The point of becoming aware of our own neuroses and obstacles is not to stew in them and make ourselves feel worse; the point is to remedy them. These neuroses are not “you,” after all; they are an obstacle to you. They are an impediment to what you aspire to be and who you truly are. We aspire to be liberated and compassionate, not bound by our habitual reactiveness or prejudices. In acknowledging and understanding our neuroses, we naturally take the next step toward employing wisdom and skillful means. This doesn’t happen just because we want it to. We need to be interested and willing to get in there and understand the impediment in order to then apply the remedy. To “get out,” we have to “go in”—to explore the neurosis and precisely understand what is happening in our own experience. This creates room for wisdom and skillful means, or tabshé in Tibetan, to naturally arise. This is how we discover and apply the practice of diligence. There is tremendous joy in this process because along the way we come to know who we truly are.

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

from the book Diligence: The Joyful Endeavor of the Buddhist Path

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