Length Of Time

The length of time you are a member of something or practice something is never more important than the present day.  You might be a Baptized Christian or Bar Mitzvah Jew for many years, but if you are not trying to live that out today, you are going backwards.  Good habits can get us to today, but the habit does not guarantee power over your "will."  You must decide each day to live out your path. Yesterday's meditation, or sobriety, or kindness does not guarantee you will do as well today.  All paths are a daily practice.  Buddhism does not call itself a religion, but it does call itself a "practice."  The emphasis is not on a ritual whereby you are now an official Buddhist.  It is more of a daily practice of meditation that will lead to right ethical behavior.  I know of people who had been sober for many years.  Then they got drunk!  They had stopped the practice that got them sober in the first place.  Nor does a lifetime of bad behavior guarantee bad behavior today.  The "Good Thief" on the cross had only a few breaths to make a change.  He did.  I hear tell he is in Paradise.  To ignore daily practice is a slippery slope down.  To begin a practice of growth is a hard daily climb.  It is hard to be good.  Maureen said I was made for "bad."  Is she is Paradise with that good thief?