The 53rd lojong slogan is “Don’t vacillate.” Quite simply, it means being consistent in your practice. You may have noticed, we have a tendency to bounce all around in our commitment. In West Texas parlance, we call this straddling the fence. And everyone knows when you straddle the fence you’re most likely to fall off.

Traleg Kyabgon says, “We should work at being consistent with our practice, rather than cultivating an all-or-nothing approach… Cramming all our practice into intensive periods and then falling back into worldly life will bear far less fruit than doing small amounts of practice consistently over the long haul.” We know this. But it’s fall, and we may find ourselves in a very welcome routine again after the summer months, and we may just want to go headlong into a routine. That’s great if it lasts. But if we come out of the gate too quickly and fall off, we can remember that we can also just ease into it. We don’t have to go big or go home. We just have to keep showing up.

That means not being perfectionistic about our meditation practice in particular. Have you only got five minutes today, and it’s at 11pm? That works. Keep the practice going. Choose consistency over perfection every time.

One other thing that happens when we vacillate is that we let our minds ping-pong all over the place. We get ourselves all mired in unproductive thinking- the kind that just goes round and round without any plan for an exit. Funny enough, this serves as a lovely reminder of why we practice in the first place. We don’t want to be stuck. We want to be awake. So, don’t vacillate. Pick a side of the fence. Norman Fischer says, “In the big picture of things there is nothing at all to be confused about, and there is no choice but to maintain a stable and kind mind no matter what.”

That’s a helpful perspective. Zoom out, see the big picture, and realize a stable and kind mind is the only thing worth cultivating.

So what can you do this week to encourage a stable and kind mind in yourself?