Life is kind of funny, don’t you know… We all live in the reality that we live in. Then, there’s the projected reality. The reality that we wish we lived in.
 
As we pass through life, that abstract reality of what we want to be, but actually aren’t, changes and evolves. But, it’s always a part of our mind. Whenever we’re living our normal reality, we’re always questioning, the question… Why?
 
In some ways, it’s kind of fun; really! But, it’s all in how you look at it.
 
I know there’s a lot of things that we all do. Do, that we don’t really want to do. But, we have to do them anyway. That’s the reality of reality.
 
You know, everybody always goes back to the age-old Zen proverb, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” And, that’s really pretty much the way it is. No matter where you exist on your plane of existence, no matter how much you have or have not achieved, we all have to deal with the basic realities of life.
 
I really came to think about this a lot, as I was painting my patio yesterday. I had gone and bought the paint. I already had the paint brushes and all of that kind of stuff. …My drop cloth and all of that necessary supplements. But, then it came down to actually doing the doing. And, the doing is always that final step that you may or you may not want to take.
 
Personally, I really don’t mind painting. In fact, it’s kind of fun. As long as it’s not a long and forever drawn-out process.
 
To backstory here; just a bit… I’ve always been a bit wary of painting, however. I remember a million years ago, when I was a kid, my mother decided to paint one of the bedrooms in her family home. This isn’t where we lived. We lived in a crappy one-bedroom apartment over on 6th Street in what is now Koreatown at the time. This was a family home, located in the Midwest that her and her brother and her sister had bought for the family back in the 1940s; mostly for a place for their mother, my grandmother, to live throughout her later years. This was all before my mother moved to California and met my father.
 
My grandmother had long ago passed away by this point in time. But, my mother decided she wanted to paint her bedroom. She bought the paint, she bought the brushes, she bought the ladder, she bought all of that kind of stuff, and she went about it. What happened? She didn’t have any ventilation going on in the room, and she caught painter’s pneumonia.
 
They wanted to put her in the hospital, but my mother was one of those people who just refused to go to the hospital no matter what. Foolish, I believe. But, that’s the way she was. Thus, after a doctor’s visit, and getting some antibiotics, or whatever they gave her, she suffered through the next few days of intense fever, going in and out of consciousness, having hallucinations, and all of that kind of nonsense that would have been much better managed in a hospital room. But, we all make our choices. Thus, I have long understood the possible dangers of painting…
 
This leads me to a bit latter on… As a teenager, I was deeply involved with the Integral Yoga Institute. I was a horrible student. I was still in Hollywood High School, but one of the monks had set off on a business of painting, to help out with the finances of the Los Angeles Integral Yoga Institute, that was located just off of Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. As I spent more of my time there than not, in that era of my life, I always was very focused on helping, and doing karma yoga, and all of that kind of stuff for the IYI. I really wanted to help the institute as much as I could and to help out with the greater teachings of Swami Satchidananda. Anyway… The guy needed an assistant, and I offered myself up. For the next few days, we were up in the Hollywood Hills, painting this guy’s house. The guy was a real asshole, always finding flaws in what was being done.
 
The monk kept promising I was going to get paid, after I completed my internship. Whatever that was??? But, that wasn’t really why I was there. In any case, we spent our days painting. It really wasn’t that bad. In fact, I kind of enjoyed it. But then, my mother got pissed at me, and I had to go back to high school. So, my painting apprenticeship ended. The monk, he continued on with his painting for a while until it began to really take its toll on his breathing and his practice of pranayama. Eventually, he left the order altogether. But, that’s a whole other discussion.
 
Anyway, I guess this all comes back to what I’m talking about here… It’s all the mindset that you possess, while you’re doing what you’re doing. …Doing those things that you have to do.
 
I live near the Pacific Ocean. In fact, the patio that I was painting looks out over the Pacific Ocean.
 
For those of you who may not know this, ocean air is a strong deteriorating agent. I think most people that don’t live near the coast, don’t realize this. But, the salt air really eats its way through everything.
 
I remember when I was living right next to the ocean. In fact, I spent a number of years of my life living right on the water. I was much happier living there. Anyway, whenever I’d bring one of my guitars into my friend’s shop, who did all the work on my guitars, he would always make the comment, I know it’s Scott’s guitar because the latches on the case are all rusted. That’s one of those things that happens from the salt air; rust.
 
It’s not quite so bad where I’m currently living now, because I live a distance from the ocean. But, this being said, the air does take its toll on the wood and everything else. Thus, I was painting.
 
Hand-in-hand with painting my patio, I was also doing my laundry. Yes, I do my own laundry. Can you believe it?
 
Painting is one thing, the laundry is another. I really don’t enjoy doing it. I don’t enjoy the entire process. I don’t enjoy the putting it in the washing machine, changing it over to the dryer, taking it out, hanging the shirts, folding the pants, rolling up the socks and putting them in the drawer, and all of that kind of stuff. I leave all of my lady’s stuff up in a folded up neat pile, so she can deal with that stuff whenever she feels like it. But for me, I’ve got to do an ASAP.
 
I remember a million years ago, in the long ago and the far-far away, I would do the laundry and then I would just bring it back into my apartment and throw it in a pile. Then, I’d pick things out of that pile whenever I wanted to wear them. Everything was always supremely wrinkled.
 
Anyway, all this gets us to the point, (FINALLY), we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. Some of the stuff we may enjoy. Some of the stuff, though we don’t really enjoy it, we don’t mind doing it. Other stuff, we really don’t want to do it all. But, we have to do it. And, this is where the Zen of life and reality comes into play. It comes into play, for all of those things that we must do. Things, we may not like doing, but we must do them, nonetheless. This is where the enlightened mindset is found: in the acceptance, in the seeing the beauty of it all, in the making whatever you’re doing a focused meditation, and allowing it to become something more than something you don’t really want to do.
 
Can you do that? Can you make what you don’t really want to do something better and something more?
 
This is also where the reality of enlightenment comes into play. The place where you can make anything your pathway to nirvana. You just have to view it as that. You just have to remove Your Self from all that is negative. You have to remove Your Self from the equation. Especially in all those things you don’t really want to do.
 
Here, this is where satori is found. Found, in that space of perfection that is existing within its own perfection; whether the action is loved or hated. …Where you allow ALL to simply be what it is. From this, you make everything your meditative process. From this, you make all things your pathway to enlightenment.
 
Can you do that?