“How we do anything 

is how we do everything.”

Flitting like a hummingbird on a nectar high, our mind alights one second on the news we are hearing on the TV, the next to what we’ll have for dinner tomorrow, then quickly on to what on earth is our neighbor doing to produce such strange noises. All these are going on as our computer beckons—while the work we are supposed to be doing remains untouched. Then our spouse fumes and frets because we are not helping to clean the house.

The saying “How we do anything is how we do everything” cautions us that everything we do does indeed matter. Procrastination and delays will get us nowhere. Literally and metaphorically. The needed action still requires us to do something about it and we need to work on it.

And so we would do well to ask ourselves, Do I honestly want to stay this way, the way I am? And what about the rest of my life? Do I have good habits? Am I a good role model? Or a repeat time-waster? Hopefully, we’ll prudently choose the way we want to spend our next few minutes.

And the years to come.

“If many beings have been born in the Pure Land and they have vowed to help us,where are they?”

“If many beings have been born in the Pure Land

and they have vowed to help us,

where are they?”

They could be here already! They just don’t walk up and say “Hi, I’m from the Pure Land, and I’m here to help you.” We wouldn’t believe them! Remember the story of a man who drowned and went to heaven?

This man asked God why God hadn’t saved him from drowning. God asked if he remembered the farmer who came by in a boat. The farmer offered to rescue him but he declined, saying he was waiting for God. “That was me,” God said. “But you refused my help because you were waiting for God.”

Like that man, we have preconceived ideas of how awakened beings will help us. So we’re not aware of true help when we see it. It comes from those who humbly work to build a center. From the cooks who prepare the meals at a retreat so we can chant in the cultivation hall. From the master who spends hours trying to find the right words to help his students understand the teachings.

Our help is here already. We just need to open our hearts and minds to see it.