Practice Until the Day You Die

This is the best version of me. It's late at night, and my mind is at rest. I've been writing for hours, long after everyone went to bed. I'm paying attention to my breath, and I'm focused. I feel like I could write forever and never lose my concentration.

Today I practiced yoga deeply and experienced some new things. I simply trusted the process, the breath, the muscle memory, the present moment, the focus of my eyes, the teacher's instructions. Half the time I practice by my bedside, but I need the yoga school, with other students and teachers, to remind me that I am always a student. I want to hear something new. I want to be pushed to my limit, not in a way that creates anxiety, but in a way that creates joy. Even exhausted, I knew I would come out stronger and better, and I was grateful in that moment to be able to try so hard.

I'm starting to discover incredible sensations in my muscles. Sometimes I can feel one continuous line of connection, starting under my foot, wrapping around the heel, running up the Achilles to the back of the calf, through the hamstrings and glutes, into the lower back, and up through the QL, the rhomboids, and the traps.

Think about the first chapter of your life, before you knew the Observer Self existed, when the mind went wherever it wanted. Those were the years we lived inside the caterpillar's body. Meditation is like building a cocoon around the mind and going inside to develop and transform into something that can fly, with vibrant colors.

Transformation of consciousness takes time. It doesn't require you to master psychology or physics, and you don't have to memorize the Yoga Sutras or the Buddhist teachings. Those things may help, or they may not. They can also distract you, and you can spend years reading without understanding, when the actual practice is to close your eyes, meditate, and go inside. But if we can't do that yet, we need a shoehorn to slide the mind into a lighter state, a higher, more intelligent, more compassionate state that understands non-violence and non-harm.

Those two are not exactly the same. Violence is a physical act of destruction against the flesh. Non-harm goes further. It means being aware of the subtle energy you transmit to other beings and how it influences them. A negative gesture, an unkind word, a lack of compassion, the hostile thoughts that come out of us when we're frightened and reacting, all of it creates karma. That is the very definition of cause and effect. So meditate deeply.

My friends, don't spend your time debating whether meditation is real. Don't waste time trying to pin down the word enlightenment. It's a moving target, and you'll never catch it. But practicing toward it creates transformation, especially when we also work on the other parts of mental health and self-care.

We have to groom and maintain the body. We have to keep our living space clean. We have to read something valuable every day, and write something every day, even something tiny about our own lives. We have to change our diet and remove the intoxicants that flood our chemistry and push the mind into chaos. We have to exercise and practice discipline. We have to care for people. We must not badmouth others or judge them harshly. We are here to be of service to each other and to be stewards of the other creatures on this earth.

I say that in many of my writings. It became obvious to me after reading about the Aboriginal people of Australia and other ancient Indigenous cultures that kept their connection to the land. As I understand it, they kept their minds open and present, receptive to something like a collective consciousness, close to the source. I believe we are all connected to that source through our genetic material. But actually reaching it with the mind takes a long time, good breathing, and freedom from negative distraction.

Don't strain toward some distant goal. That's too far away. Just strive to stay alive. Make your list and take action every day. Apologize when you're wrong. Don't react when you feel slighted. Give it time, let it marinate, and look for the peaceful solution.

Don't overanalyze. This is analytical material, written for people who can take it in and say, yes, I'm thinking about that. But if it gets too complicated, if it makes you obsess or pulls you away from your present circumstances, put it down for a few years. Go out and keep cleaning up your life. Build a platform and a structure that anxious impulses can't knock over. Make that choice, and you become one of the mutants of humanity.

Evolution is pushing for the maturing of the human mind and the cultivation of our character, but it can't do the work for us. We have to use our own powers to explore the world, experience it, and build up knowledge. Then we have to teach it, and keep teaching it until the day we die.