Al: What Lama Sing is suggesting in the message, Choice at the Onset of the Day, is very powerful. Sometimes, however, it is very difficult to discern a habit or choice due to its long tenure in being a part of who you are. It may take a number of such efforts to make the more subtle, intimate habits visible.
Still, as you begin the day with a fresh clarity strengthened by a minute or two spent in prayer, your perception will become more and more clear as the days pass. Throughout the day’s activities you will begin to feel something within, nudging you to “see” that a reaction about to take place is coming from habit, not conscious choice. Realizing this and seeing the habit for what it is, a shadow from the past, you can free yourself from it.
If each morning that follows you repeat this process, you’ll soon find yourself moving through the day feeling lighter and happier. This is because such subtle old habits burden us. They are limiting energies from something in the past that is no longer valid, an experience that we can build on rather than carrying it over and over into each new day.
It is remarkable how well what Lama Sing is suggesting works if you stay with it. I am reminded of the old freight trains that struggle to get going pulling all those empty cars behind them. In real life, many of our habits are just like empty freight cars. There is nothing in them, just the shell of a memory long gone.
I love Al’s image of the old freight train dragging along all the empty boxcars. As usual, a lot of useful wisdom here that we can apply to our daily life.