Ordinary

Examine dissociation and spiritual identity. Practices for ordinary life, including the failure modes that contemplative work can produce: dissociation, and spiritual superiority.

7 practices, each a few minutes. You can read them here and do them on your own, or work through them guided, one at a time, in the interactive version.

1. Functioning Without a Center

Examine how ordinary activity continues without a fixed self.

How to do it

1. Notice that actions occur: words appear, hands move, decisions happen.
2. Do these require a persistent center to coordinate them?
3. Where exactly does "the one coordinating" show up, if it shows up?

What did you find when you looked for the one coordinating?

2. Emotional Grounding

Ensure that open inquiry does not create disconnection.

How to do it

1. What emotion is present right now?
2. Select the closest match.
3. Stay with what is present without trying to change it.

What emotion is here right now? Can you stay with it without changing it?

3. Kind Attention

Examine the quality of warmth directly.

How to do it

1. Bring to mind someone you care about.
2. Notice the warmth that appears in the body.
3. Stay with the warmth itself, not the image.

What is warmth without a story?

4. Relationships Without Superiority

Examine inquiry in the context of ordinary relationships.

How to do it

1. Bring someone to mind.
2. Notice what arises.

Has anything here created a subtle comparison with someone else?

5. Comparison as Sensation

Examine comparison before the narrative forms.

How to do it

1. Recall a recent moment of comparison.
2. Before the story — what was the sensation?

What is comparison before the narrative forms?

6. Curiosity Over Certainty

Maintain inquiry as a way of being, not a conclusion.

How to do it

1. Consider what you have concluded from these modules.
2. Can you hold it lightly?

Where have you solidified something that should remain open?

7. Ordinary Life As Practice

Return to ordinary activity as the field of inquiry.

How to do it

1. Nothing special is required.

What is one ordinary activity where you could bring this quality of attention?

Begin this sequence