The Mechanics

I know people who seem very happy, kind and caring, who used to live quite dreadful lives.  I think to myself, "They must have wonderful spiritual experiences that keep them living such a full life."  I think of my own spiritual practice in which I have days where I just do the "mechanics."  I do my prayer practice but feel nothing special. I go on faith.  I surrender to discipline, but have no engrossing spiritual experience.  When I ask these people what they do, I find out that they too have days in which they simply practice the mechanics.  They avoid bad behavior or places and situations where they used to indulge in such behavior.  They read a spiritual book, and do some prayers and meditation.  Over the long haul, I think it is all about surrender to a discipline.  As blah as I might feel on any given day, it sure beats any disasters from dreadful bad habits that I try to keep in the past, the distant past.