I just finished re-reading one of my favorite books - Everyday Zen: Love and Work - written by Charlotte Joko Beck. Like any good spiritual teacher, she is relentless in reminding people about their/our incessant delusions and the need for personal practice and accountability. Nothing outside of us will make us happy or lead to enlightenment or freedom; not a guru, a job promotion, a personal trainer or internet shopping. I've tried all of them, and then some.
But, we can learn about ourselves by watching the machinations. Joko Beck reminds us about working with our life, right now. Everything is grist for the mill. There is no future when everything will finally be okay, just the stuff in our life right now - the dog barfing, the crick in my neck, the pile of dirty dishes, the paper I have to write.
The practice and intelligence of bringing ourselves back to the moment is, as they say, simple, but it's not easy.
We always try to set limits on ourselves by creating a structure, a story, an ideology, closing ourselves off from being open to everything that is really happening. These stories are so deeply ingrained into our neural pathways and sewn into the fabric of our families and society, that it seems impossible to shake ourselves out of them. When the stories override the evidence in front of us, what's happening right now, we have to let them go and pay attention; and act.
