The Practice of Life

Notes from The Practice of Life by Charlotte Joko Beck of the Waking Up app.

Some things that feel fresh for me:

• Accept life as it is.
  • Rest with life as it is.
  • Without judgement.
  • With curiousity, friendliness, patience.
  • (Aside: if acceptance means rest, no wonder I struggle with it so much and have “rest” as a theme for 2024! 😅)
• Meditation is for noticing the gap between who we are and who we pretend to be.

My notes on my notes

• One
  • The Absolute and the Relative are not two different things.
  • We’re not pieces of whole being. There’s only whole being.
• Ordinary
  • Ordinary (mind, life) is the way.
  • Embrace the simple and commonplace. Boring, from the usual point of view.
• Just
  • Just this. Whether you like it or not.
  • Just being, without interfering. Doing nothing except maintaining awareness. Not shutting out thoughts, just not holding on to them.
• Practice
  • Meditation can help us notice the gap between who we are and who we pretend to be.
  • Calm, comfort, pleasure is not the point of practice. It’s contact with yourself as you are.
  • Life’s challenges are inevitable. Seeing them as part of practice makes us stronger.
• Acceptance
  • True peace often comes once we accept, rather than flee from, our most difficult emotions.
  • Don’t run away, analyse it, think about it. Just rest with it, be curious, friendly, patient.
  • Each moment is already perfect.

Ordinary Mind

True wisdom is found through embracing the simple and commonplace.

• Knowing is delusion. Not-knowing is a blank consciousness.
• The Way is not a question of knowing or not-knowing.
• Ordinary (mind, life) is the way.
• The Absolute and the Relative are not two different things.
• Just this. Just this very moment.
  • Whether you like it or not.
  • May not be what you had in mind.
• Comfort is already here and now.
• The fact that we think there’s something to get is what keeps us miserable.

The Central Point

The heart of practice is the recognition that each moment is already perfect.

• The open experience of what is, without anything else interfering.
• No attachment to the thoughts that flow through.

What is sitting?

It isn’t about a special state. It’s about just being, without interfering.

• Sitting is about being what we always aready are.
• Doing nothing except maintaining awareness.
• Boring, from the usual point of view.
• Not shutting out thoughts, just not holding on to them.
• A concentration practice leads to mischief!
• We’re all waiting for something, so we resist sitting.

A substitute life

Meditation can help us notice the gap between who we are and who we pretend to be.

• We avoid facing our real life, because it hurts.
• When we sit, we can really be ourself.
• Calm, comfort, pleasure is not the point of practice. It’s contact with yourself as you are.

Be what you are

True peace often comes once we accept, rather than flee from, our most difficult emotions.

• We don’t notice things that don’t bother us. Difficulties are (therefore) illuminating.
• Don’t run away, analyse it, think about it. Just rest with it, be curious, friendly, patient.
• Experience the misery of your life directly.

A capacity for crisis

Life’s challenges are inevitable. Seeing them as part of practice makes us stronger.

• Shifts almost always occur from crises.
• Practice helps us learn how to deal with crises.
• Make your daily life your practice.

Whole Being

All that we see at this second, is just arising.

• We’re not pieces of whole being. There’s only whole being.

Added 2024-08-18.