So one of the critical questions on the spiritual path, and always at the end of retreats,

this is the focus after we've been in kind of a quietness.

The question is really, how do we bring the qualities of heart and awareness that we're

really trying to cultivate and meditation into daily life?

It is the single biggest most compelling question.

I mean, this isn't about just sitting on a cushion or a chair and closing your eyes,

and it's really how to live the awareness that's waking up through us.

What it has to do with in our families and with our colleagues and our friends, how do

we stay aligned with our hearts?

This question has a shadow side, it ends up causing trouble when there's some idea of

what it means to be a spiritual person.

We have some expectation that, oh, I'm doing this kind of meditation or I'm on the spiritual

path, and I should go around and be very mindful and move a little more slowly and

only say a certain kind of thing in a soft, lelting tone of voice, so if you're getting

with the point, but it's a challenge because we have some expectations as to our conduct

that we should be pausing and centering and always behaving in a way that conveys kindness

and we don't.

And so how not to have it become an expectation filled with judgment and to know that when

that same inquiry, how do we bring these qualities into daily life come through a place of longing

that it matters to us because we really want to live from the truth of who we are.

That's why it matters, not because we want to be somebody different that fits an expectation.

Then that question becomes incredibly empowering.

...