It is always amazing to see a brilliant teacher continue to refine the teaching. I find Adyashanti to be simple, clear and profound and last month a new book by Adya appeared in our mailbox, a divine Christmas present, a solstice surprise. Less than 50 pages long, ‘The Way of Liberation’ is his ‘practical guide to spiritual enlightenment’. I’d love to reprint the whole thing here, but I’ll let you track down the book at (www.opengatesangha.org). I will include what he calls the three core practices and some of his observations regarding them. (Italics are straight from the book.)

‘Think of spiritual practice as a sort of ‘applied folly’. “Core practices are something you need to get the feel of, somewhat like getting the feel of balance when learning to ride a bicycle.” ” You should not apply the core practices too willfully, or with a great amount of struggle.” “…just remember the element of grace is all-important and ever present. And it is always darkest just before dawn.”

The core practices are meditation, enquiry and contemplation. “Meditation is the art of allowing everything to simply be, in the deepest possible way. In order to let everything be, we must let go of the effort to control and manipulate our experience – which means letting go of personal will.” ” The silence and stillness of meditation is the bedrock upon which this teaching rests.” “True meditation is effortless stillness, abidance as primordial being.”

“Inquiry is a way of addressing the deepest existential issues confronting every human being. Who or what am I? What is life? What happens after death? …Or simply, Do I know with absolute certainty that this current thought, belief, opinion, interpretation or judgment is true? ” The realization of Truth and Reality can never be created by the mind; it always comes as a gift of grace. Inquiry clears away mis-perceptions and illusions, making one available to the movements of grace.” “Question everything! Leave no stone unturned, no assumption unexamined, no form of denial left intact.”

“Contemplation is the art of holding a word or phrase patiently in the silence and stillness of awareness until it begins to disclose deeper and deeper meanings and understandings. In the Zen tradition, phrases, questions or short teaching stories called koans are used as objects of contemplation…”

Some phrases for contemplation:
“Suffering is how Life tells you
that you are resisting or mis-perceiving
what is real and true.”

“There is only being living itself
through you, as you, and as all that exists.”

“The infinite is pure formless potential
prior to being and non-being, life and death,
form and formlessness.”