Since beginning to teach, I’ve seen how many other students misunderstand spiritual practice, how many have hoped to use it to escape from their lives, how many have used its ideals and language as a way to avoid the pains and difficulties of human existence as I tried to do, how many have entered temples, churches, and monasteries looking for the

Intimacy can arise in any moment; it is an act of surrender, a gift that excludes nothing.

“The dharma, the True Path, is like underground water. Any time we dig we will find it there.”

A fifth quality of spiritual maturity is a sense of the sacred that is integrated and personal. “Integrated” in that it does not create separate compartments of our life, dividing that which is sacred from that which is not; “personal” in honoring spirituality through our own words and actions. Otherwise, our spirituality is not of any true value.

In the emptiness of all things—the magical insubstantial way in which all things arise and vanish, lacking any abiding or fixed self—is hidden the gift of nonseparateness.

idealistic and romantic. People tried to use spirituality to “get high” and to experience extraordinary states of consciousness.

A fourth quality of spiritual maturity is immediacy. Spiritual awakening is found in our own life here and now. In the Zen tradition they say, “After the ecstasy, the laundry.” Spiritual maturity manifests itself in the immanent as well as the transcendent. It seeks to allow the divine to shine through our every action. Altered states,

My own practice has been a journey downward, in contrast to the way we usually think of our spiritual experiences. Over these years I’ve found myself working my way down the chakras (the spiritual energy centers of the body) rather than up. My first ten years of systematic spiritual practice were primarily conducted through my mind. I studied,

MEDITATION ON EQUANIMITY Equanimity is a wonderful quality, a spaciousness and balance of heart. Although it grows naturally with our meditation practice, equanimity can also be cultivated in the same systematic way that we have used for loving-kindness and compassion. We can feel this possibility of balance in our hearts in the midst of all life