In the last days a number of people have asked me the same question. The words were different, the question fundamentally the same.
And the answer?
“Yes! Meditation, preceptual living, exercising compassion, expressing kindness…are all worth the effort“.
“Yes! Transformation happens”. “Yes! and that occurs to a schedule not of our own making.”
So patience is the watchword.
Thank you Rev. Mugo. This is just the message I needed tonight.
Yes, it really does work. We soon realise it when we stop doing it;- meditation, preceptual living etc.,
things start to go wrong again.
And yet……
…its no big deal. That’s the beautiful part of Buddhist practice. At least that’s how I’ve found it.
Preceptual living?
Oh, the precepts. Sorry.
Perhaps I should be a titch more diligent in my own practice, eh? ;)
That word ‘diligent’ gets me every time. My teachers would put ‘another term of diligent effort’ on my report card. Soon to give way to ‘could do better’, ‘needs to try harder’.
With practice you start where you start and if you stop, there is always the choice to start up again. To go sit, for no other reason than it seems good to do, or there is nothing else to do, so why not!
Then, after awhile, practice gets under your skin, something keeps calling you back and it’s hard not to hear. That’s even when you have your head phones on and the sound turned way up!