How To Know Which Spiritual Practice To Do

Never before in human history has there been such easy access to such a range of spiritual teachings and practices.

This is an immeasurable privilege,

And yet,

Like almost everything else in the world,

It's a mixed bag.

If you're just getting into spiritual practice for the first time,

You might think,

Wow,

This is amazing,

It's like I'm at an all-you-can-eat wisdom buffet.

This buffet is like one of those that we find now in big cities,

Where there are various islands that serve food from different cultures.

And each of the chefs serving on these islands is convinced that their food is the best.

So you look around,

Licking your lips,

And it only takes you 30 seconds or so to decide that you want to try the Japanese dishes.

You fill your plate with freshly rolled sushi,

Yakisoba,

Salted edamame,

All the delicious delicacies from Japanese culture,

And you rush back to your table to enjoy the flavors and textures.

Not even halfway through your plate,

Your eye starts to wander to the other offerings at the buffet.

What should you try next?

You catch an aroma from the Indian section and decide that's your next destination.

You start to hurry through your sushi.

Before you're quite done with it,

You push your plate aside and leap to your feet,

Ignoring early signs of indigestion.

You grab a fresh plate and head for the poppadoms.

But on the way,

You're distracted by a Chinese chef who's launching chow mein into the air from a flaming wok.

Mesmerized,

You find your feet taking you toward this magnificent display.

But then the scent of baking naan bread fills your nostrils again.

Oh no!

Which to choose?

Almost paralyzed by indecision,

You decide to go for a half and half plate of Chinese and Indian food.

As you sit down and grab your cutlery,

You realize that,

Despite your best efforts to maneuver your servings,

You've created a strange,

Colorful gravy for your noodles.

You make your way through your selection,

Wrestling with the feeling that something about it is off.

Three quarters through,

The indigestion is too painful to ignore,

And all you can do is slump back in your chair and gaze longingly at all the servings you didn't get to try.

Oh well,

Maybe you can come back tomorrow.

This is an analogy for what I've seen occur in hundreds of modern spiritual practitioners.

Everything in Western culture is about getting as much as possible as fast as possible,

Then sucking the value out of it before moving on to the next thing.

And most of us can't help but apply this same consumerist pattern to spiritual practices.

Not too long ago,

If we wanted wisdom,

We'd have gone to our local church.

If we didn't like what we found there,

We might try a different one.

If we didn't like what we found there,

We'd probably have given up.

But a few of us might have been curious enough,

Or hungry enough,

To go to the library and read about different cultures.

Fewer still of us might have considered traveling to one of those cultures to learn more.

Very few of us would actually have gotten on the boat.

And only one in ten thousand of those voyagers would have stayed at their destination for any substantial length of time,

Perhaps ordaining into monastic life,

Which was the only way to get the real juicy teachings.

My teacher's teacher,

Bhikkhu Buddhadasa,

Was prohibited by the Thai government from teaching real wisdom to the public.

Because when people are satisfied with things as they are,

They don't work so hard.

Religious Buddhism works just fine for a developing country.

Make merit by doing good deeds,

And you can expect to be reincarnated as someone in a slightly better position.

The Buddha wasn't religious.

Anyway,

Once the internet was in full swing,

The proverbial cat could be let out of the bag.

So my teacher was instructed to teach the juicy teachings over Skype,

The stuff that had previously been reserved for the inner circle of monks.

And that's how I,

And hundreds of other students,

Got to hear the Buddha Dharma without ever having to travel or renounce worldly life.

But that's not all we had access to.

We could access previously secret Tibetan texts.

The deepest teachings of the non-duality school of Hinduism.

Hundreds of Zen koans that were previously drip fed from master to student over years of practice.

The Tao Te Ching,

The Bhagavad Gita,

The entire Pali Canon of thousands of Buddhist suttas,

Plus all the Mahayana texts,

And the list goes on.

We could access hundreds of different teachers' commentaries on these texts,

Each with their own interpretation.

And here's the big issue.

Somewhere in most of these teachings is some kind of declaration that this teaching is the one and only true and correct teaching.

This leads to an unanswerable question.

Which the one and only true and correct teaching is the the one and only true and correct teaching?

Oh dear.

This question bothered me for a long time.

I read and read and read.

I listened and listened and listened.

I talked and talked and talked.

I practiced and practiced and practiced.

Then one day I realized something.

Picture with me a third century wisdom teacher slowly traveling around Asia on foot to share what they had learned about how to realize one's true nature.

This teacher might have come across folks praying to deities,

Sacrificing animals and doing who knows what other strange rites and rituals.

What's this teacher going to say when they rock up in a community that's wasting time and valuable livestock trying to appease imaginary gods?

Probably something like,

Hey,

Folks,

That ain't the way.

I know the way.

You can realize happiness independent of circumstances and have goat for dinner.

Come enjoy the way with me and forget all the other ways.

Of course,

This teacher has no idea that in other parts of the world,

This same story is playing out.

All these teachings were eventually written down.

Cut to its 2022 and you're sat with your laptop trying desperately to figure out whether you should practice on a panasati zazen,

She can't Taza neti neti,

We were yoga,

Tantra,

Maha Mudra,

Or whatever proprietary method.

The latest insta guru is offering for two hundred and ninety seven dollars.

In simple terms,

What I realized was that those ancient teachings were taught in a context vastly different to ours and naturally use language appropriate to that context.

This brought me some relief,

But it still didn't quite answer the big question,

Which practice should I practice?

To figure this out,

I'd need to make an important flip of perspective.

For a long time,

I had studied the differences between the teachings.

For example,

On a panasati prescribes the investigation of experience,

While she can Taza prescribes to simply do nothing.

How can both be correct?

How can both lead to awakening?

This seemed like an irreconcilable difference.

Now,

If you or I were that practitioner who fifty years ago was dissatisfied with what was on offer in the church and so decided to travel,

We might have gone to Thailand and practiced on a panasati,

Or we might have gone to Japan and practice Chikantaza.

And that would pretty much have been the end of the story.

We might have been aware of other practices,

But we'd have been immersed in a culture that was doing things in a particular way,

And that would have been our way.

There are thousands of accounts of practitioners realizing freedom in both Theravada and Zen.

But I was not that practitioner.

I was a laptop practitioner,

Free to study and practice any teaching I chose.

And that flip of perspective I so desperately needed was to stop scrutinizing the differences between those ancient teachings and begin instead appreciating their similarities.

And that's so important that it's worth repeating.

I had to stop scrutinizing the differences between those ancient teachings and begin instead appreciating their similarities.

This began another long study,

And oh my,

Was the juice worth the squeeze.

It turns out that the fundamental principles of all wisdom teachings worth their salt can be expressed very simply and in the plainest of language.

It doesn't matter which teaching and practice we take up.

The essence of that teaching is exactly the same.

Relax.

Be here now.

Chill out.

Take it easy.

Rest naturally.

Accept everything as it is.

If we could simply surrender into the simplest of instructions from the beginning,

There would be no need whatsoever for any kind of teaching or formal practice.

But we tend to need a little convincing,

And so wise teachers developed various forms out of compassion.

Still,

The conclusion is this.

Once that unanimous message is acknowledged as the basis of all genuine teachings and practices,

We see that the various words and forms are just flavors.

In exactly the same way as that whichever island you visit at the buffet,

All you'll ever find is food.

May we all appreciate the great privilege of our easy access to wisdom.

May we all recognize the similarities among the teachings and practices.

May we all enjoy the naturally restful state that is our true nature,

However we come to realize it.