Throw out all your theory. I don’t mean the books themselves, that would be foolish. I mean your views, opinions concerning Buddhism and the Path. Hard to do, eh? I’ll wait a minute. Alright, are we on the same page now?

None of what you read in the Suttas is the way it is exactly. When you practice the Path you begin to see that the Suttas were right, though. Only when the practice of the Path really enters you, until you see the Dhamma within your own mind, until you become the Dhamma, do you see that the insights talked about in the ancient Buddhist scriptures were right. Its interesting to throw around these ideas intellectually; they make for good arguments with my non-Buddhist friends. But is this how you practice Dhamma? Whenever I seemingly “won” the debate, I carried that around my neck in the form of pride, not openly, but in my mind. This is not about having the more irrefutable philosophy. The teaching only becomes irrefutable when you see it in your own mind. You are the hardest person to convince and only deep personal insight into your experience will convince you.

I recently involved myself in an “experiment”. I tried to see if I could go a week without any social interaction outside of work because I couldn’t avoid it. It lasted two miserable days. I say “miserable” because of the attitude I had when I went into this endeavor. What made it so hard was the forceful attitude with which I endeavored to accomplish this week of seclusion. I wound up feeling sick, tired, and with a horrible headache from over-exertion. The initial idea for the retreat was to test how dependent I was on my friends to pass the time. The conclusion I came to: Very. It took a day. I love my friends, they help me out so much and I simply rejected them.

This is when I had the deep insight. After my headache was gone I started to reflect on my mind and the situation I had put myself into. Then I remembered the Middle Way. All of a sudden it became so clear to me, one of those brilliant moments when you unlock a door of your own mind. This wasn’t me reading from a book, this was direct personal experience. It did away with all my doubts about the Path and what I was doing.

It was simply this… I wasn’t following the Middle Way. Its okay to seclude yourself in favor of doing meditation, but with my attitude it was simply self-torment, one of the extremes the Buddha advised we avoid on the Path. It was so hard, because I was making it hard. Even in my meditation during this time I was recollecting the thought of letting go, not forcing anything. What I didn’t realize was that I was trying to force myself not to force anything! I was already defeated before I even started. And then when I’d sit around and think about sex or music or food, I’d just make myself feel guilty, another form of self-torment. Guilt is self-created.

When I say that you should throw out the theory, please don’t stop reading the Suttas, these are so valuable to progress. They help you, just like listening to a Dhamma talk can. The important thing to realize is that they are a reflection of the mind, but not the mind itself. They increase your understanding, but only in an intellectual sense. Once you have the direct experience of the Middle Path, then you don’t need the books anymore. They are valuable, they are how Buddhism has survived for 2500 years, but to cling to them is to ignore the truth they contain. Realize the truth within your own mind, practice. Then see if the scriptures accord. Often the scriptures will teach you how to practice, but until you actually do it what use is that knowledge?

For example, read the Mahasatipatthana Sutta (the great discourse on the foundations of mindfulness). It has been the basis for the theory of Buddhist meditation for millennium, but don’t just let that knowledge sift around in your brain. You have to take up the objects of concentration it describes, the body, the feelings, the mind, and mental objects and pierce through them with insight. Only then will you be free from them. A higher freedom than what any constitution can offer you. Freedom from the bondage of your own mind. You gain freedom from your self-indulgence and your self-mortification and begin to be one with the Middle Way.