A New Dawn

Rejoicing magnifies the beneficial effects of meditation. When we are self-critical —thinking, say, that our meditation was too short or not good enough— we take away from its power to help us.

Instead, we should rejoice over the blessing energies of joy that free us from our mental tightness, confinement, conflicts, and clashes, and open us to the experience of a new dawn of peace, joy, and confidence.

We can actually meditate on rejoicing over any wholesome action, thought, or experience to strengthen its benefits.

—Tulku Thondup

Fruits

 

The fruit of being egotistical and selfish is to remain in suffering.

The fruit of taking care of others is enlightenment.

—Gyalwang Drukpa

This Is Why

While walking along the river after a long day meditating on Vulture Peak, I watched an elephant splashing his way out of the water and up the bank.

Hello, my friend, a man waiting there said, scratching the elephant behind his ear. Did you have a good bath?

The elephant stretched out his leg, the man climbed up, and the two rode off like that, together.

Seeing what had once been so wild, now a friend and companion to this good man, I took a seat under the nearest tree and reached out a hand to my own mind.

Truly, I thought, this is why I came to the woods.

—Bhikshuni Dantika, Therigatha (Poems of the First Buddhist Nuns)

[The author apparently was not aware of the extreme cruelty used to break and train an elephant, then as now. —TN]

Always Here

The problem with the word patience, is that it implies we are waiting for something to get better, we are waiting for something good that will come.

A more accurate word for this quality is constancy, a capacity to be with what is true moment after moment, to discover enlightenment one moment after another.

Patience means understanding that what we seek is always here.

—Suzuki Roshi

Someone Else

The entire Path and all you will ever need to walk it, you will find inside.

So the Buddha taught me.

Once I took a closer look, all the running around started to seem a little silly.

Things changed so quickly, by the time I got anywhere, I’d be someone else.

You are your mother. You are your daughter.

One moment gives birth to the next. What we do is who we become.

—Bhikshuni Uttama, Therigatha (Poems of the First Buddhist Nuns)

The Five Remembrances

There are these five facts on which one should reflect often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained. Which five?

“I am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging.”

“I am subject to illness, have not gone beyond illness.”

“I am subject to death, have not gone beyond death.”

“I will be separated from all that is dear and pleasing to me.”

“I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my judge. Whatever I do, for good or for ill, to that will I fall heir.”

There are these five facts on which one should reflect often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained.

—Buddha Shakyamuni, Upajjhaṭṭhana Sutta 

Like You’re Already Dead

For years I could not sleep.

Most nights I would throw off the covers and take long runs through the dark. Nothing helped.

My sisters, when sleepless nights come to tear you into little pieces, rise to meet the day as a tree rises to meet the ax, as a scalp bows to meet the blade, as sparks from a dying fire reach out to meet the darkness, as all our bones someday fall softly down to meet the earth.

When you stand, send your roots down between the stones.

When you walk, walk like a skeleton walking to its grave.

When you lie down, lie down like a blown-out candle being put back in a drawer.

When you sit, sit very, very still. My sisters, sit like you are already dead.

How could this world possibly give you what you’re looking for, when it’s so busy falling apart, just like you?

Look closely. Don’t move until you see it.

—Bhikshuni Uttama, Therigatha (Poems of the First Buddhist Nuns)

Putting Out A Fire

Even if –just if– it is possible to obtain a human body just once, it is rare for a spiritual attitude to arise.

Even then, it is rare to meet an excellent spiritual friend, and it is rare to encounter a profound oral instruction.

Even if one is encountered, it is unknown when death and impermanence will manifest, so it is not reasonable to depend on ephemeral life…

Thinking about this, you should strive to awaken diligence right now, like putting out a fire that has started on your head or clothing.

—Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

There Would Be No Need

If there were no afterlife and death means nothingness, there would be no retribution or reward, no causation of the past, present, and future, no transmigration in the Six Realms (celestials, asuras, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hells).

There would be no need to study Buddhism. We should by all means enjoy our lives thoroughly.

However, such is not the case with life and the universe. Karmic retribution, causation, and the cycle of rebirth all exist.

—Master Huijing

The Staircase

Ethical conduct is the staircase to all virtue.

Just as trees and the like are rooted in the earth, it’s like a root.

Just as the head merchant goes before all traders, it precedes all virtues.

Just as Indra hoists his banner in victory, ethical conduct is the victory banner of all Dharmas.

It severs the paths leading to the lower realms and all negative action.

It is the medicinal herb that heals negativity’s ills,

the provisions for the long and terrifying path of life,

the weapon that slays the enemy of delusion,

the antidote for the poison of destructive emotions,

and a bridge across poisonous water.

—Shabkar Tsodruk Rangdol