The Wednesday Brown Bag Sep 12

Bring your brown bag lunch to the Common Room at noon, Wednesday Sep 12.
It's a chance to disuss, really, anything that's on your mind.
Our "default" topic for Sep 12 is the the article:
James Ford, "The Taste of Awakening," UUWorld, Fall 2012, pp. 26-27.

Read the article online here.

Ford describes an experience eating soup, looking into the bowl:

"As I looked, a cabbage leaf floated up to the surface. I was ecstatic, absolutely ecstatic. Then something magical happened. As I watched, I had this amazing sense of gratitude for that cabbage leaf. And I felt gratitude for my companions in this strange project to which I’d committed myself. Then I was aware of our neighbors in the city and of the city itself. I felt gratitude for them and the people of the state and the country and the globe. I felt a sense of joy wash through the cosmos itself."

Have you ever had an experience like that? What do you suppose happened?

Ford calls this sort of experience "awakening." He says:

"Awakening comes to us in the most unexpected ways, in the most unexpected times. It is a gift. It is always a gift. And it comes to us like being hit by a bus. There are many, many practices out there that claim to help. And here’s a little secret: too many of them do nothing. The Unitarian Universalist theologian James Luther Adams once wryly noted that “nothing sells like egoism wrapped in idealism.” Much of what passes for spiritual practice is just puffing up the ego, reinforcing and guarding it against any and all assault. And -- have no doubt in this matter -- a real spiritual practice plays rough with the ego."

What do you make of this?

Do you have experience with something that you would now say "passed for spiritual practice" but was really only protecting the ego?

What does he mean when he says, "a real spiritual practice plays rough with the ego"?

Ford goes on to offer advice to those beginning on the Zen path. "Diligence is important. . . . Just sitting once a week is not Zen practice." He cautions against the "distinct possibility of a dilettante practice, growing something with no roots and little chance of fruition." Yet he always encourages us to be forgiving with ourselves. When you find you aren't practicing enough, "just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start again." Don't make resolutions far beyond what you can keep -- but, rather, make resolutions just slightly beyond what is comfortable. Stretch yourself -- but not too much at once, for starters.

What does this article make you think of Zen practice?

Would you say that Ford's advice about beginning the Zen path applies to any real spiritual practice (as opposed to the impostor spiritual practices that only puff up, reinforce, and guard the ego)? Does it apply to yours?