I have been reading Jack Kornfield’s book about spirituality and Buddhism A Path With Heart. As a short summary of Part 1: The Fundamentals, he starts with basic questions.

What is your goal? He suggests a path with heart is the goal of spiritual practice. Are we in touch with our fundamental goodness? Are we loving well? Have we learned to forgive and live from the spirit of love rather than from a spirit of judgment?

Cultivating goodness and love means stopping the war within ourselves, which leads to wars with others. Stopping the war means “taking the one seat”, finding a single spiritual tradition and following it through the pain and conflict. We can use this to make our mind, body and heart healthier, which allows us to progress spiritually.

Going through, I keep being reminded of how much this is exactly like weightlifting. What is your goal? Get strong. To get strong, you have to be open to pain. The war within is our desire and tendency to avoid pain. This is impossible when lifting weights. No pain, no gain.

What about taking the one seat? There are many different ways to train, and which is best depends on your goals. If your goal is to get strong, as opposed to say aesthetics, there are established methods, such as Starting Strength. Adopt one, stick to it, and you will see progress, often quick progress. The key is consistency. Do one practice. Do it several times a week for an hour or more, and you will improve.

What is true of the body in weightlifting is also true of the mind and heart. If we train our mind with a standard practice, like focused meditation on the breath, do it consistently, daily, we train our mind to be focused. It develops insight into the workings of the mind and leads to greater concentration.

But, perhaps most important, at least in my case, is development of heart, connecting to feelings of love and remaining, open, vulnerable to the world. Maitrī, or loving-kindness, can be developed, like a muscle. We start with the loving-kindness we already have for those closest to us, and through meditating on others try to expand this feeling from our close circle to the entire universe.

I was once at a Quaker Meeting, where someone said, “When learning to love, don’t start with Hitler.” Strangely, some people find it hard to love themselves, believe that they are bad, Hitler-adjacent. But, if we are unable to love ourselves, with all of our intimate knowledge of our failings, we will find it difficult to learn to love others, without making idealized, fictionized versions of them, which is not real love.

In summary, weightlifting provides an interesting parallel to Buddhism. Training the mind and heart is no different than training the body, receptive to the same techniques. A well-rounded person needs to train mind, heart and body — all three.