WHAT PRACTICE REALLY IS. (PDF-2221)

I want to talk here a little bit about practice. I don’t mean just dharma practice, but any kind of practice, like learning to play a musical instrument or whatever. Of course it also is true for dharma practice like sitting meditation, tonglen (exchanging yourself for others), and so on. Practice can be boring so it might help to learn a little more about what happens when we practice anything. I first learned about the true nature of practice back in the Sixties when I was propelled out of my body by an LSD trip but never came back, or came back over a period of many years. My mind was pretty open then, actually very open. There was a little church off of South University and Forest Avenue, up near and just south of Washtenaw Avenue, which is now a little dogleg. It might have been called the “Campus Chapel.” Anyway, it was open all night long, left open. No one was there, except sometimes me. I would be up late nights just as I am today up early mornings.