“Insight is the human capacity to see outside of our conditioned way of seeing; it is literally the ability to see what we are in the habit of not seeing.  It is a natural capacity that we all share, as is the ability to put it to work in our lives.”

Day 20, Rolf Gates, Meditations on Intention and Being

Day 332 – Daniel Coyle describes soft skills as the ones which “catch our eye because they are beautiful.”  Further, he writes about how these are built “by playing and exploring inside challenging, ever-changing environments.”  Such places are like the classroom, where I encounter obstacles and must respond to them over and over, building “the network of sensitive wiring” I need to “read recognize, and react.”  Intuitively, I have always sought new ways to challenge myself, to build soft skills, although they do not seem quite so beautiful.

In today’s reading, Rolf offers Padmasambhava’s words of wisdom in the opening quote:  “Though my view is as spacious as the sky, my actions and respect for cause and effect are as fine as grains of flour.”  In other words, what good is the spaciousness in our bodies, minds, and hearts if we do not put these into action?  Insight is everything.  I need just think of what impact each moment of my day will have on my own self, my family, my students, my world.  Well, no small feat, I suppose.

What am I missing here?  Focusing on creating beauty takes practice and I imagine even the most insightful person falls short sometimes. Yet, practice is everything.  Everything. Everything.