Engaging in the path - zencast

In the latest audio Dharma by Zencast, Gil Fronsdal holds a talk with the title Engaging in the path. Following the path is, according to the Buddha, not for the lazy, ro should that be translated into 'for the industrious'? Fronsdal proposes there are a multitude of paths and wonders how one can have the faith, or the conviction, to engage fully into one, the apparently right one.

There is a certain risk and he reminds his audience of a saying: Ships are safe in the harbor - but they are not built for lying there. Hence, engaging in the path involves taking the leap and embark anyway. While being underway one can and must adjust, choose, to stick or to divert, to deepen or to broaden. There is no one right answer. Fronsdal focuses on one of two views: when going on a mountain trek, what is the right approach to the path? Is it all about the target of the journey, or is it about the process?

He insists one cannot do without the other. When one moves, one must have a sense of goal, one must strive to get somewhere - it is too easy, to diverse to stick with the process alone. Yet, when this is all about goals, what when the goal is reached? Sit back? Or rush to the next? What if it is not? One big failure? One must see what is happening all the time; one must commit to contributing to the journey along the path. Well, that is how I put it in my words.