What the Practice
Has Revealed

The Framework (Where We Are)

• Before anything existed there was void, emptiness. From that came a primal cause, source, the ground of being.
• Out of that source came manifestation: the world, creation, consciousness, duality.
• We are the perceiver, the experiencer. The son seeking to know the father.
• The eternal quest: the creation seeks to know its creator. The illusory self seeks to know its true nature.

The Core Problem

• Ultimate truth is not under our control. There is no recipe for a lightning bolt.
• Enlightenment is always an accident, but there are ways to become accident-prone.
• Grace, not personal effort alone, is what ultimately makes it happen.

The Four Cornerstones

• PrayerAn open line of communication to a higher power, available at all times. Constantly asking for help is the single most important thing.
• Self-InquiryNot external tools, but honest inner questioning. Who or what am I really? The small-s version examines the character. The capital-S version asks the ultimate question.
• Inner SilenceNo-thought is the ideal. Silence is the medium of transmission. If something comes, it comes in silence.
• BetweennessThe razor's edge where intense desire meets total surrender. Wanting self-realization at all costs while simultaneously being genuinely grateful for things as they are, and indifferent to the outcome.

The Five Strategies

• Absorb the TeachingsChew them up and spit them out. Don't believe anything you can't verify for yourself.
• Assume AuthorityYou are the final judge of what resonates. Don't be a passive disciple.
• Question EverythingAll institutions, all narratives, all received wisdom. Relative truth and ultimate truth are connected.
• Focus IntentNarrow your desire to one thing at the expense of the crowded Christmas list.
• Befriend DeathRealization feels like death. Fear will abort the experience at the critical moment. Get comfortable with it before you arrive there.

The Six Habits

• AuthenticityFearlessly be who you are regardless of social pressure.
• EmpathyDissolve the barrier between self and other. Everyone is your teacher. What you find in others you find in yourself.
• ForgivenessHarboring grievance only poisons you. The other person has moved on. Forgiveness is about your own freedom.
• GratitudeA habit of gratitude draws more. The divine responds to it.
• ForbearancePatience with strength. You have options and you are not a victim.
• SimplicityOccam's razor applied to life. A clean, well-ordered life is a platform for clear thinking. Truth is simple. The mind of man is complex.

The Seven Resolves

• Stay Healthy and StrongYou need vitality for the journey.
• Connect with the Natural WorldEmpathize with nature the way you empathize with people.
• Do No HarmYou cannot pursue truth while causing harm to others.
• Be a FriendYou can never go wrong.
• Pursue Right LivelihoodAt minimum, earn your living in a karma-neutral way.
• Act with IntegritySpeak truth, keep your word, be honest and fair.
• Be Self-SufficientBoth psychologically (don't be needy, be self-affirmed) and practically (don't be entirely dependent on systems outside your control).

The Eight Side Effects

These cannot be pursued directly. They arise on their own.

• ClarityYou cannot conjure clarity by focusing on it directly. Trying harder will not produce it. It arrives on its own as a byproduct of doing the deeper work.
• CompassionTrue compassion has to arise organically. If you try to be compassionate you are only play-acting. It is not a practice to be adopted but a natural flowering of the path.
• HumilityReal humility arises through genuine interaction with others and the gradual recognition that you are no better than anyone else and no one is better than you. You cannot manufacture it by telling yourself to be more humble, and sometimes the most beneficial thing you can do is be assertive anyway.
• LoveYou cannot make yourself feel love. Try it and you will find it either comes or it does not. It is not a practice. It is a side effect of a way of living and ultimately of who you are.
• IntuitionIntuition develops slowly through lived experience: being with people, empathizing with them, and immersing yourself in the research the path requires. Over time, having seen things from so many angles, you begin to know things immediately and instinctively without being able to say exactly why.
• SelflessnessYou can act in selfless ways, and that is a worthwhile thing, but acting selflessly is not a direct path to realization. Genuine selflessness arises as a side effect of who you are becoming through the deeper work, not through the selfless acts themselves.
• AmazementAfter realization, everything becomes a joy to behold. The good, the bad, and the ugliest, and you are simply in awe of existence. You cannot decide to be amazed, but you can put yourself in a position through the work where amazement comes upon you.
• CourageCourage comes primarily as a result of doing the other things on the path, not by setting out to become more courageous as a project in itself. To seek truth in earnest requires it, because the way will pass through death, and the one who seeks it will not survive.