The root text for the second practice instructs us to use one attitude to counteract all withdrawal. Entering into a spiritual practice, we may occasionally come to the morose conclusion that we were better off before we started. We may feel that our own mental distortions are stronger, that we are more uptight, or that people seem to get angry at us more often. Perhaps our family disapproves of our practicing Buddhism. We may feel that the emphasis on service in the cultivation of bodhicitta demands a kind of spiritual suicide: giving up everything, never thinking of ourselves. We become dejected and withdraw, thinking that the project ahead of us is hopelessly overwhelming: there is just so much housecleaning to do in this mind of ours. Procrastination becomes a wonderful crutch here. Maybe when we are older, or better yet in the next lifetime, then it will be easier. We put our practice in the back seat or throw it out the window altogether. What to do?

First of all, when we become discouraged and begin to withdraw, recognize what is happening: "I am disillusioned with the practice. I thought I would progress more quickly than I have." Then recognize also that in this world there are so many, many beings who, like ourselves, are striving for happiness and wishing to be free of suffering, and who are engaging in ineffective means for accomplishing these ends. Sechibuwa suggests that we counteract dejection by reaching out to all sentient beings around us. Offer them our body, our virtues, and our prayers that they may meet with effective means for finding true happiness and freeing themselves of suffering.

Excerpted from: A Passage from Solitude, by B. Alan Wallace. 1992 by Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, New York 14851.