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!