Comments on: Beyond Technique

By: Kaushik

Kaushik — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:58:11 +0000

I love the expression of the question. It represents all of seeking.

We get tired, exhausted, frustrated. It’s good, because then we can sit and watch.

By: Davidya

Davidya — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:35:47 +0000

Hi Uzma
Reading about techniques can be like watching a TV show about exercise.

I’ve found the journey goes in stages. We have times when mind needs to be satisfied and times when that seems pointless. When we have to step out of the idea of it and into the direct experience of it. Time to live life, be in it, noticing what is happening. That’s the juicy part.

By: Davidya

Davidya — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:29:18 +0000

(laughs) Neither me, though I was more the take it apart and see how it works kinda kid. Some things I discovered, to my mothers dismay, didn’t go back together so well. I balked mostly against conceptual limitations.

There are those ‘in the socket’ techniques out there. But my teacher always recommended going to the source. It contained everything else.

By: takuin

takuin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:34:08 +0000

Well, I was never a ‘sit still‘ kind of child. I was more of a ‘wait till mom leaves the room then put a fork into the electrical outlet‘ kind of child. I never did well with specific physical limits when I was growing up, as far as I can remember.

I wonder how I would do if, at the age of 36, I were a spiritual seeker? Probably just a bigger version of the child with a fork, I suspect. Haha…

By: takuin

takuin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:28:01 +0000

Thank you, Uzma…great to see you again!

Just stop the reading, the seeking, and sit and watch. I wonder if I will be able to do that though….

You’ll never know if you’re able, while you are in the throes of it all. It is only when you sit back and remember that you can judge what you have or have not done. But by that time, it is too late, because you have already begun to build an image of how wonderful it was.

Let us all know what happens in your journey…

By: Davidya

Davidya — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:05:30 +0000

Yes, it is very interesting to see the various ways people come to this. There are many techniques I would never have looked twice at. Adyashanti jokes that he needed Zen to settle his very active body and mind but he wouldn’t recommend it for most people. (laughs) So many are too much work. Or have the complications like special posture.

Peace is easy so getting there should be too. The old KISS principle.

By: Uzma

Uzma — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:57:50 +0000

Hey
Where I am, the urge to give up on all this mad reading on techniques and definitions and descriptions of the ‘awake’ way are very strong. Just stop the reading, the seeking, and sit and watch. I wonder if I will be able to do that though….

By: takuin

takuin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:39:25 +0000

Davidya,

Yes, that is a great way to say it. Don’t do it because it is something you are supposed to do. And don’t do it to feel superior over others that might need the help.

It is strange because technique was never important to me. (Maybe it is better to say, cultivation – as a means to an end – was never really present here, at least in the ‘spiritual’ sense.) But now I find the various expressions of technique quite fascinating. Not as something to do, but it is just fascinating to witness as time marches on.

By: Davidya

Davidya — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:34:01 +0000

Yes, it is not the technique that gets you there. It may help you get close enough to see it, but not arrive. One always has to move beyond any method to create art or transcendence.

I guess the way I would put it is that if you are called to walk, walk. If you are called to rest, rest. If you are called to meditate, meditate. Don’t use a technique because you should or must. Don’t use it to feel righteous and pious. But if you feel life moving you through technique, let life have it’s way. That’s the only true way.

Technique was an important part of my process, one I was completing from a prior journey. But there are no rules. Just the flow of life, taking us where it needs to go.