You Become What You Practice, So Choose With Care

The fastest way to stall your growth is to treat practice like a mood. We go deeper and make it a structure: a steady path you can stand on, day after day, until insight becomes character. Drawing from Buddhism’s three jewels—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—we translate timeless wisdom into modern tools you can actually use. Think mentor, method, and community as the three legs of a stable stool; when all three are present, your progress stops wobbling and starts compounding.

We start by reframing practice as both a noun and a verb. It’s the map and the miles. The aim is bold yet practical: moving from the tight orbit of ego to the open sky of the true self. Along the way, we spotlight why this era is a golden window for spiritual growth. Never have there been more accessible teachings, diverse lineages, and credible guides. That abundance can overwhelm, so we show how to curate a clear teaching stream—blending ultimate insights from contemplative traditions with actionable knowledge from psychology, biology, and philosophy—into one coherent, life-tested approach.

Mentorship matters. A good teacher saves you from elegant dead ends and points your attention where it actually counts. Community matters just as much. Your environment calibrates your standards, so pick people who normalize showing up. And consistency is non-negotiable: short, repeatable sessions beat rare marathons every time. We share how our nonprofit moved from one-off events to multi-session formats because repetition turns state into trait. To anchor these ideas, we close with a brief guided reflection that helps you notice how mentors, methods, and peers have already shaped your wins—and how much of that work was, in fact, enjoyable.

If you’re ready to build a practice that lasts, join us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs structure, and leave a review with one change you’ll make this week.

Transcript

Defining Practice: Noun And Verb

From Ego To True Self

Why Now Is A Golden Era

The Need For Structure

Three Jewels Explained

Applying Buddha Today

Modern Dharma And Knowledge

Sangha As Support Network

Consistency Beats One-Offs

Guided Reflection Practice

Closing And Invitation

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello everyone, welcome to the episode 10 of Spirit X podcast. We are in double digits. I congratulate everyone, including myself. I'm glad we are building this with uh with a good and steady pace. Uh, this podcast is envisioned like a very uh high quality and ambitious project. Uh the beginning we were planning that just to start with my book and open some spiritual and life life topics, but later we are going to bring some uh some guests, some we are going to organize some panels, so stay tuned. In the meantime, we are continuing with my book. I want to focus today on an important uh aspect of spiritual practice and spiritual life, but also of life in general. I want to discuss a chapter in my book which is entitled Practice and has a kind of dual meaning. It's at the beginning of the book. As of going through my book, we are kind of done with introductory topics and we are entering now a very exciting stage where we are really gonna kind of address some a very important topic for spiritual third part for life in general. So the name of the chapter is practice, and has a dual meaning. First meaning is is the noun, so practice as the noun. So I'm going to describe what spiritual practice is, what are its things to feature. But practice also is here, has a meaning as a verb, so it's an imperative. So there is no spiritual success without a good and steady and nicely organized spiritual practice. So practice means practice as a noun, so we're going to describe it, but also as a verb, as an imperative. Practice has to be done. I like this chapter because there is a very close connection between spirituality and life. So what I'm going to say is applicable for spiritual practice and spiritual search and spiritual life, but it's also equally applicable to whatever you want to accomplish in life. So, in that regard, we are having an important podcast and we are discussing an important chapter. So, in my book, in this chapter, I define spiritual practice as a movement from identifying with your small self, which is ego, to identifying and living from a deeper dimension of your being, which in spirituality we call true self. So spiritual practice is basically a dissolving of your ego in the deeper dimension of your being, and practice is actually that path, and practice gives you those results that you live from a deeper and more fulfilling place within yourself and within reality. What's extraordinary about spiritual practices nowadays is this. Never in the human history we have we had this many available spiritual practices to an average practitioner. Because of in the 60s, many spiritual gurus came to the West, because in digital age the information flows really, really easily and freely, because more and more people are actually interested in spirituality, but in the regard of spirituality and especially availability of spiritual practices, this is the best time that ever existed on earth. So I know that the world is going through a pretty rough transition, but I just want to point out that there's a lot of good stuff happening, either in some pockets, or in some areas that are not necessarily mainstream, like spirituality. But in spirituality, this is extraordinary times and exciting times, and we should take advantage of it. There are a few things I want to discuss today about spiritual practice and about any kind of effort you want to make in life. And first one is this uh for spiritual practice and for whatever you want to uh accomplish in your life, you need to create a proper structure. And I call that in spirituality, I call it a spiritual container, and that can be applicable to life and whatever. And uh I studied many uh spiritual traditions, Hinduism, Buddhism, mystical Christianity, uh, Taoism, Sufism, etc. But I found something extraordinary in Buddhism when it comes to spiritual practice. So in Buddhist practice, they talk about three jewels or three refugees, and those are Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And let me elaborate on those and let me let me explain how that can be applied in modern-day era and how it can be applied to some other areas than spirituality. So Buddha originally in Buddhism designates awakened awareness in the historical Buddha, an awakened awareness within each one of us that is not fully recognized. So Buddha, awakened awareness in historical Buddha, the awakened founder of the whole religion and system of spirituality, but deep dormantly within us, there is Buddha, there is awakened awareness. We just need to, we need a teacher, a mentor, and a teaching to awaken that in us, and then we are awakened spiritual beings. Dharma, originally in Buddhism, represents the teaching with capital T. And that's the teaching that reveals to us the ultimate nature of reality. So originally, Dharma is the teaching that reveals to us reality with capital R. And in Buddhism, that's Buddhism, there are other Dharma teachings from uh various wisdom and spiritual traditions. Finally, Sangha is a group of spiritual practitioners that are uh passionate about discovering truth and spirit. So Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Think of it like a three-legged chair. In Buddhism, they call it a tricycle that is kind of stable. So once you have Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, your practice is very, very strong and you can expect some really, really good results. So now, what I would like to do now is to apply Buddha, Dharma and Sangha to the contemporary spiritual third and also to extend it even a little bit more so that you can apply it to other areas in your life. So if you apply Buddha Dharma and Sangha to a modern situation, here is how it looks. So Buddha, in that regard, represent a mentor or a teacher or a coach or a facilitator that is helping you in spirituality discovering your true self, or in some other areas, actually mastering certain skill. So let's say you want to learn how to cook, and there is a master chef, correct? So he has the skill you are learning. At some point you have the skill. But without a teacher or a cook or a or a coach or a mentor, you would never get there. So whatever you want to accomplish in your life, if you're serious about it and if it's significant for you, you should have a mentor. And spirituality is no different than that. So a good mentor in spirituality is a real difference. I had some phenomenal mentors. I had my root teacher, Mokshananda, who revealed to me my true self. And I'm deeply grateful for my root teacher and for all of the teachers I encountered on my spiritual path. So, what is dharma in the contemporary modern context? So nowadays we have teachings about ultimate reality which are not the mainstream, but they are coming to the mainstream. And then there are lots of other teachings about relative reality. So I studied philosophy, it's a phenomenal field. Sociology is a phenomenal field, psychology is today necessary, so biology, chemistry, etc. So we have we have relative teachings about reality, we have ultimate teachings about reality. When you combine them into a kind of meaningful holistic whole, you are really winning the game of life. So if you put holistically various teachers teachings and apply them into your life, it's going to be, trust me, a meaningful life. So in terms of teachings about relative reality and ultimate reality, we are at a very, very, very rich stage, is just not fully utilized. So that's another great news about present-day situation, in spite of meta-crisis we are going through. And finally, Sangha in a more modern-day contemporary context is a group of people that are passionate and support each other about certain goals. In spirituality, that's certainly a spiritual search and spiritual enlightenment. But uh let's say you're passionate about sports. So so you clearly have a coach, you hear clear a sport, but you have a group of people that are practicing your sports. Let's say you are super passion, super passionate about hiking. So there's a group of people you hiked with, you are uh passionate about, I don't know, playing cards, you need some people to play cards. So sangha is any kind of group that uh support each other on the path towards certain goals. So again, Buddha Dharma Sangha, whatever you want to accomplish, whatever you are passionate about, this three-legged structure, make sure that you're going to succeed. Spiritual search is no different at that point. I did apply this early on in my spiritual practice. Results were fantastic. I strongly suggest that to my students, clients, and the clients of my nonprofit spirit without boundaries, and the results are really, really amazing. So I think today we touched something which is very simple. It's not a rocket science, it can be applied to spiritual search, but it can be applied to anything else. If you want to learn how to ride a bike, you need a teacher, you need a you need some some sort of teaching how to do that. And and if you're practicing with the group, you're going to ride your bike really, really, really well. And spiritual search is no different than that. Teacher, I strongly recommend applying good teaching necessary, and group of practitioners really, really necessary. Another thing that I just want to mention at the end when it comes to spiritual practice is that it requires repetition. It requires consistency, it requires regularity. So if you want to have some results with, let's say, meditation, which is a superb teacher practice, you need to do it regularly. Otherwise, there are no results. So with my nonprofit, when we go to schools, when we go to organizations, actually we don't offer anymore just one-time workshops. We usually, the only thing we offer as a start is a series of workshops for that reason. Without regularity, you don't have any results. So with schools, we usually propose five to ten half an hour workshops. And with organizations, because we work with grown-ups, we suggest three to five one-hour workshops. And by definition, we get good results. And with the vast majority of those clients, we actually continue for a long time. So when it comes to practice, when it comes to your effort to achieve something, regularity, consistency is the key. And like in every other episode, we usually have an inexperiential part, we finish, so today is no different. So I invite you to a very, very, very simple practice. We are going to do a little reflection. I'm going to invite you to a few times breathing into the abellion out just to enter the space for practice. Thank you. And we are going to do a little reflection on how in your life you benefited from any effort you made or any practice you made. It can be education, it can be sports, it can be finance, it can be relationships. So any kind of effort you did, you applied certain teachers, you had certain mentorship, you invested time, energy, and money. So just notice we all do that. Remember your mentors. Remember the folks you've done some stuff with or accomplished some stuff with. And I want you to remember and acknowledge that the vast majority of those times when you were practicing something and you were putting some hard effort into were actually enjoyable. So remember and acknowledge all the good times you had with mentors, with various doctrines and techniques, and with various folks. And those enjoyable moments actually made you a great individual you are at this point. And that kind of application of Buddha Dharma Sangha actually never ends, and and that's great. But just notice how the vast majority of that path was actually enjoyable. There were certainly some challenging moments, but the vast majority of it is enjoyable. So spiritual practice and any kind of other effort for the most part in enjoyable is enjoyable, and that's fantastic about it. So thanks for reflecting with me. Thanks for your attention. I hope this episode uh inspires you to practice or inspires you to make an effort in whatever you want to accomplish. If you need some help, myself and my nonprofit are available, just contact us and we'll be help you to offer you whatever you need. Thank you for your attention, and I will see you in the next episode. Bye bye.