Maintaining Focus.

hey all,

I haven't written anything in a while.  Seems my inspiration has waned a bit...:)

Work has been busy, but slowing down just a bit due to the time of year.  My traveling schedule is also slowing and that's good.  I'm sure that's temporary...:)

I guess the one thing that has been on my mind a lot has been how my tranquility waxes and wanes with the intensity of focus on my practice.

For whatever reason, I have a hard time focusing on several things at once.  More accurately, I am the kind of person who must constantly focus on my personal philosophy or I get distracted and begin to drift away.  I wonder if this is the reason why priests, modern and ancient, pagan, Christian, Buddhist, etc, speak frequently of maintaining focus?  They use different phrases, 'practicing the presence of God', 'Living the Dharma' and others, but the principle seems to be that in order to maintain that certain mind-frame that we must constantly focus on our practice.

It's most noticeable for me when I begin to let the little things in life annoy me and irritate me.  I'll be sitting in traffic and the slow-poke ahead of me has me cussing and grumping because they are going 5 miles too slow.  Or, material items that usually don't interest me suddenly become necessary to my happiness.  The scenario plays itself out in myriad ways, but the underlying issue remains the same.

The only way I know to regain my 'composure' is to pick up where I left off, dust myself off and return to what I know best.

"When force of circumstance upsets  your equanimity, lose to time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help.  Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it."

enough said.

Brett