Part III · The Practice
The Practice
What is your practice actually for?
Watch Part III — The Practice
If the player is unavailable, watch the published video on Instagram.
About this conversation
In Part III, David Verdesi asks what a spiritual practice is for and whether the activities we pursue serve that aim. He questions using practice as an escape from unspoken needs, conflict, difficult feelings and necessary action. The conversation invites an examination of purpose, rather than the automatic accumulation of techniques. The full discussion provides context for the shorter social edit.
Transcript
In Part III, David begins with three questions: what spirituality means to you, why you think you need it, and what you expect it to give you.
Then comes the test: does what you do have anything to do with that aim?
Doing more is not the same question as understanding why. David asks whether a practice helps us examine what is difficult—or lets us leave it unexamined.
Bring this to one practice in your own life. Name its purpose before judging its value.
Which is hardest to answer: what you’re seeking, why you need it, or whether your practice serves it?
David returns to an approximate formulation of truth: put the question into words, then look at what you actually do.
The difficulty is not only finding words. It is meeting unspoken needs, desire and conflict—and what acknowledging them might require. Some feelings seem unbearable. Some actions seem unforgivable or unthinkable.
The invitation is to examine that resistance, not to glorify suffering or act on every impulse.
What is harder for you: naming what is true for now or taking the next considered step?
Approved spoken words from the published episode. Editorial summaries and reflection questions appear separately above.
Download the transcript as a PDFThree questions to begin with
- What are you seeking?
- Why do you think you need it?
- What do you expect it to give you?
These are editorial reflection prompts drawn from the conversation, not a verbatim transcript or a complete method.
Bring the question into life
Choose one practice. Name the purpose you believe it serves. Then examine what you actually do, what changes, and what remains unaddressed. The invitation is to investigate the relationship between a practice and its purpose—not to label every practice an escape.
A question to take with you
What would show you that a practice serves its stated purpose?