Alignment of View, Practice and Fruit

Have you ever wondered why your practice is not bearing the fruit you expected?

Recent conversations quite independent of each other have brought the subject of the Alignment of View, Practice and Fruit into focus. It is so important!

The alignment of view, practice, and fruit is a framework used to describe the interconnectedness of one's worldview or cosmology (view), the methods employed to bring about transformation (practice), and the results or outcomes of those efforts (fruit).

The view is the understanding or perspective that shapes how one sees reality, the self, and the nature of existence. In spiritual contexts, this might include beliefs about the nature of consciousness, the universe, and the individual’s relationship to both. For example, in non-dual Shaiva Tantra, the view is founded in the understanding that the entirety of existence is one Consciousness. It teaches that it is possible for us to recognise this as a truth beyond thoughts or language, and that such recognition is liberation from mind created suffering.

Practice refers to the methods or techniques one uses to embody and actualize the view. In some traditions practice is principally meditation and clearing of the mind, of being present. IN Tantric practice you will find practices of entrainment, meaning the linking together of various other techniques such as breath, visualisation, mantra and energy body. Other traditions may include physical disciplines like yoga.

The fruit is the outcome of practicing. This can include a greater sense of inner peace, more skillfulness in stressful situations, greater creativity, more material comfort. Then again spiritual awakening, the dissolution of egoic boundaries, or an embodied sense of unity with the divine or universal Consciousness may also be the fruit.

It can be helpful to start with the fruit. What is it that you would wish the result of your practice to be? You may need to contemplate that or it might be startlingly obvious to you right now. It is perfectly OK if you wish to be at peace, less stressed, or even more successful in your career or relationships. What is important though is that you must now find the tradition whose view aligns with your desired fruit, and do the practices they teach that align with that view and those fruits.

But there is another thing. Look carefully at the results that people in that tradition and doing those practices are achieving. Is it successful? Are people doing these practices said to make you more successful, or stress-free, or charismatic or whatever the promised fruit is, really achieving those goals?

So, if your yearning (fruit) is awakening, how many folk in the school of practice you are following are awakening? If it isn’t happening, somehow there is a misalignment. Might be time to seek a new teacher or even a different tradition.