The Path calls to us for many different reasons. Many of us feel somehow disillusioned or dissatisfied with our lives in some way. The material world we live in pushes us to borrow money to buy things we don't need in order to impress people we don't know. As we realize this, we start to look for something...more. Many of us feel trapped in a world of the mundane, unable to reach the imagined happiness of social media icons and unable to escape the reality of our own daily lives. Many religions exist for the purpose of establishing control. They seek to pacify us and make us conform to an outdated set of beliefs (often manipulating us through guilt) and tell us to sublimate the self and sacrifice the Now in the hopes of some greater reward in the afterlife. These days, such empty promises seem to do little to assuage our anxiety.
I loved the above quote because it really speaks to the essence of the Path as I see it. Rather than seeking an escape from the everyday life to something (we hope would be) better, the Path helps us examine our lives in much greater detail - ultimately helping us discover real meaning and purpose in what we do every day. As a result, we come to appreciate what we have, rather than endlessly wish for what we don't. Our ambition becomes less about acquiring more "things" and instead about truly understanding the parts of our daily lives that make us happy and fulfilled, and seeking to maximize them. We learn to find more joy in the relationships around us (or exchange those relationships for more positive ones). We discover how to go about our day with appreciation for the little things rather than just wishing they would go away and be replaced by fame and fortune.
Enlightenment includes the understanding that all we ever really do is exchange one set of problems for another, and that's OK. We are hardwired to solve problems. It's in our DNA. We struggle and suffer when the problems have no acceptable solutions, or when the quality of the problems is too low for our capabilities. The better we live, the better quality problems we get to solve. The more involved we are in our own lives, the less we feel a desperate need to escape from them.
There is not some great and magical transformation waiting to occur when the light switch of enlightenment is flicked. If this is the expectation, it is guaranteed to be a disappointment. Rather, like a growing tree or a child progressing to adulthood, over time our understanding becomes bigger and our capabilities reach new levels. Day by day this can be very hard to see, but over time the changing from caterpillar to butterfly must naturally occur and in the end, through our own transformation of enlightenment, we emerge from our cocoons ready to fly.
In the end, we chop wood and carry water (mostly metaphorically) all throughout our lives. What matters most is our understanding of this process and its purpose - what we learn from it and how we grow from it. We are and will be with ourselves from birth until death, constantly a part of everything we do and say. Our life, this time, is here and now, and we must take responsibility for it rather than wish for the life of another.
True spirituality is not anchored in guilt. It empowers us to be fully aware of who and how we are at all times, and to act with purpose and mindfulness as we go through every day - chopping wood, carrying water or working in an office or whatever we do to provide for ourselves and our loved ones.
Perhaps I'm not saying anything new here - at least nothing the Buddhist masters have not been trying to tell us for millennia. I think it is very important to make your personal spiritual practice useful to you in improving your ability to live your life, this life, right now, every day, as much as possible. I hope we do not give in to the temptation of wishing for anything else. Maximize who and how you are in this life. Be the best YOU you can be and be unapologetic for growing to become more you.
Enjoy the Journey.
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