There are two practices that require active discernment, and both practices have an inward timing and readiness that most often coincides with an inward urgency to know what is truth. The first is inquiry or investigation. Inquiry holds a question silently and allows the question to probe the depths of our consciousness. The question is … Continued

Having insights is not the final answer, but they do provide steady confidence regarding what lies ahead.

Practice has shown us that there is a difference between the object the senses receive and what the mind does with that object through thought. Awareness sees the object, and the mind translates what it sees into what it knows. Through the repetition of seeing just what the senses see and observing how that seeing … Continued

The remnants of self do not abate because we want them to. We have to look at the noise the self is making and see whether it is relevant or not, and once something is seen as being irrelevant, it falls away on its own. This process is active discernment (see diagram). When we use … Continued

Existence reveals its truths and shares them openly and freely, and insight is the access point. Knowing flows in abundance within all areas and at all times but is usually obstructed by what we think we already know or by our fear of what might be revealed.

Perceiving the world as a landscape divided between friends and enemies forces the emotion of insecurity to act as an organizing principle within our worldview, and suspicion and anger follow that perception.

The suffering/end of suffering continuum, unlike the form/formless continuum, accesses another important component of our journey, and that is the full embodiment of our humanity. It is easy to slip into a cold, isolated, and untouchable position when working with form and the formless. These words may not invite a full flowering of the heart … Continued

By establishing the end points of a continuum as suffering and the end of suffering, we may make the actual experience of suffering the problem. Our focus could then be to try and alleviate suffering wherever we find it. But if the root cause of suffering is the entity we believe ourselves to be then … Continued

When you are in conflict and struggling where do you focus your attention to alleviate the suffering? Do you attempt to surmount the conflict, wait it out, distance yourself from it, resolve it through negotiation and bargaining, or focus on any number of other strategies? Placing your attention on getting over the problem misses the … Continued

I am not suggesting a complete abandonment of the suffering/end of suffering continuum, but rather a side-by-side paralleling of the two continua so they strengthen each other at key points on our spiritual journey. The value of maintaining a relationship with the suffering/end of suffering continuum is that it is very approachable and accessible. At … Continued

Let us try to reconcile the two ends of the continuum between suffering and the end of suffering. See if you can get a feeling for the end of suffering in the midst of suffering. Notice your investment in the emotional narrative that accompanies the pain. Do the angst and fear continue when the narrative … Continued

What struggles are inherent in form? Without personalizing these struggles, notice the edges of form, the imperfections intrinsic to form, and the isolation that form brings. Notice the comparisons, contrasts, arguments, judgments, and tensions that arise from living within formations. We usually carry an existential struggle as well. Can you feel it? Can you get … Continued

Close your eyes and sit quietly for a moment and become aware of the complete range of your inward experience. Everything you notice including all thoughts, images, and emotions are formations of mind. Now open all your senses and observe what the mind sees, hears, smell, tastes, and physically detects. This too is form. Anything … Continued

I have noticed over many years of teaching that we all need to be redirected many times back to this central message of our suffering, or else we can easily get sidetracked into following the conclusions of conventional reality that encourage us to deny our problems and project our difficulties onto others. We will never … Continued

Begin perceiving your encounters on the continuum that runs from suffering to the end of suffering. Notice the amount of struggle, conflict, tension, and aversion that fills your day. Even pleasant sensations can lead to a struggle if you want that sensation repeated, or you attempt to prolong comfort beyond its natural duration. Become sensitive … Continued

Everything we do on our spiritual journey needs to fit within the context of the overarching theme of the end of struggle, and all our practices need to be questioned from this perspective. For instance, what do following the breath, sitting up straight, releasing our thoughts, walking slowly, sending out loving-kindness, narrowing or expanding our … Continued

Thinking attempts to fit life comfortably into our old reasoned patterns of separation, problem resolution, and self-fulfillment. Our thinking keeps avoiding the issue of struggle by focusing on what we are lacking. “Yes, I want to end struggle, but first I must develop more samadhi, tranquility, and balance, then I will be capable of overcoming … Continued

The spiritual journey as I will now frame it is the movement from form to the formless, which I will show is indistinguishable from the movement from suffering to its end.

When the world is formed into separate objects our boundaries inhibit further communion and interconnection, and we become inaccessible and isolated. This is the first manifestation of suffering and is rarely noted as a problem since separation, in our conventional worldview, is a given fact. But as our perception begins to be spiritually altered we … Continued

The first part of the spiritual journey is moving from a world in which form is the predominant way of relating to life, and desiring and avoiding form the primary way we navigate through life, to the formless paradigm that is both immaterial and unified.