One Year of Vipassana Meditation—Part 3: Appendix/Tool

I'd like to share with you a tool that was instrumental to my successful (any by that word, I mean 'attempted honestly to an extent with which I am satisfied') completion of a year of Vipassana meditation. A year which involved a few 10-day retreats, a lot of volunteering, and meditating 1-2 hours most days.

This tool is The Spiritual Commitment Contract as shared by Charles Tart in his book Waking Up.

My dad took a photocopy of it and shared it with me around the time I told him I had decided to commit myself to a year of practicing Vipassana.

If you're currently engaged in a spiritual practice or are following some track laid out by a mentor, I highly encourage you to read the two short pages of the contract presented below and consider formally signing yourself to a chosen practice for a definite period of time.

Why?

To give your chosen practice or ideology the fullest, purest effort possible.

As seen in the contract:

"During this commitment period I shall give as much of myself as I can to learning and understanding what is offered and to helping others, even when the directions I am given seem contrary to my expectations or arouse my resistances."

You're putting yourself in a container to measure exactly what the consequences of your practice are. Containing yourself like this keeps the infinite universe of stimuli that could very easily deter you from your path, at bay.

And the most beautiful part? It's temporary!

"I recognize that becoming immersed in a path may lead to loss of perspective and forgetting of my goals. Therefore, to evaluate this experiment in commitment, I promise myself that at the end of the commitment period [specified above] I will withdraw from the group and teacher, go off by myself for a period of at least two months to allow the immediate influence and habits of thought of the group to diminish..."

If you reach a point during your experiment in which things really suck, well, you know they won't suck forever! You'll be more likely to keep going with a spirit of curiosity as more and more is revealed to you. Soon enough, it'll all be over, and in addition to feeling an immense sense of personal satisfaction, you'll be able to evaluate the efficacy of the practice with upmost accuracy and precision.

"Just how does this practice really benefit me? And do I want to continue it?"

What you definitely don't want to do is half-ass a practice. It's a loose-only scenario and a waste of time. If the practice really stands to benefit you, a less-than-seriously-committed attempt will deny you it's full benefit. And if not--if the practice really isn't for you--then by half-assing, you take unnecessarily long to come to that conclusion (if ever!) and deny yourself opportunities to try something else that might work.

Now without further ado, the contract.

Oh, and here's the full version of that butt pic. Pays to read these till the end!