Date: 03/01/2025 03/02/2025
Location: Star Lake Meditation Center
Teacher: Shilin Long
Dharma Knowledge
What Is Spiritual Practice
The term “spiritual practice” is often understood as withdrawing from worldly life, entering a monastery, engaging in long hours of meditation, or strictly following religious rules. In its fundamental Buddhist sense, however, practice is not defined by external forms, but by an ongoing and profound process of learning and transformation. It concerns how one comes to understand oneself, how the direction of the mind is reshaped, and how suffering is reduced while clarity grows within ordinary life.
The starting point of practice is not lofty ideals, but an honest recognition of suffering. People usually begin to practice not because they have mastered complex teachings, but because they repeatedly encounter dissatisfaction, instability, and loss of control in life. Broken relationships, emotional turbulence, and anxiety about the future prompt a sincere question: where does the problem truly lie? Practice unfolds from this willingness to ask.
From a Buddhist perspective, the heart of practice is not changing the world, but understanding how the mind relates to it. External conditions are not the root of suffering; craving, resistance, and ignorance are. When the mind continually pursues what it wants and rejects what it dislikes without recognizing the impermanent nature of all experiences, suffering naturally follows. Practice aims to illuminate this pattern.
Practice is not about suppressing desire or denying emotion, but about learning how to relate to them wisely. When craving arises, can it be noticed without immediate reaction? When anger appears, can it be seen without being consumed? When fear surfaces, can one remain present rather than escape? These subtle and practical capacities are the real expressions of practice in daily life.
Many people believe that practice requires withdrawing from responsibilities, yet genuine practice often unfolds precisely within them. Work, family, relationships, and social roles all become fields of cultivation. The ability to remain aware under pressure, compassionate amid conflict, and attentive in busyness is far more significant than adopting a particular external lifestyle. Practice is not an escape from life, but a way of not being carried away by it.
In terms of method, Buddhist practice is traditionally described through the integrated training of ethical conduct, concentration, and wisdom. Ethical conduct is not moral constraint, but the foundation for reducing harm and stabilizing the mind. Concentration is not the pursuit of extraordinary states, but the development of steadiness and attentiveness. Wisdom is the clear understanding of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self. These three are not separate stages, but mutually supportive aspects of practice.
The process of practice is often challenging. It requires confronting one’s blind spots, habits, and uncomfortable truths. At times, practice may not bring immediate comfort, but instead reveal inner confusion more clearly. Yet this clarity is precisely what makes transformation possible. Practice is not avoiding problems, but ceasing to avoid them.
As practice deepens, one’s understanding of practice itself evolves. At first, practice may be pursued to relieve suffering. Later, it becomes a means of understanding life more fully. Eventually, even the notion of “I am practicing” begins to loosen. Practice then ceases to be a deliberate task and becomes a natural way of living.
Ultimately, the purpose of practice is not to become an idealized version of oneself, but to reduce illusion. As illusion diminishes, greed, anger, and ignorance naturally weaken. The mind grows softer and clearer, and life becomes simpler and more genuine. Practice is not a distant goal, but each present moment in which awareness and responsibility are willingly embraced.
So what is spiritual practice? It is the continuous learning of how to live with clarity within life itself; how to refrain from blind grasping amid change; and how to discover a path through suffering. It is not a retreat from the world, but a gradual awakening within it.
