WAY Too Much Talk About Free Throws

"The Buddha changes his entire way of practice.  He began to nourish and honor his body and spirit.  He remembered that he could rest in the universe rather than fight it.  He realized that awakening is never the product of force but arises through a resting of the heart and an opening of the mind.  There are two parallel tasks in spiritual life.  One is to discover selflessness, the other is to develop a healthy sense of self, to discover what is meant by true self.  Both sides of this apparent paradox must be fulfilled for us to awaken.  We begin to see how our own defenses and the wishes of others have eclipsed a true grounding in our own deepest experience.  Gradually, we can cease to identify with these old patterns and allow for a healthier sense of self."

Jack Kornfield

Paradox:  A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well-founded or true.

Oh, yeah.  Develop a healthy sense of self while beginning a lifetime devoted to selfless behavior.  Good luck with that.

Here are some thoughts by the Buddha on growing a spiritual practice . . .  

"The Buddha very frequently described spiritual practice as the cultivation of good qualities of heart and character.  Repeated cultivation is a basic principle of most spiritual and meditative paths.  In repeated meditations we can learn how to skillfully let go of fearful or contracted identities.  Whatever we practice we will become.  We can choose to strengthen our courage, loving-kindness, and compassion, evoking them in ourselves through reflection, meditation, attention, and repeated training.

Repeated.  Practice.  Cultivation.  There isn't a lot of sitting still in these concepts.  Rather there's a lot of . . .  well . . .  practice.  Repeated practice.  I played basketball in high school.  I played because I was tall and not because I had any physical qualities that made me a good basketball player.  I couldn't jump very high but I was taller than you so I got the ball a lot.  I also couldn't shoot the basketball what with all of the opposing players slapping at the basketball and shoving me around and putting their hands in my face but I did get fouled a lot because I understood that if I was between you and the basket I either got the basketball or you had to foul me to get to the basketball yourself and this meant Free Throws!  I liked free throws a lot.  No one could fuck with you when you were shooting free throws and I shot a lot of them and I made almost all of them.  Most of the time I had more points from shooting free throws than I did making baskets and this is no small feat because you get two points for scoring a basket but only one for making a free throw.  I'm pretty good at math so I knew I had better not miss too many free throws if I wanted an impressive box score and even then I never had an impressive box score.  Guess what I did when I was in the gym?  I shot a lot of free throws.  I practiced making free throws.

Practice:  The act of doing something regularly or repeatedly in order to increase your skill at doing it.

This is why we call it spiritual practice.  Most of us have lived less than exemplary lives of selfish behavior and most of us find we can't turn around this kind of self-centered behavior without a lot of practice.

Get to work, man.