If it feels good, do it?

What's the usual way that we decide to spend our time? How do we decide?

Some things we just decide once and then we have to keep doing it. Like accepting a job and then having to show up every day in order to keep that job. Or maybe you have to re-decide every day. Do I still want to keep this job or not? Should I get out of bed or not?

Once you have a baby, then I guess a lot of things are decided for you. Have to get up in the middle of the night to feed it, have to change diapers. Years of activities are decided by that one act of having a baby.

Maybe most people fill up their lives like that, making a few big decisions which then use up all their time.

But what about the spare time? How about for those of us who still have some free time, or could rearrange things to fit something extra in? How do you decide what to do then?

Mainly pleasure, I think. If it feels good, do it. Right?

Eat something nice, sit on a soft seat, read a fun book, watch an exciting movie, flirt, have sex, get some kind of athlete's high, shop, go to a spa, do some kind of hobby that gives you some kind of satisfaction.

So where does formal Dharma practice fit into that? Is it fun? Does it feel good?

Formal Dharma practice in the Gelug lineage (and maybe for most other Tibetan Buddhists as well) is going to involve sitting on your meditation seat and doing some recitations, some rituals, and some mind training. It's entertaining in the beginning because it's novel. It's mysterious. It's an adventure. And for some people, who have positive imprints from past lives, there can even be a quick reward of blissful feelings and realizations. But for many of us, formal practice involves some discomfort--maybe stiff knees, maybe boredom.

So what is going to compel us to do our sadhana?

I'll leave it here for now and come back to this topic later.

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