Practice as a Response to Grace

When the heart begins to remember, practice arises not as effort but as love in motion. Meditation and Self-inquiry are not steps on a path to awakening but ways of resting in what is already awake. They invite a gentle return, a softening, a presence with the life quietly unfolding within.

Yet even with this natural unfolding, many still ask about practice. Should I meditate every day? For how long? What should I be doing - is silence better or following a guided meditation? And what about Self-inquiry? Is that enough? What part does it play in all of this?

But I don’t really see practice as something you do in order to awaken. Not anymore. Not really. Awakening is by Grace, and Grace alone.

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For me, practice is a symptom of something deeper moving within us. It’s a response to the call of the innermost Being. It arises when something inside begins to stir, when the remembrance of the Divine, however faint, begins to move through your life. Practice flows from that. It does not cause it.

It is an indicator of Consciousness waking up to itSelf. The impulse of earnest engagement with practice, sādhanā, is the way in which the Divine reveals itself. Not as an idea or belief but as a living presence unfolding within life.

Practice is sādhanā, but not in the way many understand it. It’s not a task to complete, nor a spiritual obligation, nor a way to become something else.

True sādhanā is born of love. It comes from the movement of Grace within. It is devotion in motion, a quiet bowing to the Mystery, a turning toward what is already awake and alive. Sādhanā is not a doing but a response, a natural expression of the heart’s longing and remembrance.

When practice arises from this place, it does not come from effort or willpower. It comes because it must, because the pull to return is too strong to ignore.

Meditation, when it comes from this place is not a technique. It is a soft returning, a resting in and as the stillness of the heart. It is a quiet falling into what has always been here. There is no trying in that, just openness and a willingness to listen and to be. To abandon all ideas, notions and beliefs and to sit with the Mystery, AS THE MYSTERY.

Sometimes this listening happens in formal ways. Sitting on a cushion, closing the door, creating a container, a meditation sandbox. And sometimes it shows up in the small everyday moments. The silence in the garden, the pause before a conversation, a breath taken mid-sentence. A flicker for remembrance as we brush our teeth. A presence that begins to infuse life itself, the gift of remembrance in the midst of ordinary life.

There is no ‘better or worse’ between formal and informal practice. Both are sacred calls and both are helpful to engage with earnestly. What matters more is the authenticity of your response to that call, the honesty of what is being asked of you in that moment, not from your mind but from your heart. The call to stillness, to being not doing, the call into the Mystery.

And Then There Is Self-Inquiry…

Self-inquiry is not about getting answers. It is about sitting inside the question itself, not as a mental exercise, not to figure anything out. It is about allowing the light of awareness to gently rest on whatever is arising, not to fix or change it but to see the truth of what it points to and where it comes from.

Self-inquiry is a mirror, a reflection of what is already true but so often forgotten. It is a way of turning toward what feels separate and letting it be seen in a new light. Felt, held, met, from a deeper ground. A quiet exploration, a deep listening, an allowing. A place where the illusion of separateness begins to soften and dissolve revealing only reality.

It does not offer conclusions. It opens space and invites you into the mystery beyond the known, into the heart of Being.

Meditation and Self-inquiry serve different but beautifully complementary roles. Meditation draws you deeper into the silence of Being. Self-inquiry invites you to meet what arises within that silence, the thoughts, the feelings, the patterns, and to see them through the eyes of awareness. Both invite you to stop, to soften, to be with What Is.

At some point, practice stops being about getting somewhere. It stops being about fixing anything or becoming anything. It becomes devotional, a natural bowing to the Divine as it lives and breathes through all of life. A way of honouring the quiet knowing that has always been here even in the moments when you feel furthest from it.

So yes, practice, sit, walk, listen, inquire, explore, be still, BE. Not because you should but because you are being called to. Let practice arise as a love note from your innermost being, a signpost pointing you home, not to somewhere else but to here, to now, to the truth of what you already are.

That is more than enough.

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