In a world of instant gratification and information at your fingertips, we’ve learned to want what we want and expect it now. I see this attitude in my students. Any project that’s not “cut and pasteable” from the internet takes way too much of an effort. And should I require that they actually look at the most antiquated of information reservoirs, books, that’s just too difficult. That entails finding a relevant book and culling the desired information from within it’s multiple pages, for many that seems an unreasonable expectation. We live in a culture of instant gratification, immediate results, and minimum effort.In this environment it’s not surprising that the book Getting Things Done is a perennial best seller. This book has almost a cult following in the business world and on the web. The world today seems obsessed with increased efficiency, contextualizing actions and goal achievement. In this environment the key questions are: what do I want to accomplish? What are the actions I need to do to accomplish this project? and then somewhere along the way you must assess how important this project is in relation to the plethora of other projects you have on your plate. Sometimes I want to apply these concepts to my Zen practice.
Recently, Sensei asked what questions I might have about practice. In my response I realized that my questions had to do with time-lines and efficiency. My impatience showed. Like my students I wanted the short-cut, the effortless path. At times I forget that effortlessness comes from right effort. Like Tony Gwynn at the plate during his prime, or Lance Armstrong climbing the Col du Galibier. The only reason they make it seem effortless, is because they’ve spent hundreds of hours practicing and honing their skills.
A spiritual practice can’t be reduced to a prescribed set of steps to follow. Dedication and right-effort are integral. The underpinning of this right effort is faith. By faith I don’t mean a belief in a pre-defined outcome, but faith that the process will lead to an answer, a truth, even though I don’t know what that truth is. But this requires what is so scarce in our information age...patience.
