The Way and the Power of Virtue

  The masses are all resplendent and rejoicing, as if feasting on the fatted calf, as if climbing a pagoda in spring to enjoy the scenery. I alone am anchored in the water, without showing any signs of divine favor, Innocent as a newborn babe, who has yet to sneer or cheer; Tired from hard work, but with seemingly no home to return to. The masses all have their surplus things, I alone am not leaving behind a legacy of loss and loose ends. How foolish is my heart – like a monkey holding a snake! The common folk are brilliant, I alone am unenlightened. The common folk are insightful, I alone am close-minded. Rolling waves, they are as the sea; blown about on the wind, seemingly without footing. The masses all have their means and undertakings, I alone am unyielding and lowly. I alone am different from people, and value feeding from the Mother.   In a rare shift to first-person narrative, this passage describes the feelings and sentiments that we feel as...

  Its heights are unbounded – light cannot shine down upon it,  and yet its depths are undarkened.   Coiling and coiling as an endless length of rope, it cannot be labeled. Coming and going, back and forth, over and over again,  it is a homecoming to the myriad things. This is called the form of formlessness, the image of no-thing –  This is called a flash of perspective. The Way is unlimited.   Its heights are so high that light cannot shine down upon it; yet even it’s deepest depths are undimmed by the darkness.   No matter how far down, we may find ourselves, there is no hole too deep, no abyss too dark that it is out of reach.   There is ALWAYS a Way – a Way forward, a Way upward, a Way out, a Way through, from wherever we find ourselves to wherever we want to go! The Way coils and coils, like an endless rope – sometimes seemingly twisted and tangled like an indistinct mass – no limiting labels can constrain or contain it.   The...

  What do I mean by ‘value great hardship as you do yourself?’ Why do I have great hardship?   Is it not because I have a self? If I didn’t have a ‘self’ what hardship would I have? Instead of just valuing the good times, we also need to equally value the hard times.   We tend to only appreciate the good times but the difficult times can be some of our greatest teachers.   As C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) wrote, “hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.” Our failures don’t have to define us – they can refine us – if we use them as stepping stones instead of stumbling blocks.   We can use our greatest failures as fuel to motivate us, driving us to greater achievement and development.   Our worst failures can become fertilizer to nourish and nurture greater growth and abundance, which will then empower us to be of greater service to others.   As the Dalai Lama taught, “It is under the greatest adversity that there exists th...

Wise people set themselves and others forever free from outsmarting and expectations.   They won’t ever try to outsmart others and they do not act only for themselves – then nothing is left ungoverned. To become sages, we engage in a two-fold process of self-acceptance and surrender of our own expectations.   To become sages, or wise people, we must constantly setting ourselves and others free from the need to “outsmart” others – understanding that we are already enough.   Content in our identity and purpose, we don’t need to look for opportunities to appear smart or put others down to curry favor or to outmaneuver others through our cunning or intellect, our best laid plans, or by devising strategies to outcompete or get ahead at the expense of others.   We don’t need to “ show off ," roast someone, always have a witty or barbed comment or backhanded complement -- even though that is what is portrayed and propagated in so much of our entertainment and social med...

  Don’t put "desirable" objects on display and people’s hearts won’t be disturbed. We live in a world that feels like it must constantly “show off” and “showcase” its bling and put itself on display for all to see.   We are constantly bombarded with marketing manipulations telling us what is "desirable," what we should want, and what we need to do be "desirable."  So w e don our new swag, accessories with the latest fashions, surround ourselves with “eye candy” and wonder if it's enough.  We feel pressure from the world and put pressure on ourselves to look “desirable” personally and professionally – to be wanted, accepted, valued, and deemed worthy.   When we try to show-off, either our accomplishments, attributes, abilities, or accessories, we disturb our hearts and stir up trouble.   Who likes feeling that we are an object on display all the time?   Who likes the pressure of having to dress up, get made up, and appear a certain way to win acceptance...