Getting Stuck

I have listened to an interview with Pema Chodron who is a Buddist Nun. She told a story about the Dall Lama and his encounter with Western thought. (that would be us)
Apparent he was teaching about the wisdom of taking time for contemplation of God and some of the teachers were saying that the problem with the way he presented it was that those of us with Western Minds would hear him suggest that we ought to be in silence for 15 minutes and instead of that inspiring us we would put ourselves down for not doing that right or daily or long enough. We would look how we had gone wrong. He couldn't understand. In his Tibetan mind you believe in the goodness and not look for the shortcomings. They had to try and help him understand. He just smiled and shook his head.
We do that don't we? We hear that we should be always in prayer and instead of trying to pray more we say to ourselves, "Oh my You haven't been doing that at all..shame shame shame." Or we hear love your neighbor and we realize we spend most of our time judging other people....and not just getting out there and loving.
How silly we are and how complicated we make our lives. How we lose sleep over shoulds and oughts and don't just get about the business at hand.
Sigh
Go for it. Go for living in the present and being the ones who are present to others/with others.
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2007