If everything is perfect as it is, so is feeling it isn't
I learned about Vincent Horn, "Buddhist Geek," via one of those marvelous Twitter tweets from someone you follow for a reason long forgotten.
Yet you're happy you do, because now and then they share a link that clues you in to a interesting perspective.
Such as Horn's "The Place of Practice: Integrating Perspectives and Clinging to Nothing." He addresses a question that has often come to my mind as I've pondered non-dual philosophies which claim that everything is absolutely as it should be, just as it is.
(Obviously there's a lot more to nondualism. But if things aren't two -- nondual -- then they're pretty damn close to being one, if not exactly that. And in oneness there's no possiblility of something being other than the unity that it is.)
The Buddhist Geek says:
From one perspective there is absolutely no need to practice. From another perspective, practice is essential. Why is it that both are true, and how do we keep from not deluding ourselves as to which is helpful at any given time?
So, lets take the first perspective, which we could call the non-dual perspective. In any given moment we may really getor understand, or know, or experiencethat this is it. This is it simply means that this moment is already as complete, full, & sacred as it will ever be, no matter the content or intensity of the experience.
...But the fact is, we dont always get that. It may always be available as a potential understanding, or as some non-dual teachers propose may always be the case (though I dont like to speculate on what is ALWAYS the case). But if it isnt the case in this moment, then the other perspective, that practice is essential must be honored.
By the end of his short essay I think Horn comes to about the same conclusion that popped into my own psyche when I read about his two perspectives. Namely, that if everything is fine just as it is, then feeling this isn't fine also is fine.
As is engaging in spiritual practices aimed at bringing about a realization that there's no need to engage in any spiritual practice. Hey, if this wasn't fine, a whole lot of gurus, masters, meditation teachers, and the like would be out of jobs.
Though that would be fine too.
