Thu, 31 Aug 2006
Quoting Karthar
I found a quote by my teacher, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, on the web that I hadn't seen before and I thought was worth sharing.
Patience is like a beautiful ornament. When you become a person with great patience, it brings a certain element of charm to your life. You are loved by others, and you give no problems to your friends. You bring an element of joy, happiness, and calmness to other people's lives - your friends, your family, and the community. You do not have to ask to be accepted; everyone longs for your presence.
I reminded me of another quote of Khenpo's from a talk on meditation that is one of my favorites.
Through meditation we learn how to relax, to have mental peacefulness, tranquility. Through having learned how to maintain this peacefulness of mind, we are better able to deal with the hectic life of the world. Meditation also helps because of the wisdom we develop through the practice, and of course, wisdom is necessary in every activity. So, by practicing the method and developing your bodhicitta, realized beings say that you then become "the darling of the world."
Let me repeat that. Having developed bodhicitta, here meaning peacefulness of mind and an altruistic attitude, you then become the darling of the whole world. Not of just one person, or two; when you are the darling of the whole world you are loved by everyone. And that is being very successful indeed.
There's an article on the web about Claude Thomas, who is a veteran and Zen monk and leads Zen retreats for veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
n an attempt to deal with the scars war has left on their lives, these veterans and more than a dozen others attended a retreat on Aug. 19 and 20 at the Zen Center of Los Angeles led by Claude AnShin Thomas, a Vietnam veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross yet found Zen Buddhist practices the only way to adjust to life after war. After leaving Vietnam in 1967, Thomas suffered from debilitating PTSD symptoms that caused him to abuse alcohol and drugs and eventually leave his wife and son. In the late 1980s, he pursued Zen teachings after attending a retreat with famed monk Thich Nhat Hanh, and in 1995 he became a Zen monk.
