Buddhist teachings offer an immense variety of practices.  When we find one that seems “right” for us, we usually try it out for a while to see what its results are.  Sometimes a practice is suggested by a teacher we respect so we try that out.   It may not be a good fit at first, and years later we find it far more helpful. This flexibility makes our practice very responsive to the many ways people are different.

I’ve recently found it hard to pin down the “real” meaning of key phrases in important suttas.  Not being a Pali scholar, I read every different interpretation I could find and struggled with the feeling that the sutta just didn’t make sense.  The thought nagged at me that the vast stretch of time since the suttas were first established and the differences in language and culture blurred the real meaning beyond understanding.

One of the suttas I struggled with probably didn’t come from the Buddha but was first formulated by Buddhist scholars centuries later.  Did that account for the difference in contemporary translations?  Then I remembered the many teachings the Buddha most likely did give that allow for leeway in how the dharma is transmitted to different people.  He instructed his Sangha to go forth and teach in the language of their audiences, and he demonstrated to a mentally simple monk how we grow in our practice by having him transform a clean cloth into a dirty one by rubbing it repeatedly.

In struggling with a variety of translations of very key terms about practice, none of which seem really practicable, I have come to a wider appreciation of our practice as a whole.  Ultimately, we choose how we practice in the still silence of our meditation or the growing awareness of our daily experience.  Having access to a lot of teachers through the internet or in person gives us important guidance for making our choices. 

How far can we go in deciding for ourselves?  Throughout the millennia, Buddhists of all stripes have kept to the basic teachings of “the numbers:” the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Five Hindrances, etc.  I remember when I first tried out meditation and shook my head at those numbered lists, thinking I’d just ignore all that stuff.  All that really interested me was meditating.  Over time, curiosity drew me ever deeper into the teachings, which have progressively deepened my practice.

This latitude in how we interpret and use the teachings gives us both freedom and responsibility for our own progress toward liberation.  Ultimately, whether we adhere to any way of understanding Buddhism may have little influence over our path to enlightenment compared to how thoughtfully and earnestly we apply ourselves.