Deshi:  Could you speak a little on defeatism since often times we are our own worst allies in following our intentions or in terms of achieving some sort of success.

Sensei:  Defeatism is harbored in a perspective that holds the ego at its center.  This perspective comes to govern thoughts, actions, and speech in such a way that the infinite options that are always ours comes to be replaced by a single option which we are mistakenly sure is not of our choice or of our actions.  In the end, through such a perspective, the ego is reified as it comes to see itself as "the victim of circumstances that are beyond our control.”  The truth lays in the fact that is it the chooser that is the main cause of all that is being faced when we are feeling we are confronting defeatism.  In addition, the chooser is determining how a present moment is to be understood and experienced.  If one can drop the ego, and thus drop the perspective that is lending itself to defeatism, the defeatism fades away.  All that remains is the purity of what we are doing, the purity of what has to be done, and the infinite variety of ways by which we can complete both actions.