the path is the goal

Apprentice Something I seem to experience a lot is the two extremes of feeling really inspired and motivated and then feeling like I’m not sure why I’m doing this – or maybe it’s more a case of ‘Can I do this?’

Ngala ’ö-Dzin This is common experience. We oscillate between motivation and inspiration, and times of uncertainty. Enjoy the times of motivation and inspiration, and the energy this generates. When you feel unsure as to why you are practising, allow the thread of confidence of your practice and your relationship with us keep you at it. This is where effort and self discipline come into play.

Ngala Nor’dzin With regard to ‘Can I do this?’, in a sense the answer is ‘No’ – because it is the needing to do it that means we cannot. As soon as we can do it, we won’t need to do it any more anyway. The path is the goal. Once we have arrived at the goal we no longer need to travel the path. Once we are travelling the path we are discovering the goal.

Apprentice I guess to a large extent my swinging feelings come from me expecting something definite to happen to indicate that I’m ’‘getting somewhere’ – whatever that really means. But then knowing me and the way things work nothing like that will really happen until I stop expecting/wanting it to happen.

Ngala ’ö-Dzin Indeed. The signs of ‘getting somewhere’ may be quite subtle and unexpected. If we hold to a particular idea of what it means to be ‘getting somewhere’’ then we may distort our experience by yearning and hunting for that idea and miss the actual signs of ‘getting somewhere’. We are as we are and if we continue to practice – ‘getting somewhere’’ is guaranteed.