What do we give our attention to in this life? Is there anything that is so totally absorbing to us that we cannot be distracted— no matter what is happening? One-pointed attention is the capacity to stay completely focused on whatever is right before us. There is a story about a speaker who was a student of Zen and who was giving a talk at a conference in Tokyo. In mid-sentence, the speaker was interrupted by an earthquake; everyone fled the room except the speaker. When everyone returned after the earthquake, the speaker calmly completed his interrupted sentence and finished his talk. Each of us can develop the ability to stay focused on that which is before us to do. As we become clear and centered in doing our daily tasks with full and complete attention, we discover more energy and enthusiasm for all the details of life. 

What is a visionary? It is a person who brings forth something previously unknown, unthought of into our world. There are writers, artists, poets, philosophers and certainly great religious leaders who have been visionaries— who brought from the uncreated realm something new to humanity. In the twentieth century, we think of giants like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa or Picasso or James Joyce. But there are others who have made significant contributions to the well-being of humanity during this century who were also visionaries in their own way. Thomas Edison had over a thousand failures before his first successful lightbulb. It's said that he threw each failed lightbulb out of the window of his second story house, and eventually he had a two-story pyramid of failed bulbs. Someone asked Edison, "How could you continue after a thousand failures?" Edison replied, "They weren't failures— they were just tries that didn't work until, finally, one try did work." May each of us have the perseverance of Edison to bring forth our vision into this world. 

When we are trying to change things by being more restrictive, we may instead need to open up to a larger way of seeing. When we try to break a habit or change a behavior pattern, at first we may try to simply repress our impulses or cravings. But, eventually, we come to realize that the way to change behavior is not through simple repression but by discovering a greater meaning and purpose in our lives. The greater the sense of meaning and purpose, the less are we controlled by habits and compulsions. We simply no longer have the time or the interest for indulging in distracting pursuits— our sense of purpose is too clear and the need for direct action too immediate for us to waste precious moments with worn out habit patterns. Find your real purpose in this life and watch your habits and compulsions melt away as if they never were. 

A giant computer suddenly quit working, and everything in the office came to a standstill. After some delay, a technician arrived to repair the machine. The technician asked the office manager, "What's the trouble?" She replied, "The mainframe is working; the terminals are all on; everything seems to be hooked up." "So what's the problem?" The technician asked. "When they type on the keyboards, nothing shows up on the screen— nothing happens." The technician nodded and smiled. He walked around the mainframe for a few seconds. Then he yelled, "Got it!" He reached to the back of the console of the mainframe and gave it one tap. The keyboard operators yelled, "It's working!" The manager said in utter relief, "You're a genius. How much do we owe you?" "$600.00," said the technician. "What! For thirty seconds work? I won't pay a cent without an itemized statement!" hollered the office manger. The technician calmly wrote, "Tapping the computer console— $20.00. Knowing where to tap— $580.00." Within us is the exact knowledge we need to make our life work. 

Sometimes successful politicians or entertainers or sports figures complain that they go through a traumatic experience when people suddenly relate to them differently, as if they had suddenly become a figure of awe and wonderment. A politician once said that, after he won an election, he was still the same person he had always been, but that now people treated him with such deference and respect that it made him uncomfortable. When we are thrown into a role in this life that gives us a certain image in the eyes of people, it's helpful to remember that people are merely relating to our role, and we don't need to take things too personally. In the military, when an enlisted person salutes an officer, it is always clear that the salute is for the insignia of rank of the officer and not for his or her personality. There is nothing personal in the salute; so there is no need for the officer to be either puffed up or deflated by the custom. So, too, when we are in positions in which people acknowledge our role or image, we can be graceful and easy-going about what we do in life, without taking it too personally. 

Archimedes, the Greek philosopher, said that he could move the whole earth if only he had a point from which to leverage it. Each of us needs a point of leverage from which we can mobilize all of our resources, inner and outer, so that we can move our world forward. When we decide to become centered on a clear point of focus for ourselves, we begin to experience a new feeling of energy, excitement and enthusiasm for our lives. People and situations begin to come into alignment with our new intentions. A momentum begins to build within us that is finally outpictured in our outer life as a new state of well-being. Let's decide right now to clarify our purpose and let that clarity propel each of us forward into a new life. 

There is an old legend about Bodhidharma, the great spiritual master who is said to have brought Chan or Zen Buddhism from India to China. The story is that Bodhidharma spent seven years meditating on a wall in a cave before he spread the new Zen teachings throughout China. Some friends from Albuquerque went to China recently. Knowing the legend, they went on a pilgrimage to Bodhidharma's shrine. When they got to the shrine, they asked the attendant, "Where's the wall?" The attendant answered in true Zen fashion, "The wall is everywhere." Sometimes we think that we can get off track or out of synch with our true life path. But just as with Bodhidharma's wall, our path is everywhere. We can't miss what is the right way for us in this life. Sometimes we obsess because we think we've missed our chance. But our Way is always right here beckoning to each of us in this moment. 

Sometimes our demand for a black or white answer from the universe is met with gray. Often we find ourselves struggling and frustrated because we don't receive a clear signal about what is happening or what will happen. We want to know and we want to know that we know. Yet life is much more like a rose which unfolds its petals from within outwardly in a multifoliate way than a chess match of logical sequences with a clear-cut winner and loser. There are times when we simply can't know— no matter how hard we try— the outcome of a situation. When we come to realize this, we can relax, let go of our need to know and simply let ourselves enjoy the process of living with ambiguity. 

A successful business executive once said that the primary way you can tell if your business life has really changed is if the way you spend your time changes radically. In other words, if we still are spending our time the way we were, say, two or three years ago, our business or job probably hasn't changed very much. As with our business, so with our life. If we want a real change in our life, we probably will have to make some conscious decisions in the way we are spending our time. Time is our only resource for change. We change ourselves through time. We may need to be more selective and creative in our use of our allotted days and hours. A British writer named Charles Williams, while busily raising a family, working at a full-time day job and lecturing in the evenings, managed to write over 100 books and articles throughout his life. Whenever he had a spare moment, he would jot down an idea or a sentence for a book or essay on a little yellow notepad he always carried with him. Over the years, these spare moments were turned into over 100 literary and philosophical works. 

Integrity relates to the whole person. When we feel truly integrated deep inside of ourselves, outer forces and structures in the world do not seem so awesome or powerful. Integrity gives us strength of character to stand alone if need be. Albert Camus defines maturity as the willingness to be wrong all by yourself. Indeed, sometimes, in the eyes of the world, we seem to be making a mistake. People say to us, "You're not going to make it, my friend— you just can't possibly get to where you want to go to." Or, "You'll just have to settle for less." Or, "You'll just have to do it the way we say you should." It's interesting how so many times and in so many ways people with great integrity in life, like Gandhi or Mother Teresa, inspire us with their unwillingness to bend their principles for the sake of expediency. Integrity means to stand firmly by our deepest inner convictions regardless of outer criticism. It is the integrated individual who lives a full life on this earth. 

We tend to think that when we have enough money, then we'll be free. But freedom seems to be much more a state of mind than a condition of our bank account. Granted, we need money to live. Someone said, "There's a certain Buddhist calm that comes from having money in the bank." But perhaps real freedom and real prosperity come when we are no longer afraid of money— neither afraid of having money nor of not having money. When we realize that as long as we are worried— whether we have money or not— we are not free, perhaps we can begin to make freedom, not money, our goal in life. And we find the freer we are both inside and outside of ourselves, the less is money an issue. 

We all have certain responsibilities and obligations in this life: to our families, our jobs, our society and our world. Yet have we thought about what we owe ourselves in this life? We are in relationship to ourselves as well as to others. How much care and compassion, how much gentleness and kindness, do we extend towards ourselves? Many of us are much too hard on ourselves; just like when we are courteous, kind and generous to relative strangers but hard on the people closest to us, so too we tend to be more forgiving and tolerant toward others than we are towards ourselves. As Soren Kierkegaard, the 19th century existential philosopher, said, the Bible admonition to love our neighbor as ourselves implies that we first must love ourselves. This doesn't mean that we are egotistical, narcissistic or self-centered; it just means that we have enough self-respect and self-esteem that we treat ourselves in a kind and gentle way just as we would anyone we really care for. So why not care for ourselves, too? Let's be gentle with ourselves. 

There's an old saying, "A pickpocket only sees a saint's pockets." What is significant to us in our daily life right now? Surely not just our daily routine, and surely not just our weekend leisure time. What gives us a deeper sense of meaning and reality in the midst of all the comings and goings of life? When we were quite young, perhaps pleasure gave our life its deepest meaning, so we pursued pleasure as our goal. Then perhaps success and achievement became our reason for being. Yet beyond pleasure, success and achievement there seems to be a profound yearning and longing to experience or realize a peace and freedom that is somehow outside of human striving. We might call this the longing for enlightenment or liberation. When this longing for liberation becomes operant in our hearts, our whole sense of the significance of things undergoes a profound and subtle change. We become aware of ourselves and our lives in quite a different way, and our attitude toward the ups and downs of life correspondingly changes. Instead of asking what will give us pleasure or success, we ask: what will free us? 

A Chinese story tells of a widowed mother who received support from her two sons. One son sold fans; the other son sold umbrellas. Every morning, when she awoke, she would look outside of her window at the day; if it was a cloudy, rainy day, she would wring her hands and moan, "Oh, my son will sell no fans today." If on the other hand, it was a bright, sunny day, the mother would wring her hands and moan, "Oh, my son will sell no umbrellas today." This woman felt that either way, sun or rain, she would lose, until someone pointed out, either way, sun or rain, you win. An optimist once fell out of a sixth-story window— as he was passing the third floor window, someone yelled out at him, "How's it going?" The man yelled back, "So far, so good." 

At some point in our life we have felt called to choose a certain path as opposed to all the other paths in life. Be it a vocational career, a relationship commitment or a spiritual path, we have chosen to move through life in a certain direction. These kinds of choices give our life meaning, coherence and integrity. In order to learn a language, we have to limit the infinity of possible sounds to a very finite number in order to produce meaning; so we, at times, have to choose a certain direction from all possible directions we could take. We need to trust that the direction we have chosen is the right one for. us. It will sustain and support us. We don't need to look back or try to second-guess our choices. We can relax and have faith in the way we are going. 

Some years ago, I used to live right around the corner from the New Mexico State Fairgrounds where, during its inception, the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta was held. It is interesting that the first couple of years, this event was poorly attended with only a few balloons participating and not many more people. The critics of the early festival were quick to point out that this was one of those 'hot air' fiascoes that would never get off the ground. Today that same event— which had such humble beginnings— is a world-class festival drawing hundreds of thousands of participants and visitors to our city each year. Our dreams always begin in very small and seemingly insignificant ways. There are always those around who are quick to point out that "It won't work—whatever it is." Yet when we stay focused on our dreams, we live to see them come into realization in ways beyond our conceiving. 

As there are different seasons of the year, so are there different seasons in our life. Each season of our life has its appropriate activity and concerns. When we are young, we are concerned with the material world and our appropriate functioning within it. As we become mature adults, we are concerned with committed relationships, including family, social and vocational responsibilities. As we move into retirement years, again our concerns shift, and we may now have the leisure to pursue inner goals of self-understanding and spiritual realization. Each season of our life is best— because each season brings with it a new kind of fulfillment and joy. 

A six year old was very proud because a new baby was coming into his family. Every day he bragged about the upcoming event to his first grade teacher. One day his mother let him feel the movements of the unborn baby. When he went to school the next day, he was unusually quiet. Finally, his teacher asked, "What is happening with the new baby?" The little boy burst into tears and said, "I think my mother ate him." Sometimes we don't quite understand what's really happening in a situation, and we have a tendency to always jump to the worst conclusion. What may be a natural process of unfoldment may appear to us as something terrible happening. We probably just need to relax and let the Good that is there come forth in the situation. 

Idries Shah tells the story of a four year old boy who was taken by his nursemaid each day to see a statue of General Gordon mounted on a camel in a park in the city of Khartoum. When the family was leaving Khartoum, the little boy asked to be taken to the park one last time to say good-bye to General Gordon. "I shall miss you General Gordon," the boy said, gazing at the statue— and as they were turning away, the boy asked the nursemaid, "Nanny, who is that man on General Gordon's back?" Sometimes the reason things aren't quite working out for us is that we need a different perspective. We need to change, not what we are seeing, but the way we are seeing it. Like the little boy who assumed that the camel was General Gordon, we too at times make assumptions based on an erroneous perception of reality. When we feel stuck, let's shift our focus so that we see things from a new point of view. Many times, a simple shift of perspective will free up new energy and inspiration from deep within us. 

Someone once asked Carl Jung, "Could you please tell me the shortest path to my life's goal?" Without any hesitation, Jung replied, "The detour." We've heard of happy accidents and fortunate fiascoes. Someone once said how surprised he always is that so much good comes into his life when he is looking the other way. We tend to think of our life in terms of a straight, steady progression from good to good, but it's usually much more of a zig-zag. Instead of seeing our growth only from a linear sequence of goals achieved, we can also see it organically: as a flower unfolds from the center outwards, we too may be unfolding in a multi-foliate way. We can trust that at the point we seem most lost or unsettled, we may be reaching a good beyond our imagining.