Spiritual progress and expertise in meditation is a skill that can only be developed and cultivated with practice. Practice takes time, repetition, effort, concentration. It is of utmost importance to have this skill, as the development of the mind organizes the chaos of all we experience. The understanding of reality, and the fusion of your consciousness to the present moment, without being led away by delusion, destroys ignorance, destroys suffering, and its causes. To improve in the development of your mind, arguably called “spirituality”, enables experiences of ever increasing insight into the nature of your psychology, reality, “yourself”, that increases in profundity and clarity as you work on the skill.

To work in developing mindfulness in a Theravadan Buddhist sense, or in developing a non-dual state of mind as outline in the Hindu Advaita Vedanta tradition, increasingly enables experiencing the present moment, experiencing every shift in consciousness as its contents arise and fall, as it shifts from object of awareness to awareness itself. It is possible to become so mindfully located in the present moment that you are aware of even the slightest change in consciousness as it moves from one phenomena to another. To do this much practice, much time, effort is needed to cultivate the skill. Certain defilements must be uprooted; distractions must be eliminated. Any form of desire, craving, attachment, to anything – even a state of mind, yourself, peace – must be uprooted. Any type of aversion, blocking, avoidance must also be uprooted. This is the middle path, a pure acceptance of the present moment, with no will to be found. No will as in want, and no will as ability to control, as both are illusions made of the brain by the organism to produce effects.

The ability to experience Being, to experience pure experiencing, is to simply Be. To fully be mindful, is to be mindful of being mindful. It is to be aware of the exact content of consciousness as it constantly is changing, and to see it, watch it, free of motive, free of will, free of denial of will, unbiased, as it is. The effects of such insights lead to a greater understanding of causality as it relates to your psychological state. This includes the causality leading to the un-satisfactory nature of life, and thus to others, and how you and them can be aided. This cause is from the very desire or craving or attachment to anything, even happiness, and from seeing things as permanent, and as something to “hold on to”. Every phenomenon is merely occurring within the present moment, and it is all impermanent, these are truths we should make peace with by letting go of the notions otherwise. From a mode of being characterized by peaceful equanimity, in which the mind is not disturbed by any normally perturbing stimuli, such as those that go against our desire, by anger in others, by misfortune or by aversion, springs all the greatest things we would normally want, truth, happiness, morality. We often find in life that when we are not looking for something, we happen to find it, and in this case, when we are not searching after happiness, or satisfactoriness, but rather pursuing what is right morally, and by maintain a state of mind which is characterized by understanding and virtue, that it naturally follows in its wake.

If you understand how your wellbeing is diminished by the desire that moves us along in the present moment, you can understand how your wellbeing is possible in the present moment, by redirecting those desires towards something that truly has meaning to you, and by eliminating the desires that aren’t in alignment with consciously calculated goals. From this you can use that understanding to move your experience to that of well being, more and more so with more practice, more and more so you move to do what is in your best interest. Then extrapolate outward with the effects of such an undertaking and it becomes clear that you can improve the wellbeing of your family, your coworkers, friends, community, and onward. The key is to developing your mind, and the implications lead to a better present moment, better in every form of the term, not only for you. The more you develop and train and practice in this manner, the better your life can become, the more you can understand yourself, and your lack of self, the more you can acknowledge phenomena as they arise, and then remove defilements such as anger, hatred, jealousy, ill will, laziness, boredom, dissatisfaction, suffering, and so on.

It is natural when an unsatisfactory mode of being arises to not want it to proceed as dominating the psyche, but that very desire often confines us to stay within it. It is by the calm recognition of the arising, and the ability to let go of wishing to be otherwise, while simultaneously not acting in a way which satisfies the unwholesome state of mind, that we are able to overcome it. What skill could be more useful than that which enables you to be better equipped to the misfortune and negative modes of being inherent in every life? What would be a better way of becoming a better person, than developing knowledge of wellbeing, and how to attain it, and then improving the lives of others, by improving yourself? The skill cannot be bought, or shared, or worked on by anyone but you, and you can only develop it, it isn’t quick, and instantaneous, your improving in it is yours alone, and you can not share that. But you can help point others in the right direction so they too can develop it. Spiritual progress is yours alone, and thus shouldn’t be talked about lightheartedly, but to those with true willingness to learn, to improve, with “little dust on their eyes”, we should seek to aid them or answer their cries for help as Buddha was encouraged to do upon attaining enlightenment. Wisdom dictates our ability to decipher who it would be beneficial to share certain ideas with, and we should use our best judgment in discerning the ideas we share with others.  Enlightenment is the most important thing in the world, the most valuable, and it is within you, hidden underneath biological impediments, culture, conditioning, and unwholesomeness, clean up your mind, remove impediments, develop wholesomeness, and become able to be experiencing right here, right now, in this present moment, and every present moment, the potential you contain – actualized.