Practical Practice

    When is the best time to practice? NOW! Every moment of our brief life! 
    Why?
    Because we face a new reality every single moment,  
        EITHER 
with a loving, spacious response which BRINGS heaven
         OR
with a fearful contracted reaction which BRINGS hell 

    "PRACTICE" is very simple & practical:
CONSCIOUSLY CHOOSING,  
more-and-more consistently, 
moment-by-moment-by-moment-by-moment ...
to live in heaven. 
    Important details: http://www.johnlovas.com/2025/12/basic-meditation-practice.html

    Remember the old joke:
"Why do you keep banging your head against the wall?"
"Because it feels SO GOOD when I stop." 

    Each time we react adversely to anyone or anything, we reject, try to avoid, or judge as wrong the reality we face. We create completely unnecessary suffering whenever we prefer something different than "what is, right here, right now." 
    No matter how old we are, how sophisticated, educated, well-read, etc, we tend to behave like a 4-year old who gets a slightly different toy than the one s/he wanted. We may no longer have melt-downs (though most of us still do at times), but even a brief angry thought causes our body to constrict, adding to a lifetime's store of repressed fear, pain, sadness & hostility in our bodies AND conditions us to automatically react faster & stronger, further solidifying "the story of me" the fictional identity of a "self" composed of a list of likes & dislikes - Eckhart Tolle's "pain body."

    "The Great Way is not difficult
     for those who have no preferences..." Seng Ts'an

    “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor E. Frankl

    Frankl had this powerful insight in a Nazi concentration camp while starving, witnessing thousands of people being murdered daily, and anticipating his own death. He saw the wisdom in CHOSING to RESPOND from his spacious loving higher Self RATHER THAN REACT from a fearful, hateful contracted small self. 
    THIS IS OUR PRACTICE MOMENT-TO-MOMENT

    Wise people, for thousands of years have been telling us things that sound alluring yet counterintuitive:

    "Only have no preferences!"    YET we get upset over the slightest diversion from what we assume would make us happy. 

    "All shall be well,
     and all shall be well,
     and all manner of things shall be well."   Right here & now, as soon as we "see rightly" & choose wisely

    "The kingdom of God is at hand"   It's right here & now!

    "Existence is unimaginably paradoxical. It’s absolutely perfect and beautiful AND it’s a total disaster – a bloody mess, at the same time, occupying the exact same space.
    And that’s why, at least historically, at least as far as I see it, the greatest realizers that have ever walked around this place, haven’t taken their realization, hidden in a cave, and gone ‘Well good for me. I’m in heaven and that’s what I’ll do.’ They’ve generally completely dedicated themselves to the well-being of the world that they see as perfect. But I think it’s because their vision is big enough that it can hold this paradoxical vision, that it’s perfect and complete AND it’s a bloody mess, with a lot of potential. 
    Our (dualistic) minds don’t like those kinds of things. They want to know ‘Which is it?’ ‘Is it this or that?’
    Both!"  Adyashanti http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=everything+is+perfect

Eldred Allen "Epic Sunset" 2019 www.inuitartfoundation.org