Cope is keenly interested in examining the way our concepts of enlightenment tend to stir up craving and clinging. "I don't find it helpful to crave some exalted, altered state," he says, "but prefer to practice every day in ways that create moments of freedom. To keep it really simple."

Cope measures his progress on the path by how well his practice attenuates greed, hatred, and delusion--the three defilements in Buddhism that are reflected in the five kleshas of the yoga tradition: ignorance, egotism, attraction, aversion, and clinging to life. "You can always ask yourself, "Is this softening my clinging, craving, and holding on? Is it softening hatred and delusion? If it's not, you've probably gone off track somewhere." from The Search for Enlightenment By Colleen Morton Busch in Yoga Journal

I seem to be examining Christianity in a new way; using teachings from another faith traditions to bring out the best that Christianity has to offer. An example is the non-clinging that Jesus taught getting lost in the eagerness to make disciples. Christians are not encouraged enough to ask, "Is this softening my clinging, craving, and holding on? Is it softening hatred and delusion? What a difference it might make to realize when we have "probably gone off track somewhere."