Question: How can we know if we are practicing properly?
Response: We know if our behavior begins to improve even just a bit. How? We might find ourselves reacting more calmly. Instead of becoming frustrated with the person at work who always gives us a hard time, we might find ourselves wondering why he does so. And wondering if he’s unhappy about something. Or worried. Or afraid.
When something occurs that previously would have had us angrily voicing our frustration, we might find ourselves wondering if we could have contributed to the situation. Did we do something that frustrated the other person in the past? Perhaps instead of quietly pointing out something they had done wrong, we blurted it out and embarrassed them in front of other people.
It's not uncommon to feel that we may not be making any progress. But others notice a difference and comment on it. They may say that we're more patient and less irritable. That we seem more considerate, less hurried when we do things.
We know we are practicing properly if we just feel happy when chanting. We look at the Buddha or bodhisattva image and just feel good. We feel that this chanting is the most important thing to be doing, that this is one time we don't need to worry about doing anything else.
And we smile.