Plumbing the Depths: Actualizing Realization in Everyday Life

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This coming together as a Sangha, sitting with patient faces of equanimity, is a wonderful demonstration of the actualization of our realization. This realization is based on the patient work we do—examining the characters, roles, labels, judgments, and circumstances of our lives. It is about looking deeply into how we construct ourselves, how we construct others, and the stories that hold us together but also force us apart. Through patience and a polite refusal to look away, we see that all of these things point to one truth. This one place where there is no scarcity, no lack, and always wonder.

But if you want to actualize this fully, if you want to truly plumb the depths of your realization, you must look at where you tend to go when you retreat from the circumstances of your life. We often think there is being here, in the moment, and somewhere else. That "somewhere else" cannot remain a black box. When you retreat from your lived experience, what stories do you retreat into? Look at those stories. Understand how they came about, why they are so compelling, and why it is so easy for us to fall into them.

Only then will you truly understand your karmic inertia and be able to fill in the grooves that force you to stumble. Once you do this, the actualization of the realization we touch upon on the cushion will become the one-practice samadhi of your everyday life. So, do that today. When you want to retreat or look away, know where you go. Really plumb those depths. Don’t shrink from the fear of where those stories came from. Then, you will be able to understand and transcend them, bringing your life into balance and harmony.