There is one sure fire way to not progress in practice, and that is to not practice. Yet ironically that is something we often see in "practitioners". Often, these are the practitioners who have the most pressing questions in class or during workshops, the most doubtful about this, that, or the other thing. And they are as well the practitioners who will jump from workshop-to-workshop, style-to-style, retreat-to-retreat looking for the right thing to answer the same inner questions we all have. What they are less likely to do is practice hard, on their own, on a regular basis.
Training is not medicine. Medicine is something you go to for a relatively quick fix when nothing else works. There are times when medicine is necessary for all of us. Training is something else altogether. The practitioner who does her yoga asana/Taiji form/gym routine/meditation/Qigong sequence (whatever the preferred practice) on a regular basis like clockwork will progress. This is a given certainty. The practitioner who only goes to class once or twice a week (or month) will never progress at the same rate. There is no hacking of the process.
In recent years there has been a renewed interest in psychedelics and jungle medicine as a type of bio-hack, a quick way to reach understanding about oneself and the nature of reality. There is some validity to this approach under certain circumstances, and it certainly has a place for some people as a part of the path. But I question any shortcut to growth as a final approach. I fully believe that eventually we have to do the work. Faddish diets for quick weight loss; supplements for quick muscle development; energy medicine for physiological/psychological relief; psychedelics for enlightenment--all of these approaches may work in a certain context, but as hacks they are just shortcutting the work of discipline, which will need to happen sooner or later.
I have said many times, there is no means to an end, the means are the end. The thing you are looking for in practice is found in the training itself. Embracing discipline will reveal your higher self. The purpose of the path is for it to become so routine that it isn't a path at all. Arriving is found in the striving, but once you stop moving the need arises again and again. Concurrently, looking for satisfaction through a hack will lead to another hack, and another. So what is your chosen path?
Training is not medicine. Medicine is something you go to for a relatively quick fix when nothing else works. There are times when medicine is necessary for all of us. Training is something else altogether. The practitioner who does her yoga asana/Taiji form/gym routine/meditation/Qigong sequence (whatever the preferred practice) on a regular basis like clockwork will progress. This is a given certainty. The practitioner who only goes to class once or twice a week (or month) will never progress at the same rate. There is no hacking of the process.
In recent years there has been a renewed interest in psychedelics and jungle medicine as a type of bio-hack, a quick way to reach understanding about oneself and the nature of reality. There is some validity to this approach under certain circumstances, and it certainly has a place for some people as a part of the path. But I question any shortcut to growth as a final approach. I fully believe that eventually we have to do the work. Faddish diets for quick weight loss; supplements for quick muscle development; energy medicine for physiological/psychological relief; psychedelics for enlightenment--all of these approaches may work in a certain context, but as hacks they are just shortcutting the work of discipline, which will need to happen sooner or later.
I have said many times, there is no means to an end, the means are the end. The thing you are looking for in practice is found in the training itself. Embracing discipline will reveal your higher self. The purpose of the path is for it to become so routine that it isn't a path at all. Arriving is found in the striving, but once you stop moving the need arises again and again. Concurrently, looking for satisfaction through a hack will lead to another hack, and another. So what is your chosen path?
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