The Meaning of Practice

 

 

In the Buddhist tradition, people often speak about practices they are working with. But what is actually meant by “practices” and why are they important?  The English word practice comes from the Greek word praxis, which means doing or action, which is contrasted with another Greek word theoria, which means theory/concepts/words. 

What is called practice in the spiritual sense of the word, is, in a very central way, all about doing or action, and practices exist in many other spiritual traditions in addition to Buddhism.  At the same time, spiritual practice is significantly different from what we most commonly mean by practice.  Spiritual practice is not at all like practicing a piece of music on the piano.  With piano practice, the focus is on playing the musical piece better. It’s a rehearsal for a performance to be given at a later date.

 From a Buddhist perspective, practice is about doing something in a new way, with the intention of bringing about deep changes in ourselves—changes in how we engage life in each moment.  So I might engage in the practice of silently saying metta phrases—such as “May all beings be free of suffering”—with the intention of increasing my capacity to be caring.  But I don’t say the phrases with the intention of getting better at saying the phrases. This is true of all forms of Buddhist meditation—we don’t practice meditation to get better at meditation, we do it in order to change ourselves and get better at life.  And meditation is only one form of Buddhist practice.

A key feature of spiritual practice is that it is a form of training—training the mind to be present, training ourselves to see how our minds cause suffering, training ourselves to be more compassionate.  At its core, it is very similar to physical exercise.  Exercise is something that you do, and is very different from reading about exercise, talking about exercise, or watching exercise videos.  

Spiritual practice is also like exercise in that it has the goal of personal transformation.  Most people who jog, for example, do not do it to become a better jogger—run faster or run further—they train in order to have a strong heart free of clogged blood vessels and to have healthy lungs, and perhaps to have a calmer and more grounded mind.  So jogging is a practice—it is doing something with the intention of producing positive personal transformation at the level of the body.

Thus spiritual practice is about doing something, doing training, and doing it with the intention of producing personal transformation in myself. And for the Buddha, the intention in practice is to create transformation as the deepest possible level:  transformation of self so that we learn to engage life in a way that causes less suffering for ourselves and the world at large.  The Buddha always said that he only taught two things:  the nature of suffering, and the removal of suffering. We need practices in order to train ourselves to live in a way that creates less suffering.

So what does this sort of practice actually look like?  Many years ago a friend gave me a large bag of organic apples he had grown.  He said it was part of his practice of cultivating generosity in himself.  I discovered another form of practice when preparing for a class I was teaching on Asian philosophy.  Confucius spoke about the practice of unconditional responding.  Unconditional responding means treating others with respect, kindness, and care regardless of how they are treating you.  In doing this, I am consciously choosing to treat people the way I believe is right, rather than being driven by my own reactivity to how they are behaving.  When I tried it out, I found it to be a very challenging and powerful practice.         

There are many kinds of practices designed to cultivate various beneficial traits in ourselves:  mindful speech, mindful livelihood, mindful association, practicing reverence for life, deep listening, practices for stopping habitual reactions, volunteer work to increase generosity, mindful consumption, gratitude practices, saying “Yes” to the present moment…and many, many more.

In Start Where You Are, Pema Chodron observes that “We try so hard to hang on to the teachings and “get it” [understand the teachings verbally and then remember the words later], but actually the truth sinks in like rain into very hard earth.  The rain is very gentle, and we soften up slowly at our own speed.  But when that happens, something fundamentally changes in us.  That hard earth has softened…”  

It’s not about analyzing the rain; it’s about the changes in the soil that happen from the rain falling on it. Likewise, it’s not about being able to say or explain what the teachings are.  It’s about the changes in us in regard to how we respond to the events in our lives that happen as a result of practicing the teachings.  At some point the teachings become part of our being, part of the way we see things, and how we respond to life day-to-day.  You simply are the teachings.

Frequently, what the Buddha taught is incorrectly seen as a collection of beliefs.  When we do this, our tendency is then to want to pick them part, give reasons why they are true or reasons why they are false and to argue about them.  But this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the teachings.   What the historical Buddha taught is more accurately seen as, not a collection of beliefs, but as a collection of methods or practices. The purpose of these methods is to fundamentally change how we engage life.  So the way you find out if the teachings have value is to try out the various methods.  Then they either work or they do not work for you at your present level of understanding and evolution.  It’s as simple as that. Try out a particular practice in your own life and see how it works in transforming your life. There really is nothing to argue about.

It may come as a surprise, but the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre had a very similar view of practice—though he did not call it practice.  He said that we are born being nothing in particular—like a formless piece of clay—and that we then create the person that we are by our day-to-day behavior choices.  So for example, each time you steal something, you break down your inhibitions against stealing and strengthen your tendency to take what is not yours.   The reverse is true as well:  each time you refrain from stealing you strengthen your tendency to respect what does not belong to you.  Each time you help someone in distress you strengthen your ability and willingness to be of service.   Sartre believes that you are therefore totally responsible for the person that you are—you have created yourself in much the way that a sculptor creates a statue through a series of choices regarding what pieces to chip away from a block of stone and which to leave.  When we begin to see this, we can begin to be more conscious about the choices we make regarding our actions. 

Note 1:  In his later writings, Thich Nhat Hanh recognized the need to make more accurate the traditional interpretation of what was called The Five Precepts, the basic teachings on correct conduct, to express the central idea that Buddhist ethical teachings are not commandments (“Thou shalt not…”).  They are better understood as what Thich Nhat Hanh called The Five Mindfulness Trainings, which provide guidance for us to help cultivate specific qualities in ourselves. 

The Five Precepts as traditionally understood told us: Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not lie, Do not indulge in sex, and Do not use intoxicants. This is a list of rules.  More accurately understood, these teachings become what Thich Nhat Hanh calls The Five Mindfulness Trainings:  Cultivate compassion and reverence for life; Cultivate generosity of time, energy and material resources; Cultivate loving speech and deep listening; Cultivate sexual responsibility; Cultivate good health by mindful consumption and ingestion.  We cultivate our ability to pay attention and retrain ourselves in five key areas. For a fuller explanation of The Five Mindfulness Trainings see Chapter 3 in The Wisdom of the Buddha: Using Mindfulness to Change Your Life, available via email upon request.

 

 

 

Note 2:   My intention is to add new posts to the blog approximately every 2 to 3 weeks. If you would like to receive an e-mail notification each time a new blog post is made, please let me know and I will add you to the list of recipients. This notification will also include the title of the new post.  Some of the material that appears in this blog is copyrighted, but in keeping with the Buddha’s teaching that the dharma is not to be sold, the contents of this blog may be freely copied and given away, but not sold. 

            If you have questions, comments, or ideas for new Blog topics please contact Dale at ahimsaacres@gmail.com.