Report 67

"Expectations of goals and rewards (such as Enlightenment) are recognized for what they are: last-ditch attempts by the ghostly self to subvert the process to its own ends. The more we become conscious of the mysterious unfolding of life, the clearer it becomes that its purpose is not to fulfill the expectations of our ego." -- Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism Without Beliefs

It seems that our lives are programmed to work towards the attainment of goals, especially via the curricular indoctrination process provided by our educational systems. Eckhart Tolle tells an amusing story about this: someone goes to a spiritual lecture and is so pleased because they have been given a seven step program that will take four years!

The world is vibrant, changing and unpredictable but we want to narrow it to some kind of expectation of how it should be. There is an assumption that there is something lacking with how it is now and that we need to do something to improve it. How do we let go of that? Live with the 'mysterious unfolding' and see what happens.

"Zen teaching and meditation are not about finding or attaining anything. They're about noticing what out actual situation is. And your actual situation is that you are not lacking a thing." Steve Hagen