Q: Why do we need to repeatedly practice something to get to a more "natural state"?
/Mission Bay, San Francisco
Why would we need to repeatedly practice something and de-train ourselves to get to a more "natural state"?
The many years of meditation practice that Adyashanti, Gangaji, Rupert Spira, and other teachers have done seems unnatural to me. So much effort and practice to get to some other state that most humans are not residing in.
How natural can it really be to have to do all that work?
When you reflect the smile of a passing child, does it take training? Does falling in love take practice? When you offer a friend a shoulder to cry on, does it take work?
As a culture, what we repeatedly practice is the belief in the separate self. This practice does take work. In fact, it takes an enormous amount of effort to maintain this perspective, this belief in a "me".
Clench your fist as tightly as you can. Hold it... Hold it... Hold it as tightly as you can for about a minute. And now, before you relax it, notice that it takes effort to unlock your grip.
As separate selves we are like clenched fists. Quickly it become painful, difficult, and even familiar ... yet intuitively we know we are not relaxed… but we have become married to the belief that we must remain locked in the constant battle of discontent, and thus letting go can at first appear to be effort full.
When this efforting becomes clear to us, we then find the courage to not hold on, to drop our fixation in the "me", and POOF! we discover that it is actually really, really hard to maintain the belief in the separate-self, and it is recognized that it is the effort itself that creates the belief.
The realization isn't a new found knowledge; it is simply that we discover there is nothing to find, nothing missing, nothing needed. Nothing at all. The belief that I am a "me" takes a tremendous amount of effort to maintain. When we stop holding on to the "me", what remains is. It simply is. And it takes no effort at all to know this, to be this.
The smile that comes to your face is not born of practice. The upwelling of the tears of joy do not show up because you will them. Be clear about this.
Many teachers spent years upon years studying and practicing, all apparently in an effort to acquire understanding. While it is easy to conclude that the practice was necessary, very few of these same teachers would say it is so. Perhaps it is necessary. Perhaps it is not. Irregardless, do not trap your self in the belief that practice is necessary. This is not to say that one should not practice; it is simply a recognition that practicing or not practicing is simply part of the appearance, and as such, it is not significant in and of itself.
While the quieting of spiritual practice can be part of a healthy life-style, like exercise and eating, for many it can instead become another form of rejection, a rejecting of what is already here.
Often when we meditate, chant, do self-inquiry, go to satsang, or do the other things that many seekers do, we are looking for something, for some thing that is outside of ourselves, that we believe we are not (yet), that is separate from our experiencing. This looking is what is in the way.
STOP! You will never, ever, ever find what you are looking for.
Stop looking. Just be. Understanding is simply the dropping of misunderstanding. It is not about acquiring anything. (It is misleading to even call it understanding.)
You already know what you are. You are simply rejecting that knowing. It's too obvious. Just like the teachers that you refer to used to do, you are working really, really hard to be somebody (even if you are trying to be "nobody").
The thought "I am this person I think myself to be" is just a thought. It is just an appearance. Nothing more. Give it no more attention than the thought "Oh, what a pretty blue bird that is." or "Is that a whistle I hear?" or "I wonder what I should eat for supper tonight." They are just thoughts, appearances within an apparent field of experiencing.
What is aware of those thoughts? Could it be awareness? Could it be what all those teachers were seeking? Could it be that that is always here?
And what is this awareness? Is it any thing at all?