Practices often emerge naturally from where we are, as response to a situation or as medicine for a particular condition.
For me, these are often practices I am already familiar with. Other times, I may have heard about them but not practiced them before. And sometimes, these may be practices I cannot remember having practiced or heard about before, although they are (most likely) found in one or more traditions.
These days, island practice comes up for me. I notice most as awake emptiness, but there are some islands of density, areas left to examine, so attention naturally goes there to examine them. Are these too awake? Are these too emptiness? No thing appearing as something? How do these islands appear in each sense field? When do they arise? What happens if I act on them? What happens if I notice what they are? (These islands are most typically reactive emotions, beliefs, a sense of a doer and observer, or in other words, identification with certain sensations-image gestalts.)
Fear practice also come up. I recognize that behind these islands, behind reactive emotions, beliefs and identification with a sense of doer and observer, is fear, so attention naturally goes to this fear. What happens when I notice and allow this fear behind contractions? When I allow it as is, with kindness? What happens when I resist this fear? What happens when I act on the resistance to this fear? How does this fear appear in each sense field?
Something in me senses that these practices are helpful for me right now, so they come up. They seem to be the next, obvious step, as Adyashanti says. They are areas still left to investigate. They seem to be (some of many possible) remedies for this particular condition. They seem to invite the most obvious knots here now to soften and untie.
…………
…………
outline….
- practices emerging
- island practice, natural when notice most as awake emptiness, w. some islands of density (unexamined, examine those left to examine)
- fear practice, notice fear behind contractions (islands), and the difference between allowing and resisting, so noticing + allowing w. kindness, becomes a natural practice
- so also with other practices, may emerge naturally from where we are