How to progress on the spiritual path

Good evening. I wanted to share something that I read on Dharma Vidya's Questions in the Sand blog a few days ago. I thought about using it in the talk that I gave on Saturday night, but it didn't, didn't quite fit in on the night, so I thought I'd share it here. Somebody wrote and asked something like, 'How do I progress? How do I make progress, or how do I progress on the spiritual path?' And the answer, I'm paraphrasing here, the answer that Dharma Vijja said was something like, 'Make the most of what you've been given already.' And then the metaphor that he used was, it's like when you're in a restaurant and you're having lots of courses, maybe it's a tasting menu, a nice posh restaurant, candlelit dinner. The waiter won't bring you the next course until you've finished what's in front of you. It's the same with spiritual practice. The Buddha's life won't present you with the next step until you've made the most of the step in front of you. We can see this happens in informal and informal ways. So in formal ways, we're thinking about specific points of Buddhist teaching, really interrogating them and understanding them. And you might even think of the very formal Rinzai Zen system where you're given a koan, a little phrase or a story, Buddhist story, and you go away and meditate on it, and occasionally you come and check in with the teacher, and if your understanding is Good enough if the teacher can see that you've penetrated the meaning of the story or the phrase or whatever it is that you've been given. Then you're given something else to work on. And if you haven't, then he says, "Well, that's good, but go back and work on it a little bit more until you really see underneath the surface." And informally, it's the situations that life presents us, it's the teachings that we get on a daily basis. And of course, if we really look at what's happening in our life on a day-to-day basis, sometimes we find that we've been given the same teachings over and over again. Our karma is leading us to encounter the same things, the same sort of people, the same sorts of situations. So, for example, if like me you're terrible at DIY and practical projects, but also haven't really accepted that fact, if you still imagine that you're better than you are, like I do. In my mind, I can, you know, I can just plane something to within the exact millimeter that it needs planing and whatever needs doing. While there's still that discrepancy, while there's still that unresolved issue, I'm likely to be led into situations that show me that thing about myself, that essentially show me that piece of my ego over. Over again, because I don't like asking for help, because I don't like being— making myself vulnerable or appearing ignorant in that area. Actually, I'm bound to repeat those mistakes. It's quite a prosaic example, but until I've learned that lesson, until I've really absorbed that informal teaching and something different emerges, some different way of being in that situation, I'm going to be led to it again. And again. But once, in this lifetime or the next lifetime, if I do find a different way of being in that situation, I manage to say to somebody, "I don't know how to do this," or "Can you come and help?" or "What's going on?" "What's the name of this tool?" or whatever. Once I get to that point, something new will appear, some other part of my ego, something else that I'm holding on to. Or lusting after, or being angry towards. And then there's something to be learnt there as well, and then another stage of progress is made. Until we've absorbed and understood the lessons that we've already been given, of course, there's no space in us to take on something new. Now sometimes we don't like the lessons that we've been given, we don't like to see those bits of ourselves, or whatever it is that the teaching is pointing out to us. Human beings resist change, famously. So we think, "Oh, I know, I won't worry about that teaching, I'll look over here, I'll look over here. Oh, there's a nice new teaching, I wonder what that's all about." But of course, actually, we're not really going to get anything from these shiny new teachings, because we're only really examining them in a superficial way. We're just using them to distract us from the lesson that we've already been given that is still unlearned for us. Now, it's probably not so straightforward. They probably work with, you know, in reality we're being shown different bits of ourselves all the time. There's a limit to the number of lessons that we can keep spinning, the number of plates that we can keep spinning. And until we've really understood those, the universe won't present us with the next thing to learn. And we've already been given so much. You know, there's really no need for me to ever buy another Dharma book. Again, I will do, but I don't need to. I could just take a single Dharma book or a single page of Dharma, and if I really deeply understood it to the degree that it needs, that it invites understanding, that would be enough. So this is an encouragement to do that, to take seriously the lessons that we've been given, not to run after shiny new things at the expense of avoiding really learning, really eating the food that's already on our plate. But at the same time, we know that we're the sort of, you know, We're the sort of beings who do get distracted easily, and it's not the end of the world. Don't beat yourself up if you're not doing it, and don't worry too much if you're buying another Dharma book. But do— I have to say that because I'm going to go and buy another Dharma book— but do be curious about the teachings that you've already been given. What is it that the universe is inviting you to learn right now? Because until you learn it, the next lesson won't appear. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.