QUALITY (noun)
1. the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.
2. a distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something.
If you can reliably, and without drama, deliver precisely what you have promised, this is Quality.
Quality happens when a car, regardless of price, has doors that don’t squeak.
Or when a website doesn’t go down.
Or when your dry cleaning is ready on the day it’s promised, and your clothes are clean.
Quality is often related to excellence . . .
This is experienced as the clarity of the diamond, the luxurious nap of the wool or the precise handling of the sports car . . . usually something most others can’t match.
And then there’s the Quality of right effort, of “I did my best” . . . of the sweat and vulnerability that happens when a human has given it her/his all.
Quality is subjective, a matter of personal perspective:
A 100 million-dollar Hollywood movie might have more spectacular special effects or be more carefully edited, but it might not have the Quality you find in an Indie film.
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What is the Quality of your Dharma practice?
Consider:
When you’re doing your work,
sitting in meditation,
studying a teaching,
creating an offering
or engaging with others,
there is no more important question to answer than: “what sort of Quality am I seeking here . . . and why?
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