Let practice become a path. 

Over the centuries, people have come up with different ideas about life, what it is, what it is about, etc. The only conclusion we can draw from thousands of years of discussion is that these questions have never been settled. We keep talking about it. From time to time, a group of people say, "This is it. This is the answer to life." But the answers only work for some people and even for them, for only a while. 

Does what you do in your life really matter? Well, yes, it matters a lot. It matters to you, because what you do shapes and affects your life. It matters to others, because it affects their lives. And it comes full circle. What affects others' lives affects your life, too. Call this "karma" or "interdependent origination" if you wish, the fact remains that, in one way, you are here all alone and, in another, you are part of the world. 

Many people would feel better if there was just something they could touch and say, "On this I can rely." Often, they want a touchstone so much that they make something up, a god, a religion, a philosophy, a ceremony, a ritual, a moral code, etc. They believe in it, i.e., they trust their lives to it, because it gives them meaning, it gives them a direction, it tells them their place in life and it tells them what to do. 

But things change. At some point or other, situations and circumstances no longer match up with what their beliefs tell them. What do you do now? 

You rely, of course, on what you have learned and what you have experienced. You have to. You also rely on your intuition, your intelligence, and your own sense of right and wrong. As you practice, you come to sense nothing is absolute, there is no ground, nothing works in all situations. And the implications are disturbing. 

Sooner or later, you end up on the edge of an abyss. You see no bottom. On your right you see people who look to the past and see order and meaning in what they see there. On your left you see people who look to the future and see order and meaning in making their vision of life real. Behind you, your death steadily approaches, but you don't know when it will take you. And in front of you is that abyss. 

What do you do? 

This is where practice becomes a path. You know you don't know what you will encounter, internally or externally. Nor do you know how you will meet it. You accept the mystery of life and you sense that practice is a way. 

Practice becomes a path when practice itself is no longer an issue. You just do it. It's a way you have found that brings a certain quality into your life. 

Practice becomes a path when you understand that you cannot control what happens in your life and you cannot control your reactions to what happens. 

Practice becomes a path when you know that all you can do is put in place a process that opens possibilities, possibilities other than the tyranny of reactivity and conditioning. 

Practice becomes a path when accept the direction that life offers you in each moment. 

Quotation 

A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born.  

-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery