practice and practice and practice… returning to the practices and making a point of doing more than thinking of them, more than merely speaking of them. making a point of practice.
i often wonder how these two halves that are so very disparate from one another can co-exist in me. seems like romulus and remus. bodhisattva and bhain sidhe. sigh.
anyway. enough of me. practice. it’s time.
Practice 14 – Even if someone broadcasts throughout the billion worlds all sorts of offensive remarks about one, speaking in turn of that person’s qualities with a loving mind is the bodhisattvas’ practice.
the qualities of heath rezabek are many, and they shine. he is a good listener. he is a hopeful being. he is a good writer, a tireless optimist, and a staunch and loyal friend to those he chooses to befriend.
heath is a creative soul, with natural talent in many areas… drawing, music, photography, dream analysis, technology, and more.
heath is also a skilled soul, with learning that has given him ability in public and private organization, architecture and information management, cultural systems, memetics, and composition across diverse areas of interest.
heath is a contemplative soul. when at rest, when dreaming, his thoughts expand to the edges of samsara, as if to curl around it all and wad it into the waste it is, throw it away.
more than anything, heath wants to love and care for others. of all the ones i have spoken with, to a one, they each and all testify to these qualities. and i have known them myself, here and there.
Practice 15 – Even if, in the midst of a public gathering, someone exposes faults and speaks ill of one, humbly paying homage to that person, perceiving him as a spiritual friend, is the bodhisattvas’ practice.
i know in every way that heath’s presence in my life has been that of a spiritual friend. a challenge to my own faults, to my ego, and to the self-cherishing within… he has, at every turn, brought things that cause me to see more clearly the many splinters of negativity. in this, regardless my own attachments and aversions, he has been the very gem of which the Buddhas and Bodhisattva’s speak – and here, i honor of him these things as they deserve to be honored.
Practice 16 – Even if someone for whom one has cared as a lovingly as his only child regards one as an enemy, to cherish that person as dearly as a mother does an ailing child is the bodhisattvas’ practice.
because i am so ignorant and unskillful, i can no longer allow contact with heath. all the same, regardless time, space, silence, and distance, and more than any pitiful word could ever convey, he is precious to me.
cherished.
loved.
there will not be a day when i do not wish him well. there will not come a time when i no longer hope for only roses and sunlight for him. despite the reality that i am unable, it remains and it will always remain that heath is, to me, as diamond.
Practice 17 – Even if, influenced by pride, an equal or inferior person treats one with contempt, respectfully placing him like a guru at the crown of one’s head is the bodhisattvas’ practice.
here, in this practice, and in many others that will continue and be a constant, mindful effort, rather than permit ego and self-cherishing to denigrate one who has brought such learning, i will instead, in this quite place, where the river yet runs clear and there are no clouds, no rain, no shadow, remember all these things and more… with a loving heart, a tender spirit, and a mind that chooses only the incense of kindness.
Practice 31 – If having merely the appearance of a practitioner, one does not investigate one’s own mistakes, it is possible to act contrary to the dharma. Therefore constantly examining one’s own errors and abandoning them is the bodhisattvas’ practice.
these many months of effort toward this end, all of which are mindfully recorded here, both positive and negative, both mindful and thoughtless, both helpful and harmful, all these things i record and dissect… they are pressed memories, weeds and flowers alike… to help my stubborn mind to practice and learn right ways and to find the way to abandon that which is contrary to the Dharma.
i am so very unskilled in this moment, ignorant and pitiful and weak…. but i rest my certainty in the peerless, skillful means of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the three spheres and undertake this practice seeking aid and mercy and to more fully learn that perhaps, someday, i may benefit all sentient beings.
Practice 34 – Because harsh words disturb others minds and cause the bodhisattvas conduct to deteriorate, abandoning harsh speech which is unpleasant to others is the bodhisattvas’ practice.
i commit to more tenderly speak to others. but more than this, i commit also to abandon the ego and anger from which harsh words spring. so often i fail. so often. this practice, and all practices in this moment and forward, may they lend benefit to others and if there is any benefit to me, may it be only in relation to becoming more skillful in my relation to others that i do not impede these benefits.
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all the above will i read aloud and contemplate, each night in the evening meditation, until the convictions of my actions and thoughts no longer ring like sirens in my mind, my heart, and my spirit and until the heaviness of my own unskillfulness is lifted.
om benza sattva hum.
om mani padme hum.