Control

I find it a a bit arrogant when people try to tell others what to do in any spiritual practice.  To me it seems like a form of control, or a narrowness of what is “right and correct.”  I am not God.  I do not have full knowledge, but I do have some experience. So I tend to share with someone what worked for me.  I share my experience and hope that my life reflects some positive growth coming from my practice.  There are certain basics.  You have to do the “work” in trying to improve your life, or salvage a life from some past wreckage.  And if people are following a certain way or program or wisdom tradition, I will ask how that has helped to move them into a fuller life, or at least a less crazy one, in the beginning.  When someone says to me, “I try to do this or that but I don’t have time or get around to it,” I tell them I did that behavior too and my life just got worse over time.  Sometimes desperation is all that will get a person to drop excuses and do the work.