shoulds
"Oh, do you drink coffee?" he asked in surprise.
"Religiously," I answered, and a discussion of coffee ensued. He told me that his favorite coffee was sumatra and I had a moment akin to that moment when you are putting together a jigsaw puzzle and you've just snapped the last of the edge pieces into place, the center still vacant, still elusive and undefined... and yet you feel confident that everything is beginning to fall into place—just as it should.
Shoulds don't really exist, but sometimes feelings about shoulds still arise in the minds of even the most disciplined of practitioners. Not being one of the most disciplined of practicioners, I find shoulds arising all over the place, but I don't buy into them anymore. I may sometimes talk about them as if they truly exist, but then again I talk about reality as if it really exists, too.
...A son or daughter of noble family who wishes to practice the profound prajnaparamita should see in this way: seeing the five skandhas to be empty of nature. Form is emptiness; emptiness also is form. Emptiness is no other than form; form is no other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness are emptiness. Thus, Shariputra, all dharmas are emptiness. There are no characteristics. There is no birth and no cessation. There is no impurity and no purity. There is no decrease and no increase. Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness, there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no formation, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no appearance, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no dharmas, no eye dhatu up to no mind dhatu, no dhatu of dharmas, no mind consciousness dhatu; no ignorance, no end of ignorance up to no old age and death, no end of old age and death; no suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation of suffering, no path, no wisdom, no attainment, and no non-attainment. Therefore, Shariputra, since the bodhisattvas have no attainment, they abide by means of prajnaparamita.... —The Heart Sutra (as translated by the Nalanda Translation Committee)