Wake up. Be alive. Live with awareness. See into the heart of things. Understand how things are and how things also are. Know what’s important. Know the difference between a way that is open but requires persistence and perseverance and determination and dedication, and a way that is closed and must not be forced open. Hear what is being asked of you. See what the possibilities are, what your options are, what your choices are. See what can be done, and what cannot be done—what can happen, and what cannot happen—what can be changed and what cannot be changed—what you can have and what you cannot have, and what you have no business even wanting.
The “I” that wants, and the “I” that has to have are two different “I’s.” The “I” that wants knows what its preferences are and lives toward its own interests and enthusiasms within the perimeter of the possible. The “I” that has to have is driven by the obsession to possess the thing, or the way, that is desired; cannot take “No” for an answer, and is undone by opposition, resistance, objection and barricade. The “I” that has to have, wills what cannot be willed, and suffers for it. And, everyone suffers for it.
The spiritual journey is to the heart of who we are. The spiritual quest is to be true to ourselves within the constraints and limitations of our lives. The spiritual task is to come to terms with our lives as they are, to make our peace with life as it is, and to live toward the best we can imagine “anyway, nevertheless, even so.”
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