 |
|
new entries | older entries | diaryland | aim |
|
the enlightened ones I had an english teacher once whom most of my classmates despised, but I rather liked her. She forced us to work under harsh deadlines espousing the notion that any work will expand to fill the time allotted. At the time the deadlines were an annoyance. They seemed cruel and unnecessary. But the assignments were always finished and turn in on time. Would they have been of better quality if we had been given e few extra days, or a week? Probably not. In retrospect, I see how true her statement was. I look back on college and remember essay after essay completed at the last minute, right before they were due, books whose last sentences I was hurriedly reading just before an exam was slapped down in front of me. The work was filling the time alotted. Now is all this a symptom of my own erroneous ways as an endless procrastinator, or is it a human condition? When it comes to things of a more spiritual nature, I often hear the notion that some practices are lifelong, that some things will never truly be mastered, that we must simply bumble our way through and do the best we can. But it seems to me that we should not be operating under this "lifelong practice" ideal. Shouldn't we instead tell ourselves that it is possible, that we just aren't there yet, that it will be anyday now, and just be kind to ourselves until then. Because if we all believe it's going to take our entire lives to become buddhas, well then we just might not get around to it until the last second. The work might just expand to fill the time allotted, and well, when it comes to something like enlightenment, why not just get it over with? ----- the sad truth - 6:46 a.m. , January 01, 1970 in case you were wondering - 10:33 a.m. , July 04, 2006 in case you were wondering - 10:33 a.m. , July 04, 2006 dont call it a comeback - 11:17 p.m. , January 19, 2006 the enlightened ones - 11:16 a.m. , February 19, 2040 |