Duty, discipline and determination, 2011 [2020]

Written in 2011 by James Low with the intention to help a particular person and their practice.

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Excerpts

…Everyone we meet is someone we are in debt to – there is a non-negotiable duty to act for their welfare.  Duty is a sense of obligation.  It is not the friend of the ego’s flighty freedom, the desire to follow one’s own inclination.  When we accept a duty there is a diminution of the freedom to do as we like – although we may find a different kind of freedom within the constraints of duty…

…Developing duty, discipline and determination are not lower practices but are vital aspects of the falling away of intoxication from the fantasies of the ego’s imaging.  For the activity of dharma to continue they are necessary aids; they are the supports that ease the passage back to the source that has not been left.  Staying on track may sound restrictive but it opens the already-open door…