Gradual change for sudden transformation.

The navy seals have an intriguing combat motto:

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. 

A methodical, deliberate practice seems too slow, that the results you are looking for aren't going to show up. Actually, most often a deliberate and methodical approach produces faster results. How do we best move from one state to another?

An integral part of studying thermodynamics and physical chemistry is understanding phase transitions. A phase transition is a transformation of a system from one state into another. A solid into a liquid, a liquid into a gas. Understanding phase transitions allows us to understand how gradual change leads to sudden transformation.

What is interesting about phase transitions is that systems often appear stable and resistant to change, and all of a sudden the system shifts. Water can absorb a lot of heat and only boils at 212 degrees to become a gas. Water freezes at 32 degrees to become ice, at 33 degrees it is bloody cold water. These systems can be influenced by changing some variables, such as adding salt to water to increase the temperature needed to boil the water, but even with those variables the phase transition itself happens quickly.

There are those who practice Mahamudra and Dzogchen that insist that it is a sudden path and that no work or effort is needed. You are simply introduced directly to the nature of your own mind and then you proceed to gain certainty about that unique state. No preparation needed, no foundation of experience necesssary. To prepare or to engage in practice is to delude yourself into the confused ways of the gradual approach!

There is only one significant problem with this approach: we must start where we are. Our ordinary untrained mind is conditioned by concepts and fixation. We constantly label phenomena and tell stories about our experience. Our minds are easily hooked by pleasant and exciting possibilities. That untrained mind may be introduced to the nature of mind, and its initial reaction will be, "This is it! I have it."And then we go on telling ourselves the story of our enlightenment with all of the right logic and reasoning (concepts) to back it up.

It's inevitable. Fast gets you nowhere.

Compare that with the methodical deliberate practice of gaining familiarity with your mind and encountering the various aspects of the nature of mind directly. You can encounter and recognize the abiding aspects of awareness in your meditation. You can learn to work with movement and clarity in your meditation so that you are no longer hooked by whatever is coming up in your experience. You can learn to bring awareness into various mental states and to discover how they are free in their own place. You can become accustomed to not labeling your experience, not engaging the story, seeing through the thought.

Having this type of experience makes you a receptive vessel for actually recognizing the nature of mind. You're already practically there even though everything seems to be much the same as it was before, because you're hanging on the edge of a phase transition.

Gradual change leads to sudden transformation. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.