Spiritual Practice

It seems so simple to me. If suffering is due to attachment and aversion, then spiritual practice should consist of refraining from attachment and aversion. I think that's all the spirituality that I need to know. I don't need 10 commandments. I don't need four noble truths or an eightfold path or eight limbs of yoga or 14 mindfulness practices or 108 repetitions of a mantra. I only need to stop entertaining emotional attachment and aversion. When I catch myself in a state of attachment or a state of aversion, I just need to stop doing that. Incredibly simple. That's probably why people don't get it. It's too simple, so the mind tries to complicate it.

Okay, I know what you are going to ask. "How?". I contend that there is no "how". If you are holding a pebble in your hand, tightly grasping it, and I were to ask you to let it go, would you ask, "how?". No, you would just let it go. In the same way, you can let go of attachment and aversion when you detect yourself engaging in those processes. I think that asking the "how?" question is merely a way of avoiding the instinctual spiritual practice of letting go.

Asking "how?" is a valid thing to do for any action. But letting go is not an action. It is a refrain from action. In this case, I am refraining from attachment and aversion. Letting go of that pebble is a refrain from grasping.

Attachment and aversion come uninvited. I cannot prevent them from coming into my mind. But once they come, and once I recognize that I am occupied with one of them, I can let go of that occupation. Then, some time later they come again. Once I realize that I am doing them again, I let them go again, and again and again. It's a continual practice. It's my practice.