The idea of adding one more responsibility to our lives can be a non-starter for some of us. How can we possibly fit any more work into the day? This perspective is of course dominated by our perception of how things are and, as it turns out, has little to do with reality.
When we add things to or subtract things from our lives these choices can have one of two effects. They can make us busier by making us more confused and causing us more problems or they can make us less busy by cultivating clarity of mind. The question is not whether we are adding or subtracting activities, the question is which activities are we adding or subtracting?
Let’s consider the case where a person finds himself very busy with work and other affairs. Would the addition of meditation practice make such a person busier? I don’t think so. Meditation practice would have the effect of bringing that person’s mind into the present moment so that he can see what actions are worthy of his precious time and which actions are just useless busy work.
Therefore, we should challenge the notion that we don’t have time for additional tasks. A more sophisticated approach is to carefully assess the nature of those tasks and what impact they are expected to have on the progress of our daily lives. With this understanding on our side, we can finally start to devote resources to our spiritual development.