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All spiritual practices can be placed into two categories. And if you only know of the more common one, you’ll spend your entire life chasing something that doesn’t exist.
This more common category is that of developmental practices. The teachings on these state or imply that you must purify yourself, cultivate good qualities, and/or generate ‘merit’.
These developmental practices are wonderful pursuits with many benefits. But, importantly, they are provisional.
The tool of the ‘provisional teaching’ doesn’t only show up in spiritual traditions. Newtonian physics, for example, is accurate enough for making ‘everyday’ calculations. But it is provisional in that it's superseded by Relativity which is, ultimately, more accurate.
For the spiritual practitioner, on one level, development appears to be occurring: they are progressively calmer, happier and kinder in proportion to how much time and effort they spend in meditation. This is good. But as long as this practitioner must do something to bring those qualities about, they are caught in a trap. It’s a far better trap than a cocaine addiction, but it’s a trap nonetheless. The good news is that there’s an alternative…
The second category of spiritual practices contains those concerned not with development but, rather, recognition. These practices are not about changing things but, rather, realizing their true nature.
During my first 3 years of dedicated practice, I had one foot in each camp. Many 21st-century practitioners find themselves in this position, due to the vast number of teachings to which we have access. I was enjoying a lot of recognition, but I was also still trying to change things. I’d stopped trying so hard to change the world around me, but I was still caught in the trap of trying to change my mind.
Cut to 2019, when I had my first encounter with an uncompromising recognition-based teaching, and it was game over. I looked deeply into the nature of myself and my experience and realized that all my attempts to change anything, though they’d brought some benefit, were ultimately futile. I realized that in my direct experience, things simply are as they are, and that any attempt to change them was, itself, an expression of the very dissatisfaction from which I’d been trying to escape.
The moment I embraced the practice of simply resting as awareness—the essence of all appearances—I was finally able to let go fully. I recognized that everything I’d taken to be ‘me’—my thoughts; my feelings; my body—was ultimately no different to the trees; the clouds; the sound of the traffic. And that all these appearances were not what I perceived them to be by means of interpretation, judgement and description but, rather, a great kaleidoscope of spontaneous appearances with no meaning beyond that which my thinking mind had attributed to them. I recognized the blissful, pure space in which all appearances occur, which transcends reifying concepts in that concepts, too, come and go like clouds drifting through the sky. And with this recognition came the realization that I, as that space which remains in the absence of perception, am beyond harm.
Now, if you’ve made it this far you’re likely ready to at least consider this second category of teaching. I have a working hypothesis that more people are ready for it now than at any other time in history. More people are seeing not only that worldly prescriptions don’t work but that even mainstream spiritual prescriptions don’t work either—not where the goal is freedom in all circumstances. Buying a new car today won’t guarantee happiness tomorrow, and neither will meditating today guarantee happiness tomorrow. Both are conditional. We must go beyond that.
Of course, we all need to engage with the world: we need a place to live and food to eat. And most of us need a gateway into spirituality: we need to learn to sit still and not terrorize ourselves with intrusive thoughts. But just as soon as we’re ready, an introduction—even a brief one—to the recognition I’ve illustrated here is vital for correctly contextualizing our other efforts.
May your practice, whatever it is, lead you to this key recognition.
With love from my sofa,
dg💙
P.S. Contact with a teacher is very important for helping you determine what kind of practice you should be focusing on and when. The first step you can take is to complete my 1-minute quiz.
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