The Practice

25. Ten practical principles

Synthesis. Marking: [textual] from the early suttas, [scholastic] from the later tradition, [my formulation].

1. The intensity of effort is not a marker of progress [textual]

The string: too tight it breaks, too loose it does not sound. And the founding event of this tradition is an ascetic failure. Anyone measuring their practice in hours and endurance is measuring the wrong thing.

2. Know where your body is [textual]

The simplest instruction in the whole series: when you walk, know you walk. No technique, no posture, no preparation — and available every moment.

3. Observe the tone, not the content [textual]

The vedanā is the tool. Before you ask “what am I thinking?”, ask: pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral? — and where do I feel it? It is faster, more accurate, and bodily locatable.

4. The hinge is between the tone and the wanting [textual]

You do not control what will seem pleasant. You do not easily stop a clinging that has already gained momentum. The slack is in the middle — and all practice targets there.

5. Separate the two arrows [textual]

How much of this is the fact, and how much my reaction? The first often does not change. The second is almost always larger, and is the only one negotiable.

6. “In the seen, only the seen” [textual]

The addition — the interpretation, the story, the projection — is not part of the event. And removing it for a moment is possible, even if it does not last.

7. The body is maintained, not worshipped and not punished [textual]

The reflection of the four requisites: you eat for function, not for amusement, not for beauty, not for display. And at the same time: care of the sick is a high value, and self-torment was rejected.

8. Remembrance of death removes intoxication, does not add fear [textual]

I am subject to ageing, illness, death; what I love will be separated. It is not pessimism — it is the removal of an illusion that was already operating silently.

9. Distress may be a stage [scholastic]

Fear, misery, disgust and the desire to flee are named and anticipated. Knowing this changes the experience — because it removes the “something is wrong with me”.

10. And the limit: it may also not be [my formulation]

The tradition itself has contraindications — and the modern dissemination omits them. If the practice makes you function worse in your life, the problem is not that you are not trying hard enough. And a system that explains in advance why your desire to leave is a symptom has removed the organ with which you would recognise that you must leave.

The essential about the essentials

They are not ten. They are one, seen from ten angles:

Pain has two parts. One does not change. The other you add yourself — and there is a moment, before you add it, when you can see it.