What Do I Do, Spiritually?

The whole point is whether your practice clarifies your understanding.

All spiritual activities are about remembering to recognise awareness – the awareness of awareness – the emptiness of awareness – resting in that pure awareness. This empty essence is our essential nature.

In short,
we recognise what we are;
this also means recognising what we are not.

What do we do?
Anything that we find enhances our understanding in this matter. This may be study, meditation, joining a group, enjoying being, chanting mantras and prayers, devotional supplications, compassionate actions, putting up prayer flags, dinging bells, waving a dorje, configuring our fingers into mudras – anything that awakens us to our true nature.

Just remember, spirituality (our true nature) is beyond the ‘right’ conditions. Running after the ‘right’ conditions could become the very cause of unhappiness. The ‘right’ conditions can become conditional happiness, and therefore something we rely upon. The ‘right’ conditions could be an enhancement or an obstacle: in truth, every appearance and condition is the right condition.

The ‘right’ conditions are like thoughts. Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche said of our conventional thought patterns:
“Thoughts can increase bondage to samsara or aid liberation from samsara”.

In general, our thoughts are an expression of ignorance.
Ultimately, our thoughts are expressions of dharmakaya.

In knowing what we are
is knowing what we are not.
This is the unity of the two truths.