I am a novitiate Zen Buddhist priest in the Matsuoka Lineage. Last summer, I gave a talk on Spiritual Practice at the Center for Spiritual Living in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The talk was about the role of practice in our lives.
There is a famous Zen saying “Do not confuse the finger for the moon” meaning do not confuse directions or descriptions for the direct experience. We might think or ourselves as spiritual if we attend a weekly spiritual service and if we read lots of spiritual books. These are just fingers, just pointers. The real key to a spiritual life is practice.