One weekend, Theresia and I decided to go to LA to meet with our long time friend who visited LA from Indonesia. A get-together dinner event was held on a Saturday evening so we all got a chance to meet him and his family.

Several hours before the event, it was hot outside. I was debating if I had to bring jacket before going out and get lunch. The plan was to get lunch first, went out to a shopping mall then went straight to the Buffet restaurant. I was thinking… since it was hot outside… there was no point wearing the jacket. Also, if I decided to bring the jacket… I might have to carry it with my hand when I walked around the shopping mall. On top of that, I would be inside a room almost all the time (restaurant, shopping mall, car, another restaurant, etc). And c’mon… we are talking about LA… the city that ALWAYS hot during the day. And when it was hot during the day, it should not be that cold at night. Also on that same day, my friend told me that for the past several days, the temperature had dropped significantly at night. But… yeah… I could handle it. No big deal. It was too much burden for me to bring jacket. So… I did not carry any extra layer. No jacket… no long sleeves, no long pants. Just a short pants and t-shirt.

At the dinner event, many came. I was happy to get to see him and his family as well as other friends. We ate, we laughed, we talked, we ate some more. We had fun! As the event drew to a close… we were all said our goodbyes. One by one, my friends started to leave the restaurant and walked to the parking lot. When it was time for me to leave, I noticed that my friends still hanged around the parking lot and talked among each others.

It did not surprise me at all as that was a common thing to do for our Indonesian group to do that. I did that as well. However, it became apparent that the night was getting colder and colder by the minute. And there I was, with no extra layer… standing in the middle of the parking lot… getting cold.
My mind started to look for something to blame for my suffering. First victim I blamed, the Indonesia group. Why do they always have this custom of hanging out after the main event as if they did not get enough time talking and laughing and having fun? Didn’t they get cold as well? I started to find it annoying for them to do just that.

Second victim, Handoko… my good friend who – according to my knowledge – the event planner. Why did he choose dinner event? It would be so much more convenient if it was lunch event. Buffet eaten as dinner was not as healthy as if it was eaten as lunch. Because after lunch, I still had time to burn all those extra calories.

Third victim, the store owners in the area. As I saw all the stores in the area closed for the day, I wondered why couldn’t they open late. That way, I could just go inside one of the stores and not getting cold like this.

Fourth victim, the city of LA and its weather. Last time I visited LA around the same month… the night was not as cold as at that moment. And why… at a time like this… they decided to be colder than it used to. Couldn’t they get colder tomorrow or yesterday and not today?

I was annoyed and a bit upset. As a wisdom-based Dhamma practitioner, it was time for me to try putting stop to this madness.

Didn’t my friend warned me about the cold weather? Yes. Didn’t I know beforehand that as part of an Indonesian group, we used to hang out after the main event? Yes. Didn’t I know that there are possibilities for weather to drastically change at any moment? Yeah. Didn’t I know that businesses in certain areas in LA close at certain hours? Yes. I lived there before. But why did I choose to ignore each and every piece of that information?

By observing the parking lot…my friends were all talking to each other and seemed like they did not have any problem at all with the cold… or at least… it did not bother them. So… obviously the problem was not with anybody else… but me. There were several people that got cold… but soon they grabbed jackets and wore it. If only I brought jacket in the first place! Yea… if only, but I didn’t.

That’s it. Didn’t I have the chance to bring jacket early on during the day but decided not to? Yes. But I decided not to bring it. It was too much hassle, I did not want to carry it. I was too lazy to carry it. If I wasn’t lazy and had thought it through a bit more, I might have decided to bring the jacket as a precaution and not standing in the cold like I was at the time.

So, who was to blame then? I was. Because of my lazy behavior, it lead me to suffering.

In fact, I could spot several events in my life where because of my laziness, I made up reasons such as:

• It is not a big deal
• I can do this later
• Just for this one time
• I can handle it
• Tomorrow will be a better day to do it
• It is not efficient to do this now
• That is an easy task
• I know what I am doing… no need to practice
• It will be the same as any other day
• Such a boring task… let’s deviate a bit

And the list goes on…. my gosh!

Not only that, when I needed to face the consequences of my laziness…often, all I could say was:

• This is not fair
• Nobody told me before
• Today is a bad day for me
• It is my bad kamma, nothing I can do
• It is the way it is
• It is not a big deal
• This world sucks
• The job is so hard, nobody could’ve handle it

And again, the list goes on.

It is time for me to practice spotting when I am being lazy and see the consequences of what I may have to face down the road. And next, to do what I need to do though the lazy me tells me not to do it.