How Do We Know If Our Practice

Awareness Is Our True Self; It's What We Are. So We Don't Have To Try To Develop Awareness; We Simply Need To Notice How We Block Awareness With Our Thoughts, Our Fantasies, Our Opinions, And Our Judgments. We're Either In Awareness, Which Is Our Natural State, Or We're Doing Something Else.

An Old Zen Rule Of Thumb Is Not To Answer Until One Has Been Asked Three Times.

When We Refuse To Work With Our Disappointment, We Break The Precepts: Rather Than Experience The Disappointment, We Resort To Anger, Greed, Gossip, Criticism. Yet It's The Moment Of Being That Disappointment Which Is Fruitful; And, If We Are Not Willing To Do That, At Least We Should Notice That We Are Not Willing. The Moment Of Disappointment In Life Is An Incomparable Gift That We Receive Many Times A Day If We're Alert. This Gift Is Always Present In Anyone's Life, That Moment When 'it's Not The Way I Want It!

Joy Is Being Willing For Things To Be As They Are.

There Are Many People In The World Who Feel That If Only They Had A Bigger Car, A Nicer House, Better Vacations, A More Understanding Boss, Or A More Interesting Partner, Then Their Life Would Work. We All Go Through That One. Slowly We Wear Out Most Of Our 'if Onlies.