In order to counteract the complexity of many of these concepts, I'd like to discuss time and its relationship to practice, i.e. becoming free from all of our concerns.
Time and space are inseperably linked. Time has to do with the birth, maturation, decay, and death of phenomena. It doesn't have substance in its own right; it merely is a relative way of measuring these periods of development. Infinite space, however, is nothing - no substance in its own right, and thus transcends time. So all time-based forms exist within the stage of one eternal moment, a moment which is inseperable from space.
Once you clearly understand that, you start to perceive from "one moment" rather than the accumulated "many moments" of worldly life. That is, you see all things come and go, and you appreciate them in their present incarnation. You slowly become aware that since this moment is eternal and it only exists as the present - that is, the present moment isn't really a moment at all, as it's the only one - there's nothing to compare it to - there is simply no point in searching for happiness in anything else, because anything other than eternity will not persist - it will not satisfy as it is time, and must come and go. It is the realization of, "What the hell am I waiting for?!" A sort of incredulity at the notion of not being happy now, since nothing else can do it for you.
This makes the process much simpler, since you see that everything is right now and there is no need to "get" anything in order to be happy any more. You still need to get things in the ordinary sense - I need money to pay for food, housing, etc. in order to survive and live comfortably, but as far as happiness and fulfillment is concerned, it's just foolish to wait on anything to provide it for me since I'm here now. This resolves a lot of the apparent paradoxes that you encounter on the path to freedom, as well as the resentment of being here or anything, because you see that everything is temporary, everything only happens now and only once, and is thus precious beyond compare. This is "Living in the vast scheme of things."
This also brings the realization of your fleshy frailty, your nakedness and your utter incognizance of what this is really all about. Knowing this makes naiveté almost automatic. Seeing that the past and future have no substance means that right now, you can utterly expose yourself as being simply what you are, who you are, without fear. It means things already are accepted for what they are, including yourself. It means literally being one with everything around you - no longer bound by the nental accumulation of time.
(PS: I am not AF. I'm simply a good distance down the path and have found this to be useful. I hope it's useful to you too.)

-Kevin