It appears to me that instead of a straight path most of us take a quite a few side roads on our journey. We may get involved with people who are not helping us in our spiritual aspirations or perhaps we get discouraged at times and find ourselves slipping. We may even find that material conditions become more and more demanding and we let these conditions discourage our efforts. We also can be brought into tempting situations that we find difficult not to get involved in. These are some of the ways that I see as setbacks in our spiritual life.
I get sidetracked, or tempted, all the time, for me the key is realizing at that moment that it is a sidetrack. No sense in dwelling on past, even if it was just a moment ago, it's done, you see it for what it was, and makes it easier next time it happens, for me anyway.
Still there are times when even I know it for what it is, I end up entertaining it anyway. Somehow I ignore the right path even when I know what the right path is. We're just not perfect, but realizing all this is half the battle won.
