What do I do??

True story:

One of my father's teachers is himself a direct student of the Dalai Lama. In fact, when the Dalai Lama comes to the US, he often stays with this guy... I'll call him Sensei Seijaku.

One day, Sensei Seijaku and the Dalai Lama were walking together somewhere in the US, and this lady ran up to the Dalai Lama and fell at his feet crying. She was an older American woman, and she started to give a long accounting of the problems she was having in her life. They were very complicated problems! There were issues with her kids, her husband, her kids' marriages, you name it, and as she went on and on, the Dalai Lama listened to her compassionately.

Finally, as she began to wind down, she asked, "What do I do???"

The Dalai Lama gently helped her to stand up. He dusted her off. And in pretty good English he said, "I don't know!" as he shrugged his shoulders at her.

No one knows how to solve your problems... not even the Dalai Lama. However, if you think that the object of Life is to solve your problems, then you are missing the point!

It's not about not having problems. It's about how you deal with them.

Even if you had a way to successfully tackle each problem that you came across, and won at it, your life would still contain problems.

So far, I've dished out a lot of advice here, but I haven't said much about what one could DO to live a better life. For reasons I've stated before, I'm a little leary of doing this, because not all advice would apply to everyone. However, I will attempt to give out some extremely basic ideas and things you could do to start, if you are an average Westerner living in the early 21st century:

1) Pay Attention - I've talked about this before. Read some previous posts.

2) Pay your bills - Maslo's hierarchy of needs is a neat little scheme. Look it up. It says that you cannot tend to your higher needs unless your lower needs are met. First get safe from physical danger. Then get your physical needs met (food, warmth, sex, sleep) while also getting your financial needs met. Unless you are a monk living in a monastery, you cannot evolve spiritually unless you've got a J-O-B.

3) Don't do drugs - Just say no! But seriously, if you are addicted to drugs like marijuana or heavier, you need to stop doing that before you can get anywhere. Drugs are good for altering your State of consciousness but not your Stage of development. My aim has always been about Stages, not States.

4) Be able to stick to a routine - This can be hard for me, but it's important. On the same day that Draja taught me about Beliefs, he also gave me an assignment: relax for 20 minutes every day. By this he meant that for 20 minutes I had to do deep relaxation, as per the way he taught me that day, and I had to do it every day without fail for a year. In fact, i didn't see him for a year after that. I'm not telling you to relax for 20 minutes every day, but I am mentioning that you should have a routine that you force yourself to stick to as best you can. For example, get up every day at the same time and go to sleep at the same time every night. Try to eat at the same time every day. I'm not telling you to go on any funky liberal granola head diets. I'm just saying you should master sleeping and eating! It's not as easy as you might think but it will do loads for your spiritual development. Namely, it will make you more mindful.

There are some more basics, but start with those if you're interested. I didn't make them up, but rather they are a compilation of a few different teachers. The last one I attribute more to David Reynolds' book "Constructive Living".