Practice is Life. . .
At the beginning, practice is something we “do.” We set aside time for meditation, chanting, study. We mark it on the calendar. It is a separate space, distinct from the rest of our life.
But for those who stay with the Dharma long enough, a shift occurs: the boundaries dissolve.There is no “before” or “after” practice. There is only life – lived in awareness, compassion, and balance. In Zen, they say: When you eat, just eat. When you walk, just walk. This is the natural integration of practice.
Washing dishes becomes as much a meditation as sitting on the cushion. Driving to work becomes an exercise in patience and awareness. Answering emails becomes a chance to practice right speech.This does not mean formal practice disappears. Sitting, chanting, and study remain essential – like returning to the well to draw water. But they no longer feel separate from daily activity.
They are simply the more concentrated expressions of what is happening all the time. The real sign of integration is subtle: we stop thinking of ourselves as “someone who practices.” We simply live. The Dharma is no longer a technique we apply – it is the very way we move through the world.
This stage requires vigilance. Without ongoing care, “life as practice” can slide into “life without practice.” Discipline remains the root. But when the roots are deep, every branch, every leaf, every moment becomes an expression of the path. In this way, life itself becomes the monastery. Every street corner the meditation hall, every encounter the Dharma talk, every breath the bell calling us back to presence.
The path for the advanced practitioner is not a climb toward some final peak, but an endless unfolding. We do not “graduate” from the Dharma. We return to it again and again, in deeper and subtler ways. Over the years, we learn that each stage of life brings its own lessons: the eagerness of youth, the responsibilities of midlife, the clarity of age. Joy and sorrow, gain and loss, health and illness – all are fields for practice.
The Buddha never promised the end of the path – only the end of suffering. Awakening is not a final state; it is the on going capacity to meet each moment as it is, without clinging or aversion. For those who have walked many miles in the Dharma, the deepest realization may be this: the path was never apart from life. It has always been right here – under our feet, in our hands, in this very breath.
Peace and Love, Jim
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