All of us are apprenticed to the same teacher that the
religious institutions originally worked with: reality.
Reality-insight says . . . master the twenty-four hours.
Do it well, without self-pity. It is as hard to get the children
herded into the car pool and down the road to the bus as
it is to chant sutras in the Buddha-hall on a cold morning.
One move is not better than the other, each can be quite
boring, and they both have the virtuous quality of repetition.
Repetition and ritual and their good results come in
many forms. Changing the filter, wiping noses, going to
meetings, picking up around the house, washing dishes,
checking the dipstick—don’t let yourself think these are
distracting you from your more serious pursuits.
Such a round of chores is not a set of difficulties we
hope to escape from so that we may do our “practice”
which will put us on a “path”—it is our path.
GARY SNYDER, The Practice of the Wild