How Continuity of Practice Will Help you Catch Fire

I'd like to start with just a couple practical suggestions of in terms of getting the most out of the retreat.

I like to distinguish formal practice from what I call practice in life.

By formal practice, I mean situation where you're attempting to maintain a continuity of technique of some sort.

Um.

It could be done in stillness seated standing like down or it could be done in motion simple motion or more complex motions exercise kind of motions, even doing tasks those kinds of things. But what characterizes formal practice is that it's all about maintaining whatever your technique is if if it's a technique that involves noting.

And you're continually continually noting unbroken.

By way of contrast in daily life. Often it's not feasible to do that. We have to take care of business. We have to allocate time our time in Enerji think about stuff and to deal with situations. So we

Typically, in daily life can't.

Have most of our energy focused on maintaining a continuity of technique, intentionally of course, as you know, I define mindful awareness practices as practices that significantly elevate your base level of mindfulness and I define base level of mindful esta mean to be how mindful of person is under ordinary circumstances when they're not particularly to try to be mindful so as the result of practice.

Your base level of mindfulness should be elevated at even when you're just sort of bopping around taken care of business, thinking about this talking about that over the months years. Decades of practice. You should notice that just on autopilot. You're much more mindful even though you aren't necessarily intentionally trying to implement a technique so for daily life what I encourages.

Something that I call quote practice in Life, which means that when it's feasable 30 seconds. Here, 3 minutes. There you implement a formal technique when it's feasable means well, yet a little hiatus like maybe you're an office worker. You have to sit there. You have to think plan have meetings, etc. But then you walk to the washroom or you're in a meeting where your full attention is not really required.

And it's like OK. I'm going to do a few minutes of practice here. I'm going to do a few minutes of practice there and so you pepper the day with little micro hits. I usually encourage People to have at least a half dozen as I say.

You know in daily life under ordinary circumstances.

About half does at least a half dozen little hits like that. During the day where it's feasable you're in a simple situation. You're waiting or what have you OK now? I'm going to do a technique and then just go back to taking care of business. Now, if you make herculean resolve to really implement. It technique for those 30 seconds or for those 3 minutes, you can actually meditate.

Retroactively, I know that seems oxymoronic, meaning of contradiction by nature. Oxymoron is something that is contradictory by nature mindfulness is in the moment? How could you possibly have retroactive mindfulness? Well, here's? what I mean by retroactive mindfulness as you're just bopping around taking care of business, not particularly implementing any intentional.

Technique you're stirring up the some scars.

Now, if you then stop on a dime.

And implement a practice.

You can replace quantity with quality it takes a huge resolved to do that. Though you have to really decide you're going to do that out, and then all those juices that got stimulated that got stirred up as you were just being ordinary and not even remembering that you're a meditator necessarily you can process. All of that. In 30 seconds or in 3 minutes. If you really decide you're going to bring.

All you got to those few minutes of peppering the day so you sort of.

Up.

Uh.

Get if you fully process, the juices that got stirred up by ordinary life that in a sense, you meditated retroactively because you've cleaned up or broken up forces that got stirred up as you would just going about life so practice. There's formal practice continuity of technique.

Up and then there's practice in life and I divide formal practice into stillness and then emotion. So success on this path is likely to happen if you alternate day-to-day practice with retreats so here we are at a retreat.

In day-to-day practice there's a little bit of formal practice that you do.

Some People do an hour so People do the half hour.

Some People do less is a little bit of formal practice and then it's mostly OK just going about life and hopefully you'll remember to pepper it with life with some practice during the day so on a retreat. It's a figure ground reversal.

Basically waht you should aim for.

Is from the instant you wake up in the morning to the instant you lose consciousness at night?

For the great majority of that time.

You are doing formal practice, either you're sitting or you're moving and moving could be walking. It could be stretching it could be taking a shower. It could be eating your meal, but you try to maintain a continuity of practice. The one exception to that which would be more like a practice in life situation is what we're doing right now.

Yeah, it's fine with me if you are entering formless. Samadi's I'm talking and maintaining a formal practice and not listening to me in terms of content. That's fine. But you may want to listen to some of this content. Also in which case it's a little bit of going back and forth. Maybe you're mostly just listening to listen and it's just like ordinary things so interviews.

Group process that kind of stuff that's a practice in life situation where you go in and out of technique. As you wish. But other than those times all the other times, chanting waiting for me to get here.

You know what have you put in your clothes on taking a shower?

Try if you can to have a well defined technique going? What technique doesn't matter. Whatever appeals to you under different circumstances.

There's sort of like 2 kinds of People on this planet.

There's the way most People are and then there are People that think about their day in terms of.

Opportunities to cultivate and apply their mindfulness skills and it's just a whole different way to approach life.

Many of you have probably read the don't want books that teach the Carlos Castaneda books teachings of Don Quan and so forth and if you have these great classic was written by anthropologists from UCLA who started to study a Yaqui Indian lived in Arizona and Mexico as an ethnographic study and.

Eventually, even though he was a scientist and a modern anthropologist, he actually got pulled into the cultural view of that India.

And stop being an anthropologist and became a shaman and wrote about it, but anyway. The native teacher that he calls dark one that's not the guys real name but?

That person was not just a Medison person that it was not just a power healer kind of person. It's absolutely evidente abundantly evident when you read that material that don't one knows about impermanence. No self and emptiness. Yes, the liberated consciousness, which can result from those traditional practices.

In some cases.

So resign mentioning this is there's a lot of incredible sound bites in that those writings. One of the things that don't want told Carlos was the ordinary person thinks about their life everything in life in terms of.

Obviously exact phrase that was used in terms of Fortune and misfortune.

But the person who sees

Thinks about everything that happens in life.

As an opportunity.

A challenge.

A challenge to apply and develop a certain.

State of consciousness so.

Becoming that kind of person that sort of thinks of life that way.

You can still acknowledge fortune and misfortune, but the day is more or less about.

Cultivation.

Uh.

So that's really desirable. It's really desirable to become that kind of person.

There one of the Zen Masters said that the average person is used, 24 hours a day. But the purpose. The personals, then uses 24 hours a day.

So on RE treats its good other than the few times that were sort of talking and interacting and that kind of thing.

Other than that I would strongly encourage you to attempt unbroken formal practice. So basically the whole day is just one practice. Period. I did a 2 month retreat, many years ago with open Dita who was mahah seesaa does sort of heir apparent and this is a traditional Mahathir retreat. Some of you have done those kinds of retreats you know everything.

And I mean everything.

Is done in slow motion?

And there's almost this a little bit of one Upmanship, who could be the last person to get to the dining Hall.

How much did you the dining Hall is obvious only about?

30 yards from the meditation Hall and there were People that you know it was 45 minutes by the time and this is everything OK. So it's a 2 month retreat so you know occasionally have to do laundry or whatever and it's like so you're doing your laundry in slow. Mo 2 hours. Do your laundry at by the way that's just who cares the wonder pets.

And so.

It's absolutely continuous practice set locks. It walks at walk walks. It walks at eat zit walks. They walk like that, and that's all you do all day suggests that you sleep for 4 hours, so that leaves 20 hours of noting practice to do every single day for 2 months, it's incredible so just try.

As I say try to keep things going and be that person that sort of strategizes OK chanting.

How am I going to focus how it's you'll have a clear cut study it could be a lot of things. Maybe it's a focus up you're going to listen to the sound. You can emerge with the sound. Or maybe you're going to merge with the physicality of the breathing of the chanting or maybe it's a nurture positive after all. That's what chanting originally was the Mont Rose and so forth you did visualization and yet the montre going.

Or maybe it's like a flow or your rock on how the chanting induces restful states. Basically, a lot of our agitation is mental talk.

An and

Either an internal or external.

Chanting kind of thing what mental Top tends to go in all different directions. But if you set up a kind of rhythm in Togus space where you're going all money plug my own Omani put me home over and over again, So what that rhythm does.

Is it's like a comb if your mind is like her that wants to be a bad hair day and go in all directions. But you're constantly combing through it. These times of Almani Pod May on these syllables right. They make it difficult for the mind her to fly and all different directions and student do so here rest experience relatively.

Even when your mind is wandering during chatting you'll notice does it kept wander as fast or as big so you can like go into see rest your rest feel rest I think going to flow states, when lot of possibilities. Those of you that are familiar with the range of techniques and you sort of decide on how you want to do it.

This morning for myself for example, I was doing expansion contraction on it was so cool like it was in all three modalities inner and outer. It's just the whole thing was just like simultaneously expanding contracting. It's just sort of opened that was like you know interest opportunity necessity right so it's like OK. I think I'm going to go with this plan this morning and like OK. That's strategy. Other times, you might want to do other things, so how am I going to practice when I'm.

Taking a shower or when I'm doing my meal. Fortunately, you get lots of chance to even get guidance specifically on that.

So.

That that attitude of OK, it's like.

Keep keep the continuity, I would strongly encourage that.

The one of the metaphors that the Buddha used for success with practice is he compared to getting fire by rubbing sticks together actually said In other words, it's an emphasis on continuity.

So if you rub and then you like stop and then rub and then you stop well it's not going to develop?

Something that catches fire so retreat is a situation where you can sort of catch fire, with things like keeping a continuity of practice going so that's something that I think would be good to consider and think about and try to achieve.