Our Sadhana

Our sadhana: 

" it cannot be helped, you cannot skip your sadhana...." these are the words said by Nisargadatta Maharaj to a seeker in the seminal classic I Am That. Here, he's urging the seeker to turn away from the outer world and look within to until it's seen how the inner world merges with its outer expression, to keep looking until there is no true difference between the two, one single world of seamless beauty. Our sadhana is a specific spiritual practice, it's often seen as a daily discipline of yoga and meditation, perhaps some form of prayer, or other means of cultivating a deep awareness of the mind. I believe that in this case Nisargadatta is recommending inquiry as a form of practice, telling the seeker to keep their focus beyond the conditioned view of consciousness, to see that nothing has an independent reality of its own, that existence itself depends upon the flow of events and objects that seem to give meaning to our lives. 

beyond conditions...

is truly who we are. 

but I've always loved that line, that we can't skip our sadhana, and really I see it more than meaning a formal spiritual practice. Our first and most significant practice is life itself, we cannot skip what is here and present even with distractions of a modern, busy world. Our practice is to live, it's our sadhana, and it provides its own discipline and order, grief and sorrow being foremost to cause us to turn within for answers. I think that what Nisargadatta is saying in that passage is that we cannot not skip the conditions of life that define us and that they are the very reason for our eventual inward turn. 

our practice is simply living. 

life. 

and as we turn within, deeply now, and seeing the two words merge as one within our view, life continues on, seamless, and our practice remains the same, we go on living, still touched by conditions, but somehow free as well from the permanent hold they once held. 

our sadhana is life...

and there is no need for us to escape this. 

~

Peace, Eric