My Principles for an Ecology of Practice

Mandala of Care: The Magic Spell; Ritual and Incident; Spark Joy

I view my ecology of practice like a garden: it slowly transforms of its own accord, but I also have great capability to shape what is happening.

If you are on a life-affirming path, it is almost inevitable that there is going to be more you want to do than you ever have time to! Over the years, here are the three most significant frameworks I've used to cultivate my garden of life and practice:

Mandala of Care: The Magic Spell

Finding a magic spell that encapsulates my mandala of care in a way I can immediately access has given me a lens to continually survey my garden of practice.

My personal magic spell is health-wealth-family-fun-community-art-contemplation (where art here means the creation of art). I can’t say why it works for me and I imagine different spells would work for others. Having a mandala of care establishes visionary direction of cultivation, without specifying any details, and so allows responsivity to changing circumstances over time.

I invoke the magic spell whenever I am uncertain what to do next. It triggers off a quick scan of my present situation to see if something I care about may be underserved. Not every aspect is priorly equally weighted, so the amount of time, energy, and attention channeled to different domains of care may vary a lot. The spell may also be invoked randomly, bringing to mind all that I care about, and allowing that reminder to integrate with my current choices.

Ritual and Incident

The structure my ecology of practice is daily, weekly, and monthly ritual. I am continually shaping and re-shaping what I ritualize. This is the interesting puzzle: shall I ritualize an additional half-hour of playing piano, of walking the dog, of meditation, of making money? This is endlessly transforming - I am literally in the mid-thousandths of versions of my one-page document where I do my thinking.

My one-pager document has evolved greatly over the years…the constraint of one-page used to serve as an easily printable document to carry with me, back when printers were more easily found than internet connections. Nowadays, I appreciate how the one-page constraint forces my hand in choosing what I will commit to. I often finding myself slightly regretful but accepting as I let go of something I love a lot, because I can’t both do that and do all the things I love even more.

"Incident" refers to high-impact non-ritualized events. I have a personal rule of "never try to make up what's missed". Ritual is long-term, it matters not if I miss a single round of a ritual in order to seize an opportunity. Trying to make up for missed ritual time can only have a domino effect, causing some other ritual activity to be missed.

Spark Joy

Thank you, Marie Kondo, for giving us this language! Nowadays, the fundamental principle I use in cultivating my ecology is: does this practice spark joy? This does not necessarily mean “pleasure”. It could spark joy via fearful anticipation of how challenging and unpleasant it will be...in fact, for me, slightly fearful anticipation is usually a sign that a ritual is potent.

My ecology “breathes”, in that during some periods, the details of commitments expand, normally to a point beyond my capability to fulfill, and then get winnowed. For me, this cycle of expansion and contraction seems to happen of its own accord about twice a year.

In Sum

I cultivate my ecology of practice by seeing through the vision of my magic spell of my mandala of care, using that to craft a garden of ritual (while allowing for spontaneous incident), and emphasizing and culling based on what sparks joy.