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I would quote Sri Ramana Maharshi who asserted that a 15 minute a day practice over time -- usually many years -- would produce the required results. The critical component here is consistency and that includes employing a consistent methodology. As Ramana would say the acquisition itself is not that difficult -- you already have it. So it is a disciplined, repetitive practice of systematically stripping away misguided ways of thinking-being. There is no reason why you can't do this "cafeteria-style". And, of course, no reason why it can't just surface spontaneously. The critical component is the content of what you are consuming. Junk food and flavour of the day are not going to get you very far ;>

Thanks for sharing this important teaching! Sam’s own teacher Tulku Urgyen says that once the natural state becomes baseline awakening is assured and meditation is not necessary. Sri Ramana makes a similar observation (and even discourages some forms of meditation).

We are not born addicts. We are born into a pure, spacious, boundlessness of unconditional awareness that has no name. The further we get from this as we learn more and more about the game of living in this world the greater the opportunity for addictive impulses. Fortunately, the spaciousness never leaves us and we can learn to go back to it. This breaks down the addictive impulse.

When we start building in-roads to our true self, original nature — whatever we want to call it — we are unlikely to ever see a particular time or place where that has turned the tide to produce a skillful, less painful response to a given stressor. We need patience and understanding that we are part of a much larger process that unfolds gradually, usually imperceptibly, over time.