Why? In vedānta we work with the mind. What else should we work with? That’s where the problem lies with a person. You are already free, so only the mind has to be turned into permanent knowledge. Many years (many lifetimes if you will) of repeated ignorance requires many years of repeated practice of knowledge. This is what vedānta honestly tells you: Many human lives and many years of absent-minded ignorance must be brought into line by discipline. People don’t want to hear it, but that’s what needs to happen! This is what is often forgotten: Spiritual growth also means working hard and training the mind to get rid of its destructive nonsense. All aspects and levels are ignorance or knowledge-related, and thus require practice/repetition, especially of healthy, wholesome thinking.
This is necessary at all levels of the (seeming) process towards freedom. First of all, in the preparation. Repeatedly evoking dharmic values. Repeatedly checking whether my lifestyle is supportive of my practice. Repeatedly invoking, affirming intentions for growth of myself and others. Meditating repeatedly on īśvara (upāsana). Repeatedly offering all my actions to īśvara, and repeatedly thanking them for all the results that come to me (karma yoga). Listening to the teacher repeatedly. Repeatedly reflecting on the logic of knowledge. The repeated internalization of the truth in the heat of battle.
The 10,000-hour rule of the professional also applies to freedom. So you can be a pro in freedom. You can have a nice epiphany once, but it doesn’t last without practice. Even though Ramaṇa Mahārṣi realized Brahman at a moment’s notice, he must have recognized the value of leaving his person in practice for life, against distractions, for purity of mind.
If seekers have repeatedly done the right work, the grace (anugraha) of īśvara (the field in which we live) will come naturally. The mere fact that you have ended up in a situation to hear the teaching, indicates a longer time of searching, practicing and knowing that the bow has to change. That is grace (another word for grace kṛpā). If you don’t grow fast enough, it is a sign that you just have to start practicing karma yoga from the beginning: living modestly, in trust with dedication and a fervent desire for freedom.
If you feel like you are at a standstill in your development, it is also just a matter of continuing to listen to the teacher over and over again. Repeatedly listening with receptive mind, to the teacher until the teaching is fully heard (śravaṇa). Then the insights come naturally, and more importantly, the mind transforms into something noble if you expose the mind to the noble long enough.
Then the mind can pick up a treated concept of vedānta. Suppose the teacher has dealt with anvaya vyatireka: ‘Again and again’ discerning that I myself am the connection (anvaya) of everything. That I, consciousness, must therefore always be there for things to be there. And ‘again and again’ that which seems contrasting and different (vyatireka), to be seen as only loose fragments of this great connection. Then you take this concept with you in your daily life and practice it. Nobody needs to see that, but it is something you can always fall back on as a free vision of yourself.
As mentioned, this applies to every phase. If you get stuck, or don’t understand something, it is the wisdom to ask the teacher decent (relevant) questions over and over again. This is exactly what the teacher wants. And in the contact with the teacher you definitely grow the fastest. With the teacher, the student can reflect most effectively on the logic of knowledge (manana).
Even in the final stage of nididyāsana, contemplating the truth of (myself) is pure repetition and practice and discipline. Bringing the mind back again and again to the fact that it is me, pure consciousness. That I am full and alone as saccidānanda (being, consciousness, bliss), without otherness and without separation. Request the immediacy of this. The fact that I only experience myself, the self. This means being pure knowledge, in all situations of life.
For almost everyone, this also means endlessly applying the teachings in all aspects of life, until the vision is permanent in itself. Until I live forever in a non-dual vision, and am the truth, and all phenomena coincide with me completely seamlessly and mindfully.
Grace must be earned, they say. In two ways. By repeatedly practicing something you have a growing confidence in. And by repeatedly doing actions in line with dharma, to join and to be absorbed in īśvara.
What I need in abhyāsa is endurance. The Sanskrit word vyavasāya that goes with it means both ‘condition’ and ‘calling’ as well as ‘profession’ and even ‘determination’. This all covers the load in one word. Behold the beauty of meaning formation in Sanskrit.
In our case, we are mainly talking about mental fitness, facilitated by physical fitness. I obtain this through repeated training.
When I started Sanskrit studies three years ago, my memory didn’t work very well at all. But the potential was there, of course. After all, as a person we have the ability to develop our karma with the right choices. I just learned ‘quietly’, daily on, and now absorb material much more easily. This is just a law of Medes and Persians. Staying calm and persevering are key words here, just like concentrating on the truth of myself of course.
I discovered that if I have the flu or corona, and I take my attention away from thoughts about the feeling of being sick, my mind can also stay focused on study or meditation. And that for a boy whose life began as a longing, easily distracted, lazy and sluggish pupil and student.
If you discover how it works, a person can change enormously in one lifetime. Continuing to train calmly is a matter of having confidence in what you are doing. Then the results will come naturally, and self-confidence will grow. My lifestyle is always a mirror of what I stand for and where my priority lies.
Mental endurance is done by separating the sense from the nonsense in your mind. Cut the crap, so to speak, with the scythe of distinction. It is important to come and function in the subtle atmospheres of the intellect. In addition, gross mental movements, such as worry, fear, insecurity, are counterproductive. They distract and tire. Self-examination and some study that goes with it is not in itself tiresome, because the study of the self reflects the noblest of noble things. If I recognize its value, I don’t want it any other way. Focus and mental condition then go hand in hand.
This is something that has to be discovered within yourself. No matter how old you are. As humans, we are capable of much more than we think. Brain and subtle body are used for gross things, but self-examination is a subtle matter. And once operating in subtle atmospheres, development goes fast.
It is essential that I first recognize the value of focusing on knowledge. It helped me enormously that, and my teacher James Swartz played a crucial role in this, I recognized in vedānta what I was looking for. Such a deep recognition, without being able to put your finger on it exactly at that moment, is what you need to easily stay with something. There is something crucial behind that. Namely that you are, what you think. If you think ignorantly, you function ignorantly. If you think brahman, then you realize brahman (brahmavid apnoti param, Taittīri upaniṣad 2.1.1.).
Gradually, the confidence grew and I was able to stay with it even more easily. What happened here? I realized the value of truth. And everything I do now in writing and study work is no more than a celebration of this. A playful, or if you prefer stylized elaboration of the one truth.
So the question is ‘What do I actually want?’. Am I letting my mind’s attention be too much blown away by worldly stuff? Or do I want to ‘connect’ with my world of thoughts to the truth? Then it is not difficult to pay attention and energy to repeated study and self-examination. Finally, a well-known ‘beautiful saying’ from Sanskrit:
abhyāso na hi tyaktavyo abhyāso hi paraṁ balam |
anabhyāse viṣaṁ vidyā ajīrṇe bhojanaṁ viṣam ||
“Practice should not be abandoned. Practice is the greatest strength. Without practice, knowledge is like poison, just as food is poison during food digestion.”
(From Subhāṣita-mañjarī, A Bouquet of Beauty” (Sanskrit verses from classical texts), we would say an anthology.)