Today I’m going to tell you how to get over a weird challenge that no wisdom tradition has ever dealt with.
I discovered this challenge as I studied various spiritual teachings and encountered a conflict.
Most, if not all these teachings claimed to be ‘the one way’ to enlightenment. But how could this be true for all of them? The awkward question that arose was:
"Which ‘the one way’ is THE ‘the one way’?"
In other words, how could I know which teaching and practice to follow?
They each had their differences, yet the teachers all spoke with conviction.
This became the single biggest roadblock I ever experienced in my quest for truth.
This problem is unique to modern practitioners in the information age. Never before has one practitioner had access to so many teachings from different cultures.
My own teacher, having entered the monastery before the internet was invented, had no context for this issue. This meant I had to figure it out for myself.
If I’d had this newsletter in 2017, it would have saved me a whole year of inner conflict.
Every mindfulness student I work with now faces this unique issue and I’ve not seen anyone else solving it.
I’m going to tell you what I tell them.
Context Is Everything
All the old wisdom teachings were given in contexts quite different to ours.
Imagine a Buddhist monk sent out of the monastery to teach in 100 B.C.
The first village he arrives at has all kinds of strange beliefs and rituals.
🔹They sacrifice goats to try to bring about rain
🔹They sacrifice children to win the favour of their gods
🔹They take toxic plants and govern their village based on hallucinations
The monk, who has figured out how to be satisfied with things just as they are, sees only one way to address his new friends.
‘Forget the other teachings,’ he says, ‘I will show you the one way to true peace and happiness.’
Even modern religious doctrine has no evidence for many of its claims. So when you are in possession of a method that reliably brings about peace, joy and mutual benefit—right here, right now— I recommend that you speak strongly about it, too.
What the monk in this story didn’t have was any awareness about the other monks in other cultures, who were having similar experiences.
These teachings were all written down, and only now—in the 21st century—are we able to bring them all together. Thus, now, we have several teachings that claim to be THE teaching.
So what are you to do about this?
Stop Looking At The Differences Between Wisdom Teachings; Start Looking At The Similarities
In 2017, I was frustrated and stuck in my mindfulness practice. I’d deeply investigated dozens of teachings at this point, most of all:
🔹Theravada
🔹Zen
🔹Taoism
🔹Advaita Vedanta
🔹Vajrayana
I’d managed to simplify my possibilities into two types of practice: active and passive. And I’d chosen my favourite methods to represent these two.
My active practice was step 10 of the Buddha’s ‘anapanasati’ method: gladdening the mind.
My passive practice was the most profound instruction from Tibet: rest naturally without seeking or describing anything.
A newsletter isn’t the place to dive into the specifics of these methods. What’s important is that I was in conflict over which of them to do in a given moment.
I felt I had to determine which one was superior so that I could perform it to the exclusion of the other.
🔹I tried to convince my teacher of the validity of the alternative practice
🔹I read and listened to hundreds of teachings from both traditions
🔹I considered accounts from fellow practitioners
🔹I practised my ^ss off
But as long as I was pitting these practices against one another, I was frustrated.
Progress came only when I made an important flip. I started seeking the commonalities in these teachings and practices, instead of focusing on their differences.
The Trap of Words
The ultimate ‘goal’ of any spiritual practice is to relax into the nondual awareness that is your natural condition (which is equal to peace, freedom and contentment).
But words are dualistic.
We speak, write and hear ‘about’ things. Words are labels, they’re not the real thing.
So, even if two wisdom teachers in different cultures are speaking about the same truth, they’re almost certain to speak about it in different ways (appropriate to their individual cultures).
When I realised this, I flipped my approach 180 degrees.
Now, I started assuming that these teachers were talking about the same truth in different ways, and my conflict started to resolve.
Where previously, ‘resting’ and ‘gladdening’ had seemed like contradictions—one being passive, one being active…
Now I began to see the possibility that in resting I became glad! And in gladdening, I found rest!
Test Those Similarities In Your Direct Experience
The Buddha is on record many times as having insisted that people don’t take his word for what he taught. He encouraged, rather, that people test what he said for themselves, in their own direct experience.
How much more important is this in 2023, when we have access to so many different teachings?
Of course, there’s no way you can test all of them, so I recommend doing what I did. Whittle down the practices that seem to make sense to you. Practice their moment-to-moment application, then run experiments.
‘What happens when I do x?’
‘What happens when I do y?’
‘What happens when I do x then y?’
‘What happens when I do y then x?’
But avoid the trap that I fell into. Avoid trying to use one practice to disprove the other.
Zen is sometimes described as a finger pointing at the moon. Teachers then caution students to not mistake the finger for the moon. In other words, to not mistake the teaching for the truth to which it points.
Of course, you may have doubts if you’re trying to do this alone, so…
Check In With A Teacher Who Knows Their Shit
You’re not alone in this. I made the study and practice of the most reasonable-sounding wisdom teachings my main focus for 5 years. I befriended a senior monk in one of the most pragmatic Buddhist traditions and spoke with him for hundreds of hours. He gave me lineage to the historical Buddha, but I didn’t stop there.
I went on to test my understanding against the pinnacle teaching of the Tibetan tradition—and received formal transmission of that teaching from a teacher under the guidance of the head of his school.
Having triangulated my position, I gained confidence and began to teach.
Now I’m here to support you.
If you wish to discuss anything I’ve mentioned in this newsletter, schedule a call with me. I look forward to meeting with you 😌
See you again next week.
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