From the archive / Well-being
A morning ritual for difficult seasons
SourceReflectionPractice
Four small morning rites for meeting difficult seasons without abandoning the body.
Well-being
The Cost of a Practice That Never Asks Anything of You
On the appeal, and the danger, of spiritual practices designed to be entirely comfortable.
OriginTeachingPracticeIntegration
A practice that never asks anything difficult of you is, understandably, appealing. It is also worth examining closely.
Many contemplative traditions were built with at least some element of friction: fasting, silence, discomfort, difficult confession, a discipline that costs something to maintain. A practice stripped entirely of this friction, optimized purely for comfort, may still offer real benefits, but it is worth asking what has been lost in the optimization.
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