NO TECHNIQUES!

Alan Watts

“To clutch the splendor of flame is to be burned. To enjoy anything living, whether it be fire, water, air, earth, flesh and blood, our own lives, or God himself, we must let go of it and let it be free to be itself. This is true detachment.

“This is why there is no method, no formal technique, for attaining the mystical state and realizing union with God. For a method is an attempt to possess and has its origin in pride and fear. And as there is nothing that we can do to realize God, we must not fall into the error of quietism, which is trying to realize God by doing nothing; for inaction is merely an indirect form of action; it is trying to possess God by doing nothing instead of by doing something, and neither course will succeed because God cannot be possessed at all.”

Behold the Spirit

[Thus, grace is absolutely necessary, grace and our response to grace. I once asked the Roshi, "If I do everything exactly as described in Zen practice, am I guaranteed enlightenment?" He said to me, "No, perfect practice is no guarantee. There is something else, something you Christians call 'grace'. But keep that to yourself!" Then he laughed and walked on.]