Summary Advice
1. Realize the value of the human body with which you have been endowed, for it is the result of many past good causes. Appreciate the fact that teachings are available and ready to be implemented.
2. Since this precious human life can be used in powerfully beneficial or destructive ways, and is itself most fragile, make good use of it now.
3. Physical happiness is just an occasional balance of elements in the body, not a deep harmony. Understand the temporary for what it is.
4. A tamed mind makes you peaceful, relaxed, and happy; whereas, if your mind is not peaceful and tamed, no matter how wonderful your external circumstances, you will be beset by frights and worries. Realize that the root of your own happiness and welfare rests with a peaceful and tamed mind. It is also a great benefit to those around you.
--from Mind of Clear Light: Advice on Living Well and Dying Consciously by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D.
6 comments:
Thich Nhat Hanh is my favorite Zen Master. I used his writings as a source of my meditation at a Vippasana retreat a few years ago.
"Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world."
"We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love."
It's fun to discover that although we took different paths they have taken us to places and satisfactions not so distant.
I agree with no 4 totally , and slowly my mind is becoming more tamed but i still have bad days :-(
It's where the peace comes from which people disagree over.
Thank you, dear. I think I needed a shot of that this morning.
Indeed... sometimes it is easier to read these things than to practice them, we need a constant reminder, so thank you, my dear!
"If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun." -The Dalai Lama
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