In this episode I'd like to explore the role of self reliance on the Buddhist path  •  the basic idea is that nobody can walk your path for you; even if we encounter the wisest teachers and most supportive community that ever existed, fundamentally, at some very deep level, each of us is on our own  •  we must confront our own mind, our own emotions, our own habits; each of us must discover what this journey of awakening is all about  •  the quality of self reliance is very much related to a sense of persistence—learning how to just stick with something when our inspiration wanes  •  we might look for shortcuts, for ways to beat the system, so to speak; but there's really no way around the fact that if we want any results, we need to persist  •  one way of looking at this is to compare an escalator and a staircase  •  with an escalator, you just hop on and it lifts you up to your destination  •  it seems so much better than trudging up a staircase  •  but when you reach the top of the escalator, you haven’t really changed  •  when you walk up a staircase, one step at a time, you're building strength; with each step, something is transforming  •  the person at the top is very different from the person who took that first step.