Congruence

I'm reading an article right now entitled "Three Methods for Working with Chaos" by Pema Chödrön who has a rather wonderful history of "telling on herself", as it were, regarding her difficulties in living out what she teaches. Here's an example:

You may have noticed, however, that there is frequently an irritating, if not depressing, discrepancy between our ideas and good intentions and how we act when we are confronted with the nitty-gritty details of real life situations.

One afternoon I was riding a bus in San Francisco, reading a very touching article on human suffering and helping others. The idea of being generous and extending myself to those in need became so poignant that I started to cry. People were looking at me as the tears ran down my cheeks. I felt a great tenderness toward everyone, and a commitment to benefit others arose in me. As soon as I got home, feeling pretty exhausted after working all day, the phone rang, and it was someone asking if I could please help her out by taking her position as a meditation leader that night. I said, "No, sorry, I need to rest," and hung up.

It's not a matter of the right choice or the wrong choice, but simply that we are often presented with a dilemma about bringing together the inspiration of the teachings with what they mean to us on the spot. There is a perplexing tension between our aspirations and the reality of feeling tired, hungry, stressed-out, afraid, bored, angry, or whatever we experience in any given moment of our life.

I'm sure we can all come up with similar examples in our own lives.

I'm not saying we should scold ourselves for not measuring up. I am saying that true mindfulness means recognizing this incongruity and reflecting on how it comes about as well as its implications for our practice.