The basic spiritual task is sitting in peace, and working in peace. Being neither numb nor anxious. This frees up Life to flow readily, slower and faster, in larger and smaller portions, but freely and spontaneously.
What I am noticing in my work is that I tend to wish I could just wave a magic wand and get it done. Something like in Harry Potter, or telekinetic powers like Eleven.
And I was pondering this. Nobody ever said this was how it works. Or did they?
Think about in how many respects we CAN get virtually instantaneous gratification. Place an order on Amazon for damn near anything, you have it the next day. Go to the grocery store and almost any food you could want you can find.
And get on the internet: almost any EXPERIENCE, of hope, whimsy, terror, sex, romance, humor is available on what amounts to a sort of mood organ. You can transform your state with NO WORK almost instantly, in any number of directions.
How would this habit of vicarious and instantaneous gratification NOT bleed over in some ways? Why would kids raised like this NOT come to sort of the world as a magical place where whatever they can dream up just appears with little work; and conversely, learn to resent the world when it pushes back in any way?
Honest work takes time, and long term effort. Starts and stops, hits and misses, but overall perseverance and time. How is that sort of work portrayed in movies? The montage.
Ironically enough, as they point out, the montage avoids the work of watching the work.
Yeah, so I’m going to try and watch this tendency tomorrow. God knows I have plenty of work to practice with.