When Should I Stop All My Spiritual Practices?

So for context, I came onto the path because I had a glimpse of my true nature, but I also went on a progressive path from that place because, yeah, my nervous system was too intense. So I kept dropping in and out of being. So I have a lot of different techniques. And last week before I came on retreat, I was meditating and I noticed during my meditation, it was like something in me was looking for something to do as part of the progressive path, almost looking for something to heal, looking for something to learn more about, looking for something to investigate within myself, including looking for the I. And I kind of felt my heart go shh, shh, shh, shh, and I went into being. And listening to you teach and the questions that we've had tonight, I have this imagery that I wanted to check with you and to kind of see if my understanding is correct. And then I guess from this point on, to focus on the being style of meditation rather than using all the techniques I have. So using your analogy of the screen, it's very clear to me that the screen is never affected by the contents of the clouds. The sky is never affected by the content of the clouds. It also appears to be true from the finite mind that the content of the clouds are affected by the recognition of the screen, almost as though light starts to pour in. And the content of the clouds, if I was to associate fear and suffering and contraction with a dark color, the recognition of our true nature seems to enter into time and space and in time and space begins to filter and transform that dark cloud into a lighter color. And with that lighter cloud, it is therefore more enjoyable to live in this body mind and easier. And also it makes it easier for me to access my being and creates conditions in which I am more likely to experience my true nature in all of its kind of clarity and fullness. So if this understanding is correct, my conclusion from that is that in my everyday life now, if I go back to Berlin, I start work again, I have limited time to do spiritual practice. My focus should be on remaining and being as much as I can. And if something arises, an issue in my life or a trauma that seems to resurface, the best thing I can actually do based on this information is just as long as I'm honest with my ability to stay in being, it's to go to being and stay there and trust that light is going to do its job. And that might present itself in different ways, but this is actually the highest practice that I can do. Is this correct? Yeah. Okay. The answer that you gave earlier about switch, just bring the light into the dark room. I think I said this literally today to someone that part of my progressive, even though I'd had the realization of my true nature, very briefly, I didn't really understand it. And part of my progressive journey, there was a stage in which I had to let go of suffering or the attachment to suffering. And I realized I do not need suffering in order to awaken. And the same analogy came to me, like don't go around a room with a chainsaw, blindly chopping at things, just switch the light on. And I guess this is okay. I guess I stopped messing around with all the other stuff. Okay. And Charlotte, just a comment on what you said earlier about this impulse that you came to the retreat with to do something, to practice something. This is an impulse that's left over from the conventional search for happiness in the world. If you find yourself unhappy in the world, you do something to find happiness. You seek an object or a substance or a relationship and so on. Then you come in contact with a religious or spiritual traditions and your desire to do something is refined, but it's not extinguished. You continue to do something, but now your objects and relationships are a little bit more in which you seek. You rebrand the search for happiness, the search for God or the search for enlightenment. And you continue to do something, but what you do is a little bit more refined than what you previously did, but you still keep doing something. There's still an impulse to do something, not to find happiness now, but to find God or to become enlightened. And then you go through whatever tradition that you're in and gradually the objects in which you seek enlightenment or union with God, they become more and more refined. And at some point, you recognize that the fulfillment you find, whether you call it happiness or union with God or enlightenment or awakening, it's in your being. It is your being. And you cannot do anything to be. Being is the one thing, which is not a thing, the one thing with that exception that doesn't require you to do anything. Remember, happiness belongs to that supremely lazy person for whom even blinking is too much trouble. Being requires less effort, even than blinking. So once you recognize that you are your being, you cannot become it or achieve it. And therefore, if I were to ask you now, stand up and take a step towards yourself, how much effort would you have to make? You would stay still, because you are already yourself. So at some point, this becomes clear to you, you realize there is absolutely nothing to do. But yet there is still this impulse. And I think I referred to this this morning about this residual impulse. It's not just the impulse that's left over from the conventional search for happiness in the world. It's the impulse that's left over from those of us that have been on a progressive or devotional path for many years. The impulse to do something, to become something, to unite with something, to devote ourselves and so on. That impulse sooner or later has to wind down. That movement away from yourself towards anything, however refined or noble that thing is, even if that thing is God, we should pray to God to rid us of God, so that our impulse to move away from our being, infinite being, God's being, subsides. And we recognize ourselves as that. I will what I am, and I am what I will. You come to rest, you come to rest in your being, and your being stands revealed as God's being. Sooner or later, all spiritual practice has to come to an end. And in my humble opinion, a spiritual practice that doesn't bring itself sooner or later to an end is not a complete spiritual practice. Spiritual practice should bring itself to an end. All teachings should bring themselves to an end. All teachers should make themselves redundant. What's left over when the teacher and student become redundant? Friendship, celebration, creativity.