What Practice Is Not -- Joko Beck



Many people practice and have strong ideas of what practice is.
What I want to do is to state from my point of view what practice is
not.

First, practice is not about producing psychological change. If we
practice with intelligence, psychological change will be produced; I
am not questioning that - in fact, it's wonderful. I am saying that
practice is not done in order to produce such change.

Practice is not about intellectually knowing the physical nature of
reality, what the universe consists of, or how it works. And again,
in a serious practice, we will tend to have some knowledge of such
matters. But that is not what practice is.

Practice is not about achieving some blissful state. It's not about
having visions. It's not about seeing white lights (or pink or blue
ones). All of these things may occur, and if we sit long enough they
probably will. But that is not what practice is about.

Practice is not about having or cultivating special powers. There
are many of these and we all have some of them naturally; some
people have them in extra measure. At the Zen Center Los Angeles I
sometimes had the useful ability to see what was being served for
dinner two doors away. If they were having something I didn't like,
I didn't go. Such abilities are little oddities, and again they are
not what practice is about.

Practice is not about personal power or joriki, the strength that is
developed in years of sitting. Again, joriki is a natural by-product
of zazen. And again it is not the way

Practice is not about having nice feelings, happy feelings. It's
not about feeling good as opposed to feeling bad. It's not an
attempt to be anything special or feel anything special. The product
of practice or the point of practice or what practice is about is
not to be always calm and collected. Again, we tend to be much more
so after years of practice, but it is not the point.

Practice is not about some bodily state in which we are never ill,
never hurt, one in which we have no bothersome ailments. Sitting
tends to have health benefits for many people, though in the course
of practice there may be months or even years of health disasters.
But again, seeking perfect health is not the way; although by and
large, over time, there will be beneficial health for most people.
But no guarantees!

Practice is not about achieving an omniscient state in which a
person knows all about everything, a state in which a person is an
authority on any and all worldly problems. There may be a little
more clarity on such matters, but clever people have been known to
say and do foolish things.

Practice is not about being "spiritual," at least not as this word
if often understood. Practice is not about being anything. So unless
we see that we cannot aim at being "spiritual," it can be a
seductive and harmful objective.

Practice is not about highlighting all sorts of "good" qualities and
getting rid of "bad" ones. No one is "good" or "bad." The struggle
to be good is not what practice is. That type of training is a
subtle form of athleticism.

We could continue our listing almost endlessly. Actually anyone in
practice has some of these delusions operating. We all hope to
change, to get somewhere! That in itself is the basic fallacy. But
just contemplating this desire begins to clarify it, and the
practice basis of our life alters as we do so. We begin to
comprehend that our frantic desire to get better, to
get "somewhere," is illusion itself, and the source of suffering.

If our boat full of hope, illusions, and ambition (to get somewhere,
to be spiritual, to be perfect, to be enlightened) is capsized, what
is that empty boat? Who are we? What, in terms of our lives, can we
realize? And what is practice?

Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen