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By Lama Michel What is it that hinders us in gaining spiritual realisations? Among the many factors, doubtlessly laziness is one of them, an old enemy which manifests in several different ways, even when we are intent on doing something positive. The first step to overcome laziness is to recognise it and defeat it gradually, that is day by day, moment by moment. There are basically four types of laziness: the first is when one is not motivated and does not feel like doing something; the second is always putting off till tomorrow what should be done today; for example we often say to ourselves: “today I do not have time, but tomorrow I will pray and meditate for at least one full hour”; however, the next day we are still there repeating: “well not today, but tomorrow for sure...”. In this way, we end up by putting things off for months or sometimes even years! The third type of laziness is the worst of them all (although that does not diminish the other three): engaging in negative actions and not doing anything positive. This is actually a very active type of laziness which is rather widely spread in our modern society. We will go to any length to increase the speed of our lifestyle, with cars, aeroplanes, mobile telephones, computers and so forth, yet we never find the time to pray, meditate, assist a friend or those in need, study the Dharma ... However, we always find the time to engage in idle gossip, joke, chit chat, for watching television, reading newspapers, going out to bars and discoteques till all hours of the night, in other words, to do all those mondaine things which in the final analysis do not help us in our inner development and growth. The fourth kind of laziness is when we say: “Ah! but I am not able to do this” or still “this job is too difficult for me”. This type of laziness creates blockages in our mind and turns us into passive people who do not feel like doing anything. Now, let us pause for just one minute and look within ourselves, remembering the importance of all that we are truly trying to achieve. Let us keep present in our mind all that which requires an effort on our part: this is the true antidote to laziness. (Edited by Tiziana Ciasullo) |
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