An ounce of practice is worth a ton of
learning.
Anonymous
Doing poor or feeble practice in the
worst of times is far more meritorious than doing a good practice in the best
of times.
Prashant Iyengar
Practice is a
taste of the sacred. It is about health – mental, psychological, physical and
spiritual health. Fitness happens quickly with a big energy output. Health
takes a long time. This is where practicing comes in. We learn to do it by
doing it.
You cannot
imagine the conversations I have convincing myself to practice. When practice is
intended for the end of day, often I procrastinate as long as I can until I
might not do it at all.
People who know
me cannot believe this about me. They always tell me, “You’re so disciplined.” Little
do they know that the conversations I have with myself give meaning to the word
struggle.
What I know from
years of practicing is that it transforms me. There are dragons to battle in
the world - frustration, despair - as well as demons within. But there is a
possibility of transfiguration with practice. Practice makes me different. I know how hard it is. If I don’t want to do it, I do it anyway.
Think of practice as having a flashlight to explore dark (scary) places. The more we practice the
more our eyes get used to the dark. The challenge is to switch on the flashlight
The glory and splendor of practice is like a telescope with immense
power, opening gradually and incrementally when the sun sets and the dark presents
itself. The greater the opening, the greater the
space, the more observation, the more we can see ‘in the dark’.
There is so much more to being a human being than we
realize. When we penetrate inwardly, we make a connection to the divine. We
meet our true selves.
Ultimately, what
I learn from practice is that it does not make perfect and that I can not
control anything - except what I put in my mouth, literally and figuratively. Yet
practice gets inside like the most delicious food.
