In a lecture on Spiritual Materialism, I remember Chogyam Trungpa Ripoche describing the phenomena of pursuing one spiritual path, then another, then another. It’s a bit like a kid in a candy store… “oooh, I want that one…. no that one…. oh no that one!” The point is that this constant jumping from one path to another does not lead to real spiritual progress, just to jumping.

That basic idea applies to everything in our lives. Do you know someone (maybe yourself) that constantly jumps from one thing to another and never seems to get anything done. Many years ago I had a business partner that seemed to actually prefer constant activity to making money. It was amazing. We would have a signed deal on the table that meant a lot of money, but he would drop that deal to pursue something new. Needless to say, we weren’t partners very long.

It’s the same thing with diet and exercise. Try one thing, then try another, then try another. Sound familiar?

The fact is that in order to make real progress we have to stick to something and actually do it. That’s doesn’t mean you have to pick the first thing you run across and stick with it. It might take a little time to find something that you really like and resonate with. But once you’ve found it, then do it and stick with it.

And that takes us to a little more in depth consideration of the human mind. Have you ever noticed that our minds just love to be entertained. Well, just in case you haven’t thought about that take a look at all the TV, radio, movies, sports, books, magazines, etc. that are surrounding us. They’re all one form of entertainment or another. Some are obvious entertainment, while others like news programs are more subtle because they’re informative entertainment. Somehow we rationalize that something that is informative has a higher intrinsic value than say a cartoon.

It’s not particularly useful to debate if news stories are more valuable than cartoons, but it is important to realize that when we are being entertained we are not doing anything. And to achieve anything you must actually do something… and that means you’ve got to distinguish being entertained from actually doing something.

To read about one spiritual path after another so that you can talk about them intelligently at cocktail parties is absolutely not the same thing as actually following a spiritual path… say by meditating year after year. In fact, I remember when I first started studying Zen being asked by my Zen master if I knew much about Zen and Buddhism. I proudly responded, “Yes, I’ve read quite a few books about them.” With a very serious look on his face he responded, ”Oh, well that’s ok. I think we can overcome that.”

In the final analysis it is the ego being entertained and the ego that inflates itself by placing a value on the entertainment. It’s the ego that says, “I am learning this new thing, so now I’m smarter.” The funny thing is that this whole approach to happiness is based on the mistaken notion that one’s ego is inherently existent and a valid point of view… at least mistaken in Buddhist thinking. Doing is different than thinking you’re doing.

So, the thought for today is to distinguish when you are being entertained or entertaining yourself mentally from when you actually are accomplishing results. Then remember that extraordinary results are achieved by small continuous efforts… by actually accomplishing daily victories.