‘A lot has been said about walking the path of awakening, so I’ll mention just one thing that relates to taking on a day-to-day practice of enlightenment. Especially early on, most of us still have a lot of self-centeredness, by which I mean belief in the absolute reality of the self and the primacy of its concerns and reactions. One of the bemusing results is that here we are, hoping for an event that by its nature is unprecedented in our lives, and we think we know best about how to make it happen. We try to exert control over the process, believing we can find our way to enlightenment through acts of will.
There is mad discipline and insane persistence on this path, but they’re in the service of something more fruitful than certainty, control, and will. They’re in the service of availability. Just keep showing up. Sit the meditation, attend the retreat, absorb the teachings, face the fear, feel the sorrow, endure the boredom, explore the doubt, stay open to the disturbing and also the knee-bucklingly beautiful in your life.’ (from Lion’s Roar)
Shundo David Haye 
In my elf-centered-ness I expected the world and others to conform to and provide for my comfort and ease. How self-centered can one get.?Goodness! But alas, it was me who had to take that inward 360 degree turn and make that effort to be a blessing. Then like the shifting of a shadow when the earth revolves around the sun I was made even more content as we all struggle to be in nurturing reation to.each other.
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