Tasting the Nectar// The Point of All of This

As the practice takes shape and as things (necessarily?) start to happen, we might wonder what the point of all of this is anyway.

Probably this arises over and over. At least it has for me.

In those spaces where the technique falls away, and there you are/are not.

Where is this going?

Where is this leading me?

Is this world an illusion?

Am I avoiding reality?

I think these questions are natural. I think that they have arisen from time immemorial. The sages, rishis & bodhisattvas who have walked these paths before us had some experiences. Sometimes they talked about them and wrote them down (or others later on wrote them down, codifiying them in a sense).

Things have a way of starting simply, growing intricate, then distilling themselves back to their essence.

That, I think, holds true in the “what’s the point?” discussion as well.

We may begin a practice innocuously enough for seemingly inauspicious reasons (like stress reduction), and over time we realize that what seems inauspicious is actually the most auspicious reasons there are.

And it usually comes back to love.

So we begin a practice, we doggedly take to the techniques, we research and read what various schools of thought have to say about the meaning of it all and the purpose of practice. And this is helpful. I would even call this a good thing. And the wisdom of the sages, rishis and bodhisattvas is helpful and a good thing. Because they’ve been there. They’ve been out there. They’ve been in there. But reading about being there is not the same as actually being there. You can be an expert on something without actually knowing it.

And if you want to know something, you have to sit down.

Take your seat.

Your practice will take you some-where / now-here/ no-where.

And things will become more clear. (?)

And you may begin to bump up against language’s limitations.

Do not worry if you cannot find the words to describe it.

The words do not exist.