves if we believe deeply enough in our practice to generate enthusiasm about it. One aspect of enthusiasm is Faith. If we lack faith in our selves and what we do, our passion will be half hearted, or inconsistent. Find a practice that you can believe in. One that you know in your heart will take you all the way to the goals you dream of. Then simply devote yourself to it with great joy and watch the wild success flower all around you.

Action steps:

Ask yourself: How passionate am I about my practice?

Do I have faith that my practice can bring me the goals that I desire?

What level of commitment is required from this path in order to see results?

Who do I see in my world that are examples of this type of enthusiasm?

Good Practice/Bad Practice

One of the biggest blocks to establishing a consistent daily practice is being tripped up by the occasional (or sometimes regularly occuring) "bad practice" session.

A "bad" practice can leave you feeling demoralized and unmotivated about your personal cultivation for weeks.

If we take a look into what characterizes a "bad" practice, and what characterizes a "good" practice, we can gain some deeper insight into what is really going on.

For many of us, if we sit down to meditate - for example - and all we can do is think the whole period, we may label this a "bad" practice.

Other times, we get on the yoga mat, and we are just not feeling as flexible, compassionate, or peaceful as we are "supposed" to when we do this practice.

The problem here is that we've allowed our practice to become infected with a "should".

What's the problem with a "should"? Well, a "should" is different than a goal. A goal is something like "I'd like to be able to hold the crane pose in yoga for five breaths in two months", or "I'd like to be able to concentrate my mind peacefully for 20 minutes straight by this time next year". These are reasonable, achievable milestones that one can aim one's practice toward.

Shoulds, on the other hand, are unreasonable in that they are usually saying that whatever is happening is not what is "supposed" to be happening. This "supposed" to does not help one get toward ones goals. In the Dao De Ching - an ancient Chinese classic, advises us "the journey of 1000 miles starts with the first step". When we are focusing on the shoulds, we are focusing on some other step than the one in front of us. This makes it practically impossible to get to our goals in the long run - and makes us feel bad about ourselves in the short run.

Anyone who has been able to take a practice and make it consistent - like skilled atheletes, or musicians - can tell you that you have to take the good days with the bad days. Now this isn't some pessimistic view that says "practice will always be hard" - there are many masters who have reached a place of lasting peace - it is just the knowledge that a bad day doesn't mean that something is wrong with your practice.

The bad days are, in fact, something very right with your practice. There is a phase of meditation that I like to call "beginners luck" - when you just get to sit quietly and "at peace". For most, this phase only lasts for about a week, until you get quiet enough to actually hear all that was going on under the surface level of your mind. These noisier practice days can, at times, be a good sign that you are actually getting more sensitive.

The same can be true if you are attempting to integrate a new level of ethics or integrity into your life. There may be many days as you being that you feel you are doing much worse, but it's actually just because you are finally paying attention.

Finally, the rough points in our daily cultivation form the raw material for our inner growth. It's an evolutionary practice - we have to struggle with it, we have to push ourselves in order to grow. It can't just be roses and rainbows all the time - that's just not realistic for most, and even if it was, it's not especially beneficial.

When working to make your practice stick - to make it a part of your life, learn to stick with it no matter what. It can be extremely exciting when we make some stride in our meditation, yoga, or anything else, but what we are really looking for is the type of patient mind that can continue on during a dry spell. If we are looking at the big picture, this type of patient and enduring mind is actually what we're attempting to develop through all of this meditation and yoga. The way we can develop it is through learning to simply be with our practice - whether it seems exciting at the moment, or a little dull. With this ability to stay, we will notice over time that our level does increase, our experience does qualitatively better, and our practice matures.

Action steps:

Find out what for you constitutes a "bad" practice. When you have this type of session, does it derail you?

What are the goals of your practices contrasted with the "shoulds"?

If you are not experiencing difficult practice days, do you think you are expanding or progressing in your personal cultivation?

enlightened self interest

"Enlightened Self Interest" is a quote that I've stolen from His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.

What does this mean? Well, to me, in terms of the development of a daily cultivation practice, it means that one has to care enough about oneself to get down to business and do the hard work that it takes.

And I think it's important that we be clear - it's about caring about yourself.

Now ultimately, your practice may look like something that only really benefits others. Or your practice may look like torture on some mornings when you haven't had quite as much sleep as you'd like. Sometimes after a long long week of work, my practice looks like a horrible idea. At these times, i have to remember that it's about caring for myself - that I am the one who will benefit.

In the Tibetan understanding of Karma, they point out a very sad fact - our most natural reactions are usually the ones that are going to give us a world that we dont want. That means, that the tendency to try to do what's going to "feel good" in the moment, is often going to lead us to pain later on.

We can see this in very simple things. If we only did what felt good in the moment, we might end up addicted to horrible drugs, or dishonouring our committed relationships, or some other unsavory manifestation. If we only ate in a way that was satisfying in the moment, we might end up overweight, or with heart disease, or other health conditions. Now, there are some folks who just naturally enjoy honouring their commitments and eating healthy food, but they are a special case (to be explored at a different time) - the vast majority of people in the world seem to be on the other side, attracted toward things which are not especially beneficial for them - you can see this through the things that most people buy, and the costs of health care.

Perhaps this is not you, but if it isn't, then you don't need to read this blog - because you are already firmly established in your regular daily cultivation without fail, and happy because of it. If you are not, then it is likely that you are still sacrificing a greater happiness that takes time for a lesser happiness that you can have right now.

To be totally honest, you have to really know WHY you need to practice, if you are going to withstand all the very valid reasons NOT to on some days. It's really just a matter of logic. Personally, I live in Santa Cruz, and I'm a massage therapist - I'm the kind of guy who would LIKE it to be something that I feel. Unfortunately, i discover that this is not the case.

The emotion of anger is a good example. When someone pushes your buttons, and the fight or flight system gets engaged, it seems perfectly logical to just shout at them, or hit them, or go out and do something that hurts them just a little bit from the feeling side of things. All the feelings in the body are pushing you toward some negative action or thought. There are many people who just act on these thoughts, people who harm others out of impulse.

Among the people who do this type of harm under the influence of their negative emotions - many feel very sad after they cool down. Many of us only recognize the harm we've done when irrevocable consequences come around.

People who act out of impulse in this way are lacking in Enlightened Self Interest.

If you are practicing something worth your time, it is something that is going to save you from pain, increase your skill - improve your entire life. This is worth a bit of sacrifice. How much sacrifice? Well, i suppose it depends upon the practice. Some people sacrifice everything for a practice like dance, martial arts, business - they may sacrifice relationships, ethics, other people, their health. This is not the type of sacrifice I'm talking about.

What if there was a type of practicing that led you to be a brighter light to all those around you. What if it also made you happier and clearer the more you engaged in it? Would not this type of activity be worth letting go of some lesser satisfiers that are just about blowing off some steam in the moment? Would not this type of practice be worth making yourself get up and do it - even if all your feelings are protesting - because you KNOW it's the right thing to do? This is enlightened self interest.

This type of practice is the art of truly caring for yourself at all costs.

action steps:

1. Find out if your practice is worth sacrificing for

2. Observe during each day what type of instincts arise for you - which ones, if gratified would lead to lasting benefit? Which ones would lead to harm?

3. Think out the logic behind dedicating yourself to your personal cultivation. Why is it important? Why should it be upheld no matter what?

Honouring the Teacher and the Lineage

In the Classical traditions of Yoga, it would be unthinkable to undertake training without a Master Teacher to guide you on the Path.

Nowadays, this type of relationship can seem far off. It may be that there is so much information available in the world, that you don't even know where you'd settle down if you wanted to. It may be that you would love to work with a Teacher, but just aren't sure that anyone will meet up to the standards of someone you can fully trust in the way that will make your practice mature. Sometimes, there just aren't any Teachers around.

How does a Teacher help you to mature your practice? There are a number of ways. One way is related to the ancient tradition of taking vows. In the Tibetan tradition, it is accepted that you could take a vow in front of an image of the Buddha - or if you were in another tradition, you might think of taking your vows before the eyes of God, but it is considered even more powerful if you can take a vow in front of someone that you respect deeply. Why is this so? Because the ancient Teachers knew that if you were going to break your vow, you'd think of when you knelt in front of that person who you deeply respect, and you'd have to think of how they'd feel if you broke your vow. When you contemplate in this way, you are less likely to disrespect that sacred relationship.

What makes that type of relationship sacred? Is it the person's robes, or station? No. It is the respect you bring to them. It is the holiness that you see in them which makes the relationship work. When you have a relationship with a Teacher, it works the same with your daily practice. It is because you respect them that you will honour the relationship by practicing. If you don't practice, you are being disrespectful to that person who is so hard to find, a true Teacher.

On the other hand, if you DO honour the relationship, you have one of the highest tools to generate good energy in your own life, and the lives of those around you. You can make your practice into an offering to the Teacher - and it is the Highest form of offering that you can give such a person.

But wait a minute.... many of us have not met a teacher who we feel THIS level of respect and devotion toward. Some are probably reading this blog and just thinking of their yoga class at the local yoga center, or the like. What if you don't have a Teacher, what if you just have teachers? Well, then we need to know where Teachers and Teachings actually come from. Why is it that some people have a yoga or qigong practice that feels to them like the most sacred thing they've ever encountered, while others are still looking for something that lives up to what they know is possible. Why are some people able to recognize deep and sacred teachings from the very first go, while others only realize it years after they've left those opportunities to practice behind.

The answer, according to the ancient teachings, is that these things are not coming from where we always thought they were. The sacred arts of yoga, meditation, kung fu, and the like don't just arrive in your world from their own impetus - you create them, you magnetize them to you. You can call it the power of your mind, or like the ancients, you can call it karma. It is the way you treat and think about others that determines the kind of world you see. This is what has given you access to the very Teachings you are working so hard to practice regularly, this is also what can make or break your success in creating a daily habit of cultivation. Finally, this is what determines the shape of the Teachers that manifest in your life.

What does this mean on the practical level? Well, a couple of things. One is that if all you see are teachers, and you'd like to be seeing Teachers, you've got to start planting the seeds with who you have nearby. What does this mean? It means take the instructions given to you by your teachers and put them to the test. First, think them over and find out if they are valid (real Teachers LOVE when you do this). Then, if you find out that they make sense, just give them your all. Make an offering out of it, and dedicate the energy of making that offering to your finding a Path you can devote yourself to wholeheartedly.

The second way to create more Teachers in your world is to be a refuge to others. Do you know someone who would really benefit from some yoga and cannot afford the money or time to go to a class? Teach them what you know - even if it's just a little bit. This gives your mind's creative energy the signal to bring more of that back to you, and you'll start seeing the most amazing teachings all around you.

Finally, the qualities you see in your teachers are merely reflections. I know that I've personally struggled with wanting to find a Teacher that I could establish a deep relationship with, but never really seeing anyone out there that I could trust. The thing is, what your teacher brings is a reflection of your own past actions an thoughts. The way to create a beautiful, trustable, knowledgable Master in your world is to act exactly the way you think they should. Soon you will, like me, start to see more and more people with good and high qualities appearing all around you.

Why else do you need to honour the Teacher? One of the ancient Tibetan qualities listed for a good teacher is that they know the correct order of the Teachings, and what practices to give for each individual's level.

Let's face it, if you are anything like me, when you try to just figure out a practice on your own, it can be very difficult. You are kind of piecing it together a step at a time, but you don't really have a firm vision of what the final goal is, or all the steps to get there. You need to find a master instructor, and follow him or her step by step. A master instructor should have either completed the goal themselves, or know the territory so well that they can give you all the tools and then launch you in the right direction.

When I have this kind of person or lineage in my world, I can settle into my practice. I can look to the living example and know where I'm headed. I can know that the side paths have been purged out of my practice, and all I truly need to do is just keep on progressing - and offering my practice in love.

Action steps:

1. write down a list of what, for you, are the qualities of the ultimate Teacher in your chosen practice path.

2. notice how many of those qualities you consciously, intentionally embody on a daily basis.

3. contemplate what the final goal of your chosen practice is - fitness? enlightenment? a certain skill level? Look to see if the progression from where you are now up to the final goal is well defined.

4. Look at the Teachers in your life and consider how you think of them. Are they people that you've paid and can use as you like? Or, because you've created them through your actions and thoughts, are they precious gifts to be respected for giving you what they can?

5. Decide in what ways you can practice that will honour your own teacher, as well as the lineage that your practice comes from. Even if it's just your personal trainer and you want to hone in your daily weight-lifting regime - consider this person as a master instructor, and offer them your diligent effort, then watch what happens!

Wrestling with the Maras, wrestling with Angels

In any great venture, there are often great forces that rise up to stand in the way. It is noted especially, that if you are going to accomplish some great good, things and people will seem to rise up out of no where to test your resolve. Some practitioners even feel that the greater good you are going to do, the scarier the things are that come to distract you.

In the story of the Buddha's enlightenment, the lord of illusion comes to test him by throwing fierce monsters and seductive women in his way. For the Conqueror though, these are hardly even a test.

When we have resolved to meditate, do yoga, work out, practice music, or whatever our practice is, we are actually doing a great service for all those around us. There are forces in the world that would rather that this amount of goodness never come about. These are often referred to as "Obstructive" forces in our meditation.

Many meditators can tell you that there are certain times when it comes time for you to get down to your practice, and a great tiredness will wash over you - or sometimes an emotion like anger, sadness, or desire. These feelings make it feel like meditation (yoga, dance, etc) would be the worst thing in the world to do. I have been very fortunate in my practice to have teachers that gave me practices which i was REQUIRED to complete everyday. The reason I found this so valuable is because I gained an insight that many meditators over the eons have recognized - that once you start your cultivation, those feelings of fatigue, anger, desire, etc, seem to vanish. It is as if something out there were testing you to see if you were really commited.

It wasn't until later in my studies that I learned that these feelings were believed, by some traditions, to actually be coming from external spiritual forces. Now, we may not be at the Buddha's level to warrant an actual physical manifestation of snarling demons and seductive demonesses, but it is sometimes palpable that something seems to be giving resistance to your chosen path.

What is very interesting here is the Buddhist view on where these things come from. Because in fact - although there appear to be these external forces, and in a very real sense they are there, and you have to deal with them - they are in reality arising from you. This is why in the story of the Buddha, he was ufazed by the attacks of the maras - and why in the story of Jesus, he went calmly to the cross. These Teachers knew where the obstructions were coming from - and the delusions that had allowed those things to be created in the past were so light by that point that they no longer played the game of fear and anger anymore. We can aspire to be like this.

When we learn where these things come from, we recognize a powerful truth. That many of these things that looked to us like demons were actually angels in disguise. This doesn't mean that we should go "oh, you're an Angel, I guess you know what's best for me - I'll sleep instead of getting up to do yoga". It means that we should recognize that we're being tested and act accordingly. We do not have to fear the anger that comes up, or the fatigue, or the circumstances of our lives - we just have to realize that these things are arising to be purified by the power of our practice. If we can carry on, hold our highest Goal in mind - all of these things will begin to look like our beloved Friend, pushing us onward to become just a little bit stronger and more sure.

Action items:
1. Identify your most common "maras" - obstructive forces. Emotional influences, other people, circumstances, time, etc.

2. Attempt one day to practice through the feelings or circumstances and notice what happens.

3. Imagine what it would be like to befriend these obstructive forces as training partners who are there to make you stronger.

Taking Joy in the Practice

In classical Buddhism, there are 6 practices which are considered 'Transcendent", and which can take the practitioner to complete bliss. These are Giving, Ethics/Kindness, Patience or Non-violence, Effort, Meditation, and Wisdom. When it comes to developing our personal path of self, or world improvement, it is the fourth of these activities that we are most concerned with - Effort.

I don't know about you, but to me, "effort" always sounds like something which will be arduous, but because it's going to "build character" you should just suffer through it. Personally, I do sometimes find my practice to be a chore, and just have to muscle through it - "discipline" myself. Ultimately, though, we want to have a practice that brings us as much joy in the moment as it is generating for us in the future. Things are brought about by similar causes - like certain types of flowers from certain types of seeds - if we want a practice that brings us joy, we are going to have to learn to practice joyfully.

This should be contrasted with the opposite extreme - that we shouldn't have to do things that feel to hard. I have experimented with this one more than necessary, and can tell you from my own experience that it doesn't bring an especially pleasant result. In traditional wisdom, this attitude has its own name - "laziness". There is a point at which one just has to make him/herself get on the mat and do some yoga, or meditation, or work out. There is a time for forcing the issue - i think that perhaps this is why the ancient authors called it "effort".

So, how do we find the balance between feeling good (and I mean really good - blissful) in our practice, and also exerting the necessary effort to get the job done? On the simplest level, this is where the Teaching of the Buddha on making our practice like tuning a lute - 'not too loose, and not too tight' - can come in. We want to find that balance where our personal cultivation seems to sing, to resonate through our whole life. You can tell when you're doing too much - you get all stressed out just to make it to the gym, which was supposed to give you the exercise time to reduce your stress. You can also tell when you're doing to little - because a kind of dullness can creep into life - and the results you'd be getting if you were working at it just aren't showing up.

I have found, though, that these considerations are still just on the surface level. Because really, no matter how you schedule yourself - there's always something that can come up and get in the way and stress you out. In fact, the world seems to LOVE to test you to see if you are really serious about keeping up with what you've dedicated yourself to. The real method has to come from within. I think the reason that the ancient Masters equated "effort" with "joy" is because anything that we've truly grown to love will inspire us to do more and more of it. With meditation, this has grown very clear to me - the more I recognize the fruits of meditation practice, the more attractive it is for me to sit down and meditate. The same with my yoga practice - the feeling of clarity that comes from a fully open energetic body becomes almost addictive.

Where we often need to do some work, though, is prioritizing what is attractive to us. I know that for myself there are things like food, or leisure activities that can distract me from my practice, or even work at odds with it. In this case, I have to meditate on the results that I'm going to get. I have found for myself that more than a certain amount of food or entertainment actually makes my mind a little sluggish. Doing my yoga practice or meditation, on the other hand, almost always makes me feel clearer and more vibrant. For some reason though, that information does not always seem to be readily available - and for this very reason, many ancient schools recommended that students do a review meditation on a regular basis - going over the benefits of doing their meditation practice. In this way, they would have engraved a pattern into their minds that reminds them why their cultivation is a Joy, not a chore.

There is yet one level deeper that we can go. That's the level of our Karma. When we get down to starting to observe how karma operates, we recognize that it's not so much the things that we do on an apparent level that bring results, but seeds we've planted with our mind, energy, and actions that come up to ripen. Whether you feel happy in the moment or not doesn't really have much to do with the meditation or yoga practice itself. Why do you think that there are some people who can just create their daily practice and stick with it with total happiness and discipline, while others have to struggle for years? It is because these two people have different karmas. The interesting thing is, that if you're ready to go to this level - the way to have joy in your practice doesn't have a lot to do with HOW you practice at all. It has to do with the way you take care of others. The feeling of happiness comes from giving away happiness to others - and letting your mind make an impression of that which it spins out later into your own experience. This also applies to how you think of others and what you wish for them. So, there it is - the secret of happiness has been around for thousands of years - just be kind to others at every opportunity, take joy in their happiness, and sorrow in their sadness. Suddenly, you find yourself feeling happy for seemingly "no reason" because this happiness doesn't seem to have anything to do with what you are doing.

Then, all the things we do which we think are going to make us happy are not so attractive - all the things which can get addictive. Other things start making us even more joyful because they are clearing out our bodies and minds to hold more of this joyful energy we're generating. We become naturally attracted to the things which are going to make us the healthiest - and we become naturally attracted to continuing to spin the wheel by taking even better care of those around us.

Action steps:

1. Find out what is a truly feasible amount of "effort" that you can fit in your life for personal cultivation.

2. Discover your "therapeutic edge" - where you can feel the burn of pushing past your limits, but not hurt or discourage yourself.

3. Perform a review meditation for a few minutes each morning and evening on the benefits of your chosen path of cultivation.

4. Plant the true causes of happiness by finding someone to take care of, or to whom you can bring some small joy.

5. Watch your thoughts, notice if you often rejoice in the happiness of others, sorrow at the happiness of others, or feel neutral - attempt to cultivate joy. Also notice if you feel bad when another hurts, joyful when they hurt, or neutral - attempt to cultivate empathy for others' pain.

Like a Warrior

There is a section in Master Shantideva's "Guide to entering the Way of the Bodhisattva" where he mentions that people have no problem with going out and working all day to make a living, and spending all their precious life's energy on gaining material things, but cannot seem to understand how to consistently practice the means of personal transformation.

In another section he mentions how some warriors can spend hours plotting revenge or some other attack, can revel in taking wounds and physical harm for the goal of harming another - but most of the time we cannot seem to revel in doing the things that would do us the most good.

When I contemplate my own personal daily practice today, I am struck by how easy it is to keep my commitments to my job, or appointments with massage clients. I am pretty good at making it to classes on time, or returning email messages. And yet, when it comes to sticking to my training - it's still a struggle sometimes.

When I think about the experience I've heard from most Westerners attempting to enter the Path of meditation (or any other practice for personal development of good qualities), the challenge I hear most is "how do I find the time?" and "how do I overcome laziness?".

For me, the answer is very clear, and it starts with another question: "how do you find time to go to work?" Somehow, most people are able to set aside 40 or more hours per week to go do things that don't necessarily contribute to anything but their bank account. Now - I understand that a full bank account is a very nice thing, don't get me wrong, but what does this REALLY contribute to your life?

If you think about it for a moment - did some of the people caught in the recent Tsunamis in Japan and Southeast Asia probably have full bank accounts? Yes. Did that help them at all? No.

If you save up plenty of money to buy a great computer, or car, or any of the things that we deem important in our culture, does that give you any guarantee that they cannot be stolen? Perhaps you insure them heavily - does this guarantee that some accident will not make you a quadripeligic, or take your sight so that you cannot use these beautiful things?

The point here is not to be dreadful or morose, the point is to question why we seem to find the time an energy to do things that we might not otherwise do for so many hours of the day/week/month/lifetime.

I think that the answer lies in motivation. We honestly believe that through paying with our time and effort, we'll get something that can ease the pain of this life, or give us some pleasure - even though all of those things will eventually wear out, or be torn away in an instant.

We also seem to make time for pleasure-seeking activities. I know for myself that it is very easy to schedule hours every week to watch a movie (ok, movieS). And yet it can still be difficult to invest the level of time i really WANT to invest in my personal practice.

And it all comes down to motivation. Movies are easy, personal practice is sometimes difficult. Going to work (usually) brings tangible benefits that are lauded by the culture. Personal practice, in the beginning, mostly gives me intangible things.

If I want to stick to my practice, I've got to become like a warrior. I have to begin to recognize that if I want to defeat my enemy - which for me is Ignorance, Laziness, Ill will toward others, and the like - then I am going to have to train.

I am going to have to train hard, because these particular enemies are just as strong or stronger than the usual ones we meet in the world. I am going to have to remember why I'm training too. I'm training for a very specific result. I'm training so that I can see my life become more and more beautiful. I'm training in order to have the presence of mind to help those who need my help. I'm training in order to have the patience to accept whatever comes without having to poison my body with anger. I'm training so that, just maybe, when the unexpected moment of death comes, I won't feel like I wasted my life.

These results are tangible and permanent. They cannot be washed away as easily as most of the things we deem important. These are the reasons to get on my mat today. To treat it as at least as important as keeping my appointments, feeding this body, and going to work. I have a great campaign to wage and everyday I must remember that I am a warrior.

with a friend, and for a friend

Today I was inspired in my practice by another.

I have a weekly yoga date most weeks. A good friend and I meet on the mat and we cultivate our practice together. Tonight, as i drove home from work - feeling hungry, tired, and a little dehydrated - I recognized that if we weren't getting on the mats together, I probably wouldn't get on the mat at all.

And so I became very grateful for my friend. Because my commitment to be there for another made me get there myself.

And so, today's tip is simply this - find someone to share your practice with.

There are many ways to share one's practice. You can practice together with a friend. You could find a Teacher and commit yourself to studying under Her/Him. You could teach a class yourself. You could have a check in system where you report on how you did to someone you trust.

In any of these, the point is to have a close connection with another that you really value. This valued connection is what fuels you to continue. Ultimately, though, it is for another reason.

Anything that is worth doing, we cannot really do well if we're only doing it for ourselves. In the Buddhist tradition we recognize that one of the most powerful things we can do is to generate compassion for others and to work for their benefit. When we're striving to develop our personal Path of cultivation, we need this kind of power. We not only want to be able to sustain our practice consistently, but we want it to be blissful, and bear sweet fruit over time. The only way to do this is to do it for someone else.

S0, if you get a yoga buddy, or a meditation group, or a taiji Teacher, or whatever it is, recognize that you are not the only one who benefits. Just by asking them to aid you, you've given a little bit of your cultivation to them - you've invited them in to be part of the process. This willingness to invite another and learn to care for them invites a tremendous power into our lives which we can then utilize in whatever way we choose.

This doesn't only apply to a friend who we invite to yoga with us, or who texts us to remind us to get up and breathe, it can also mean who you are practicing for.

We all know that yoga helps the body grow healthy, meditation makes your mind calm and strong, taiji can put you "in the flow", and these are all wonderful things, but when done for personal benefit they can only take you so far.

The real strong meditators and practitioners have always known that the way to supercharge their practice and get them back on the cushion every day is to think of how the practice is going to benefit their children, their spouse, their grandmother, or anyone they love.

When you call these loved ones to mind, you'll recognize very quickly that they need you. They need the calm that arises from your meditation, they need the groundedness that you'll gain from your yoga. They have, in fact, always depended on these things, and now you have a chance to give them. You have a precious and rare opportunity to cultivate a mind and body that can give those you love the kind of care that they've always been hungry for -all it takes is your consistent practice.

If you try just for a short period to train in this way, you may find out that the more you concern yourself with the welfare of others, the more happiness comes your own way. It's one of the great paradoxes in this Life - when you give your practice away is the only time you'll start to experience the fullness of what is possible for yourself!

Action Steps:

1. What are some of the ways that your practice benefits others directly or indirectly?

2. Think of and list some concrete ways that you could actively benefit others with the discipline you wish to cultivate. Examples: "Teach a basic yoga class at my church" "invite some friends to start a spiritual book club". Pick the most do-able from your list and put it into practice in the next month.

3. Find a friend to be accountable to with your cultivation. This might be a Teacher who's class you commit to attending (to them verbally, or just inside), it might be a friend that you check in with, or it might be a date for walking meditation every Saturday.

4. Locate someone who has a similar goal to your own in terms of spiritual cultivation. Brainstorm ways to help them with their goal and then implement your ideas.

5. Contemplate if your current practice is generating more love in your life and enabling you to be of greater benefit to others.

start with what you've got

So, if you've figured out WHY you want a practice, and how it would benefit you and (maybe even) others, it's time to get started!

Actually, if you did the meditation described in the last blog, you've already started. Because just sitting down to think about why you should meditate regularly is, itself, a meditation. The great thing is this: you don't even have to sit down to think about it! If you have given the question a little bit of thought while taking a walk, or driving, or making dinner, you've still taken a very beautiful step toward establishing the beautiful and regular practice that you might desire.

The reason for this can be explained by the traditional Buddhist concept of the accumulation of Merit. Now, there is an enormous corpus of philosophy extant about this idea, but we're just going to look at the way this idea relates to us accomplishing our chosen goals.

To dreadfully over-simplify what exactly "merit" is, we first have to know what Karma is. Put simply, there is an idea present in Buddhist thought that you will establish tendencies based upon the actions you undertake. So, if I get in a habit of thinking of myself as a wonderful person who meditates, I will go on seeing myself in that way, unless I accumulate a different kind of tendency. There are many deeper aspects of karma, but this one is no more complicated to understand than understanding how you can automatically engage in the complex combination of actions it takes to drive a car, or read the words on this page - you have accumulated tendencies over time that allow you to do so.

When we begin to talk about "merit", we are talking about accumulating the type of tendencies that would make you see yourself and your world in a way that is pleasurable. If you're reading this, then I'm assuming that you find the idea of being able to establish a daily practice of cultivation to be a pleasurable idea. In order to see this results, you are going to have to accumulate the tendencies to see it.

What this is all leading toward is the idea that we will not just be able to one day sit down and just have a consistent practice of meditation. We have to plant seeds for it, and we have to water those seeds and wait for them to sprout and grow. The way we can begin to do this is to start right where you are and find out what kind of actions you can do that are consistent with the result you wish to see.

One of these actions would be to just spend some time thinking about the benefits and the reasons. When you do this, you are lending energy to the thing you wish to grow, and you are feeding its potential to manifest in your life.

Another way to start planting these seeds is to just do what it is you want to see - but the miniature version.

Think about it this way: If you wanted to become a professsional body-builder, would you just go into the gym and try to lift the same amount of weight that a trained athlete would? If you did, you would likely achieve one of two results - you'd either injure yourself, or you would become completely discouraged.

Learning to become an acomplished practitioner in any realm is the same - though for some reason, many of us don't seem to realize that this applies to meditation. We think "meditators practice for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night". Then we either go about trying it and realize its harder than we thought and give up.... or we recognize how hard that is from the very beginning and give up before we even start.

A more rational approach might be to consider how much time we have to devote to our practice, and how much we will be able to do cheerfully.

One Teacher I've heard has said that we should always meditate a little less than we feel capable of, and end when we feel especially relaxed and peaceful. This is counter to the way many of us, who are results-seeking, think - because if there's no pain, how can there be any gain? But, if we understand the gathering of Merit, it makes perfect sense. We sit for a month or so for only 5 minutes per day, and we start to plant some tendencies in our mind to learn to sit. After a while we gain some glimpses of a peaceful state of mind that arises from meditation practice and we wish we had more time. Inevtiably, we will become hungry for a deeper practice - and this is none other than the little tiny seeds we planted beginning to sprout. Eventually we may decide it is important to carve out 10 minutes of meditation time and when we do this we begin to plant new seeds to see ourselves as deeper meditators later. Ultimately, we are practicing in the very way we envisioned at the beginning - and maybe even realizing that we are capable of much more than we ever thought.

The fact is, whatever our goal, we can get there from here. But we can't just BE there, no matter how hard we wish it. Instead, we have to walk the path. As the Dao De Ching says "the path of 1000 miles starts with the first step."

Action steps:
1. Decide first on what result it is that you'd like to see. Would you like to be meditating for 20 minutes per day? Would you like to do a one hour yoga session three times per week? What is the highest and most inspiring vision for your practice. (you already know WHY you want this practice - now let's move on to how)

2. Consider how much space you have in your life currently for this practice. What resources to you have in terms of time, attention span, conducive environment, instruction, etc.? It's ok if your life doesn't currently have the resources for your ultimate vision - just find out what you DO have the resources for right now.

3. Contemplate what kind of actions you could undertake that would reinforce the tendencies in your mind conducive to the daily practice you are envisioning. Perhaps cleaning out a space in your home in which to meditate or practice your taiji. Maybe researching the local yoga studios in your area to see which ones have classes that fit your needs or schedule. And of course, getting to the practice. All of these can add positive energy to the goal that your are actively creating.

4. Start small. If you think you have the capacity to do 20 minutes of practice everyday, start out doing 7 minutes. But do them CONSISTENTLY. Decide how many days per week you wish to practice and then do so without fail. You know that the time expectation is well within your means, so there is no excuse not to do it. Keep yourself to this low level time-frame for at least a few weeks - soon you will not be able to stand practicing for such a short period and you'll know it's time to move on to a greater commitment.

5. Be compassionate with yourself. In learning to establish a new habit, we all eventually fall out of practice and have to bring ourselves back. Some might say that learning to bring ourselves back is just as, or more important than the habit we are trying to cultivate. Because coming back IS meditation - and it is one that we can do every day of our lives. If you miss a day, just come back. If you find your original expectations are much more difficult than you thought - just let go of a little bit of ambition.
When we're planting seeds, the flowers will match what we put in the soil. Generally, we practice daily cultivation to become more peaceful, compassionate, and happy. If all you are sowing is ambition and discontent with yourself - these are the only kind of flowers that will come up. If you want compassion to flower - you have to plant it, starting in a small way, and starting with yourself.

6. DO IT! Once you've thought it all out. Just do it! Start as small as you need to. Can you stop and breathe for just 1 minute? Can you stretch on a break from work? Can you be compassionate with yourself for just the space of the next breath? Anyone can find at least this much time - but you can never find it in the past, because that's already gone, and you can never find it in the future, because it will never arrive. You have to start now.

the merits of practice

I've decided to begin this new blog based on an inspiration.

The other day, I was listening to a Teacher give insights on the components of a spiritual practice, I thought to myself "yes, but do people know how to go about establishing a daily practice at all?"

I know for myself, it took a long time to be able to know that i would make time every day to meditate, do yoga, or practice qigong or taijiquan. It took until my Kung Fu teacher taught me a practice that required strict daily performance for 100 days without fail in order to succeed.

This impetus not to have to go back and begin my practice all over again was definitely a boon to learning how to make time every day, but once that period was complete, i realized I needed more tools to keep up the consistent daily cultivation that was bringing me so much joy and personal development. When I hear students or friends speaking about their challenges about establishing or maintaining a daily spiritual practice, I can relate - and I feel inspired to share what tools I've gained to those who might find them useful.

Today I was listening to the book 'The Diamond Cutter' by Geshe Michael Roach. In it, he talks about underlying principles of reality that can make you a great success in business, or in any other aspect of your life. In order to harness the power of these underlying principles, though, one must put in the same amount of practice of them that it would take to become a good pianist, or golfer.

In thinking this over, I began to wonder - "how is it that good pianists or golfers, or whoever, find the motivation to practice deeply enough to be great at what they do?" The answer that came to me was simply this - they can see the end result that they hope to attain through their practice, and that drives them to continue on.

Eventually, one comes to love their practice, whether it be a spiritual practice, or something more worldly like a sport. Many athletes and meditators find that their daily workout (physical or spiritual) becomes a refuge and a place of great peace. In the mean-time, however, there are some days where it takes everything you've got to get on the mat and train. If you've tried to maintain a practice for any length of time, you may have realized that if you allow enough days to slip by without getting to your cultivation - you can derail your entire training for weeks, months, or years at a time.

I have met former meditators who just sort of "got out of the swing of it" and never found their way back in. If we want to truly reap the sweet fruits of a consistent personal cultivation, we must find a way to motivate ourselves to continue - even if it's difficult to do so. Even when the schedule is packed tight with other things, we find a time to meditate or train our yoga, martial art, or whatever - because we know what it can do for us.

So, the first area of inquiry to turn to is simply this: Why do I want a regular practice of cultivation? What do I think it will bring into my life.

If you just have a foggy idea that it will somehow make you "better" or "more spiritual", this will not be enough to keep you on track when the times get tough. The best is to find someone who has done what you want and look at what he or she did to get there. This can be a living person, or a great Being from history - it doesn't matter. Just find out what it is you really want.

The second question to really think over then is this: Is there a way that I can attain this goal without practicing?

Obviously, there are some "naturals" in the world that just seem to take to things - but if you want mastery, you have to train. Even the Dalai Lamas, and other high holy beings in Tibet, who are thought of as reincarnated Masters, are required to undergo rigorous monastic education and a life of daily meditation and study. There's no point where you get so good that cultivation becomes worthless - one can always improve and grow into a more blissful and masterful state.

Similarly, it is said that nothing comes into being without a cause. If you want a calm mind, will just wishing for it really get it- or would you do well to practice sitting with a calm mind for a few minutes every day? If you want a fit and healthy body, will despairing over not having it help much, or would you be better served by getting on the yoga mat?

Each flower that you wish to see requires a seed, and requires that you water that seed. Our practice plants the causes of those things we wish to see in our world. Let's get started!