“In my life, the mystical journey has not led to a withdrawl from life but has led directly to a new intimacy with life. I have realized that freedom from suffering and spiritual awakening occurs within the very fabric of my ordinary life. The famous 20th-century German artist Josef Beuys once remarked: ‘The mystery is happening in the train station.’ And on this pilgrimage through life, the question arises about how we become more intimate with ourselves and embrace the moment wherever it finds us.”
“Faith also means thoroughly recognizing that one’s everyday life situation is where awakening is possible, and we do not need to be anywhere different, unique, or spiritual to find the Eternal. One day, the famous 20th-century Buddhist master Xu Yun (Empty Cloud) was asked ‘The world is changing fast; where should I go to maintain my practice?’ He replied, ‘To the student of the Tao, his home is everywhere, and if you only lay down everything, the place that you are is a Bodhimandala (place for realizing the truth).’”

–Arnie Lade, Zen and the Mystic Impulse

Many years ago I was considering moving out of my home state for a fresh start. I had many things to work on psychologically, and part of me thought I needed to get away from my then-current context.

But, at the end of the day, it felt like it would have been escapeism. I would have been running away from my problems instead of working through them where I was. I decided that my place of development (in the above quote, my Bodhimandala) was right where I was.

The place where we can practice, and develop, and grow, is right here, in the midst of everyday life. There’s no other place that exists outside of that anyway.