Pure Practice versus Impure Practice
(developing a pure and efficient practice)
Just like balance and skill is needed in bodily activities, which can be summarized as Moving, sitting, standing, and lying down, there needs to be balance and skillfulness in spiritual activities.
These activities are Study, Investigation or Contemplation, Developing Concentration, Developing Devotion, and Transformation or Virtuous Action. We may be more attracted to some of these practices than others. Sometimes, we may focus on one of these practices more than the others, but a balance of all 5 activities, and work on all 5 helps to increase and speed up our spiritual progress. Neglecting one of them leads to incomplete spiritual development and complete development is impossible without eventually perfecting all 5.
We will now look at each of these and talk about how to use them well and what dangers to look out for in practices them.
STUDY:
The purpose of Study is to try to become clear about our goals and the path to those goals. But we need to make sure that we go beyond a surface knowledge of these things. This means to beware of too much spiritual shopping.
Though it is good to look around at different paths in order to find one that makes sense to us, eventually we will have to pick one. Otherwise we are just buying food but never eating it. We shouldn't be afraid of looking deeply into a subject. We are never really locked into anything. What we do is always our choice, so if we study something for quite a while, it doesn't mean that we can't change our mind and look at something else. Studying different ideas helps to clarify our own ideas. So, if we choose a certain teaching, we should investigate it thoroughly and not just skim the surface. That way we come to know more clearly what we agree with and what we disagree with. Sometimes pieces of an idea make sense, but the whole idea doesn't necessarily fit. Hearing a new or different idea doesn't hurt, but it's good to spend a little more time with each idea in order to really know what the overall message is.
Studying also includes going to lectures. It's valuable to have a beginner's mind when approaching lectures or new information. If we presume that we already know something, then we may gloss over any new insights that can be provided to us. Often a different take on a familiar subject can provide us with new insights. It's valuable for us to develop our sense of curiousity. This will greatly enhance the amount that we learn and the number of opportunities that we will have for learning.
CONTEMPLATION:
Investigation and contemplation is about examining the teachings that we receive and deciding how and if they apply to our life. We can't eat most food without cooking it first. In the same way, Spiritual Knowledge won't be nourishing unless we examine how it fits into our lives. Quite often we may do a lot of reading or participate in a lot of prayers, meditation, and other practices, but not really connect these practices to our ordinary life. We may end up doing things without knowing why. It's important to stop every once in a while and examine what we are doing, and why, and if we are getting any value out of these things. It's important from time to time to question our direction.
Buddhism says that we should practice spirituality the same way that we would mine gold or silver. We need to dig deep in order to find the ore. We then need to hammer and heat the rock in a fire in order to extract and purify the gold from the rest of the ore. The more that we do this the greater the amount of gold that we will have in the end and the purer it will be. My teachers, especially Geshe-la and Zong Rinpoche used to say that we should question and question until we've run out of questions. Hearing a new or different idea doesn't hurt, but it's definitely not good to accept it without examination or to try to follow every idea that we hear. We need to investigate thoroughly to find ones worth adopting.
Taking regular stock of our situation and analyzing what we are doing is very important to do on a regular basis. In my opinion, this was one of the major roles of having a day of rest or Sabbath. In Buddhist practice, they would have an evaluation day on the day of the new moon.
MEDITATION:
It is important to have some meditation practice that helps develop concentration. Concentration practices help us to maintain focus on our goals regardless of internal or external distractions. If it's harder to distract us from our goals, then our chances of succeeding are greater. In the process we will also learn about ourselves and about what types of things are more likely to distract us. In spiritual practices, the things that distract us also turn out to be the things that cause us suffering, dissatisfaction, frustration, and confusion in our lives too. So eliminating these distracting forces in spiritual practices benefits us in all sorts of ways.
The most valuable asset in terms of meditation is to have a complete set of instructions for calm-abiding meditation. Meditation can be used just for the purposes of relieving stress and feeling good. But, it can also be used to become more aware of our body and mind and more comfortable with awareness of very subtle parts of our existence. Without complete instructions, it's possible to get stuck at many points along the way. The mind is very good at getting attached to various accomplishments and levels of concentration, so knowing what to look for helps us to keep going beyond some superficial meditative attainments.
DEVOTION:
Most people think of devotion in terms of devotion to the guru or devotion to God. However, if we look at it closely, both of these are actually just components of devotion to spiritual development. Often nowadays devotion has been limited to words. Prayers, hymns etc. In westerners following eastern traditions it can end up being just serving and providing for the needs and desires of a guru.
The more that devotion is connected to the whole of reality, the stronger and more effective that devotion will be. We learn to be devoted to our guru in order to become devoted to all of life. The idea is to become devoted to the qualities of contentment, non-attachment, patience, loving-kindness, confidence, and understanding and to try to expand these qualities into our whole world. Really good priests or spiritual mentors will say that the best way to serve God is to serve God's children, which means other people or they will emphasize the importance of Compassion, loving-kindness and helping others. The key is to be devoted to spiritual development in any form.
Devotion includes the idea of support and refuge. At the beginning we may need help and protection in our spiritual practice. So we learn to rely on the teachings and the teacher or spiritual mentor. We also learn to rely on the spiritual community for support and encouragement. But the Guru/disciple relationship is not meant to be Master/Slave, it is meant to be Master/Apprentice.
It's like the old days when a carpenter or blacksmith would pass on their knowledge to their students until the students became Masters themselves. But it involves effort on both the Master's side and the Disciple's side. If the Master doesn't do their part it won't work. If the disciple does all the work, it isn't a true Master/disciple relationship. In the same way, the disciple can't expect the master to just give them "Awakening". They have to make their own effort towards awakening too. Management seminars that I've attended always bring up the notion that a successful marriage is not 50/50, it's 100/100. Both sides giving 100% to the marriage. The same is true with devotion in spiritual practice. The practice of Refuge is not just to seek refuge ourselves but for each of us to become a refuge for others too.
This idea brings in the notion of Compassion. Because of our very close interconnection with all living things, our spiritual development has to include all beings. Devotion to Spiritual Development becomes devotion to the spiritual development of all beings. The more that our practice does this, the faster and better our spiritual accomplishments. Ponlup Rinpoche says that "If you want to speed up your development, work on Compassion, Loving-kindness, and helping others. If you want to slow down your progress or reduce its intensity, work on individual development, and personal liberation."
Ultimately, or at the highest levels, all beings become our guru or teacher, and all beings become our Sangha or Spiritual Community. All beings become like our children. Their well-being and Spiritual Development become our responsibility. So, at the highest levels, all beings become our teacher, our benefactors, and our responsibility. This is actually true right now, but, with practice we begin to recognize this and have the skill to accept our role within this view of the world. Ultimate devotion is devotion to the whole of reality. The sooner we recognize this, the sooner we will see the results of working with this view.
TRANSFORMATION:
The last practice is usually thought of as Virtuous Action, but I tend towards the idea of transformation. In my view, it's not just about doing good, it's about changing the way that we think, speak, and act. So a few good deeds aren't going to save us. Really virtuous thought, speech, and action are a reflection of a complete and more spiritual view of the world.
We need to be careful about merely trying to put a spiritual layer onto our current layers of being. It's like putting a spiritual mask on top of our other masks when spirituality is really about unmasking completely. We need to watch out for attachment to spiritual badges of honour such as "my experience is more blissful than yours" or "I'm doing this advanced practice and you're not" or "I have this and this and this initiation from such and such a famous teacher".
We also need to develop confession,repentence, and rejoicing. Like an alcoholic, we need to admit that there is a problem before we can fix it. Problems can be kept if they're hidden, so confession forces them out of hiding. Rejoicing helps strengthen our positive feelings about ourselves and our actions. Even rejoicing at others' good deeds helps us by strengthening our love of virtue.
If we are attached to the process or the results, this will create a less effective practice. The rituals can become more important than the goal. We can trick ourselves by always keeping the goal in the future. We can focus on the end result instead of working on the small steps every day that get us there. One of the main things that I feel makes the Dalai Lama so popular is that he always performs all of the little kindnesses, every day, even in the midst of all of these big events.
We need to accept real change in ourselves, real transformation. Putting a layer of spirituality over top of our current states of mind will not ultimately work. Through the practices of morning prayer, daily mindfulness, daily meditation, daily review of our performance and rejoicing at our virtues, and study and reflection at least once a week, we will achieve real change. The important thing is making these things a part of our ordinary, regular life like brushing our teeth, sleeping and eating.
PUREST PRACTICE (Perfecting Wisdom):
It is at this point that we need to make the distinction between wordly wisdom, or wisdom that is tied to our temporary realms of existence, and ultimate wisdom, which is the wisdom required to finally go beyond the bonds of these temporary realms forever. This wisdom allows us to experience that the universe has no centre and is beginningless and endless. It allows us to live in a world that is transitory and yet eternal at the same time.
It is here that the extreme subtlety of the concept of Shunyata or selflessness must be distinguished and experienced. This can be accomplished through the selflessness of Compassion or through achieving selflessness through discernment and wisdom. Achieving selflessness through compassion and helping others is easier and faster. So, if you want to cheat in developing wisdom, helping others is the way to go.
Compassion and Wisdom, therefore, are two sides of the same coin. The perfection of wisdom involves the final letting go of the final attachment to existence without falling to the side of non-existence. It is the union of individuality and oneness. It is like walking on the edge of a coin and is therefore the most ultimate meaning of the words "middle path".
We need to understand that the mind when looked for cannot be found and yet we experience the effects of its operation. It is neither mixed with the rest of reality nor apart from it. It avoids the extremes of existence and non-existence, because it is beyond them. It involves neither acceptance nor rejection. It is a mind-state beyond the realms of production and extinction.
This practice involves expanding this understanding and experiencing it at all times. The purest form of practice is to practice while we try to continually rest in this mind-state. This state of mind and view of the world is beyond conceptualization and involves direct experience of reality as it is, and it is that mind-state which we must work to experience continually. All of our temporary practices, pure or impure, are aiming towards achieving this mind-state,this understanding, and this view of the world. We need to get to the point where these ideas are not just words but an actual, continuous living experience. If we work directly on this understanding it purifies and accelerates our ordinary practice a thousand-fold.
The Buddhist teachings state:
One who knows the five collections as being the result of a magic spell
And does not consider them to be different from each other
And has no ideas of multiplicity and singularity, is calm and restful
And lives by the perfection of wisdom.
The 5 collections are the collection of components that make our our body and mind. These are our collection of forms, our collection of feelings, our collection of perceptions, our collection of intentions, and our collection of levels of awareness. The verse means that, if we can work with these body/mind components and yet treat them like an illusion, without clinging to them or looking at them as completely one or as separate from each other, then we are living our life through wisdom.
Every moment that we operate from this wisdom also perfects the other beneficial mind-states.
- Not having fixed, predetermined intention is Generosity;
- Not to exaggerate differences and recognizing sameness is Morality;
- Not to create or fortify differences is Patience;
- Avoiding acceptance and rejection is Perseverance;
- Non-attachment is the perfection of Concentration; and
- Not conceptualizing is the perfection of Wisdom.
Seeing the other perfections naturally and automatically coming to fruition is also how we can measure our success in achieving and working with the perfection of Wisdom.
SUMMARY:
The most basic things that we need to develop to ensure that we make progress in spiritual development are still Intention, Confidence, Enthusiasm, and Alertness.
We need to be clear about what our INTENTION is and be sure about what our goals are. Spiritual Development is not just a term or 2 words put together for no reason. It refers to developing our spirit. The same is true for Spiritual Awakening. It means Awakening our Spirit. This is what our quest should be. This means perfecting Wisdom and Wisdom in Action is Compassion.
The qualities that reflect spiritual awakening are Contentment, Non-attachment, Patience, Loving-Kindness, Confidence, and Understanding. We don't develop these things because someone says that their good, or because of orders from a higher authority. We develop these qualities because they reflect our own true nature and the true nature of the world.
If we are unclear and confused about our intention, or our goals, then our sense of direction will also be unclear and confused. We will either end up doing nothing or doing little pieces of many different things, which will lead to only minor results.
CONFIDENCE doesn't mean being cocky and thinking we're great!!! It means recognizing the it's Spiritual Awakening that we're aiming for and that it's very possible for each of us to achieve this awakening. The word "Awakening" infers that it's not something that happens all of a sudden. We don't wake up one morning "Enlightened". We become more and more awake over time, as long as we're working in that direction. So we can be confident because awakening is a process which should show signs of progress. If we start walking towards Vancouver, and if we keep returning to walking in that direction, even if we make detours, eventually we will get to Vancouver. Confidence is recognizing the truth of this idea.
ENTHUSIASM comes from seeing the results and recognizing the signs of progress. It also comes from making spiritual development a priority and then following through. Spiritual practice is actually not something that we can do part-time. If it is real spiritual practice, real spiritual development, it has to get to the point where it involves every moment of our existence. Where we regard our reaction in every moment as a reflection of our spiritual accomplishment.
ALERTNESS is required to make every moment a moment of spiritual development. Our current tendency is to forget what we're doing except for a few moments where we're paying attention. We need to change this Karmic habit until we get to the point where we are paying attention most of the time with a few moments of forgetfulness. We practice Shamata, or Calm-Abiding meditation, in order to be able to have this alertness and yet be relaxed about the process of watching ourselves and how we react to the world all of the time.
The combination of clear Intention and continual Alertness ensures that we will be able to develop ourselves spiritually. Confidence and Enthusiasm add the energy and joy to the process of spiritual awakening. The more time that we spend developing these 4 qualities earlier on in our spiritual practice, the more likely we are to succeed and the more evidence we will see of the accomplishment of our goal of spiritual awakening.
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