"Once a person is involved with meditation practice and with working on the spiritual path, then the problems encountered in engaging with society are not hang-ups anymore. They are creative opportunities. Those everyday-life situations become part of meditation practice. The situation slows you down, or the situation pushes you. It depends on how much you engage. If you are too engaged, then something will slow you down. If you are not involved enough, there will be some reminder that pushes you to get more involved.
"We have to work on our own attitude, to develop an attitude of openness. That will create an entirely new approach to working with situations such as life in the city. Then the city will reform in its own way. We can't really think that we are going to do this and that thing, and then the city will reform according to our wishes. We have to relate with a much bigger world that includes everyone, including the cowboys and cops. They are a source of inspiration, definitely. They are beautiful people, unique. We should work with them. In fact, at a certain stage, we won't be able to escape working with them. They will appear on our path, definitely so.
"We don't want to undermine the culture. Cultural situations provide a focal point, a focus for us to relate with. Therefore, we will work with them. We may begin to realize that both we and others make inaccurate evaluations of situations. However, the inaccuracy or the accuracy doesn't really matter. If you work along with situations, things become clear. The initial evaluation doesn't have to be the ultimate landmark. Any evaluation, any conceptual view, is just a relative landmark. We can use it and work with it as we go along.
"The more you involve yourself with society, the more experiences you have, the more workable situations will become. The intensity of your engagement brings space. The more intensity there is, that brings out more space. When you involve yourself with situations such as the overpopulation and the overpowering experience of being in the city, your involvement acts as a guardian. It helps others. It helps to protect them, because you refuse to abandon them. You can find inspiration within work, within sex, within money. Within those things, you can find a connection to the sacredness of society."
