The Curious Reason Why Enlightened Masters Sometimes Say Spiritual Practices Are Useless

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Abstract

age.</blockquote>Zen may have become unnecessarily mysterious and cryptic. Because it’s actually very simple.You stop doing everything related to what you’re not, and for once you listen to what you actually are.The practice of “just sitting” is not merely sitting like an ignorant log.It’s the stilling of all that is in bondage, so what is liberated can shine forth, so clearly and fully that you never forget it again.This is not a “magical” event that occurs. It’s an empirically replicable process that requires precision and dedication. That’s what makes it a valid lineage of practice.Your eggshell of an ego is repeatedly cracked from the outside to support the inner nature always trying to hatch (but being held back by material-mental distraction).To focus only on outer practice is to lose cognition of the gnosis to happen with what’s buried deep within (yet always luminously present).To expect the inner n

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ature to do all the work is to ignore the mechanisms of ignorance that you’re here to dismantle in the first place.Some people spend lifetimes focused on external worship, ritual, and “meditations” without realizing that the only meeting with the transcendent you can possibly have is something experienced from within.Others seek this inner treasure in “transcendent” experiences that never last, because they haven’t put in the work to let their light express itself continuously – devoid of noisy, distracting inner competitors.<h2 id="9df9">So notice something very key to this process</h2>You’re much deeper of a being than you habitually notice.Profoundly so – which means you have a responsibility to honor it, by ensuring your shallow thoughts, emotions, and behaviors do not obscure your knowing.Remembering to maintain inner mental clarity, cleanliness, and directness, you may one day encounter a jewel that does not (and simply cannot) stop shining!</article></body>

They’re not being dogmatic, they’re pointing out a treasure you’re ignoring

In the notes taken by Bodhidharma’s disciples in China, some of the most revolutionary ideas of Zen find their origin.

Your mind’s true nature is unobstructed, free of all karma, primordially pure, and beyond space or time.

Yet performing actions and seeking objects for happiness — or seeking externally in order to escape samsara — sentient beings sink further into bondage.

Zen may have become unnecessarily mysterious and cryptic. Because it’s actually very simple.

You stop doing everything related to what you’re not, and for once you listen to what you actually are.

The practice of “just sitting” is not merely sitting like an ignorant log.

It’s the stilling of all that is in bondage, so what is liberated can shine forth, so clearly and fully that you never forget it again.

This is not a “magical” event that occurs. It’s an empirically replicable process that requires precision and dedication. That’s what makes it a valid lineage of practice.

Your eggshell of an ego is repeatedly cracked from the outside to support the inner nature always trying to hatch (but being held back by material-mental distraction).

To focus only on outer practice is to lose cognition of the gnosis to happen with what’s buried deep within (yet always luminously present).

To expect the inner nature to do all the work is to ignore the mechanisms of ignorance that you’re here to dismantle in the first place.

Some people spend lifetimes focused on external worship, ritual, and “meditations” without realizing that the only meeting with the transcendent you can possibly have is something experienced from within.

Others seek this inner treasure in “transcendent” experiences that never last, because they haven’t put in the work to let their light express itself continuously – devoid of noisy, distracting inner competitors.

So notice something very key to this process

You’re much deeper of a being than you habitually notice.

Profoundly so – which means you have a responsibility to honor it, by ensuring your shallow thoughts, emotions, and behaviors do not obscure your knowing.

Remembering to maintain inner mental clarity, cleanliness, and directness, you may one day encounter a jewel that does not (and simply cannot) stop shining!