EVIL LUNACY FULL

In fact, it is counterproductive to conceive of spiritual practice as a task that we are going to accomplish on our own. It comes from a wider sphere than you can control. You are asking for help and for strength to do what you know you must do, with the understanding that though you must do your best, whatever goodness comes your way is not your accomplishment, your personal production. You are not asking to be absolved of the need to act. It is not a matter of abrogating your own responsibility. You can do this in meditation, with silent words, or out loud, vocalizing your hopes and wishes. Whether you imagine a deity or God or not, you can reach out beyond yourself and beyond anything you can objectively depict and ask for assistance and strength for your spiritual work. Pray to whatever forces you believe in - or don't believe in - for help. We are in good company! We can laugh at ourselves and everyone else.įourth, pray for help. So we make offerings to the demons inside us, we develop a sense of humorous appreciation for our own stupidity. It is the effect of our upbringing, our society, which we appreciate even as we are trying to tame it and bring it gently round to the good. This is the prodigy of human life bursting fort at its seams. We have been well trained to manifesst them at every turn. Truly it is a marvel, the extent to which we are selfish, confused, lazy, resentful, and so on. In fact, congratulate yourself for them, appreciate them. Psychologically, it's the same idea: bow to your weakness, your own craziness, your own resistance. Indo-Tibetan Buddhist practice includes making offerings to demons. So we do pay attention to what we say, think, and do - not obsessively, not with a perfectionistic flair, but just as a matter of course and with generosity and understanding, and finally we purify ourselves of most of our ungenerous thoughts and words. This practice mostly references unkind thoughts or words that do not seem so bad and yet erode our sense of integrity if we don't pay attention to them. Most of us probably do not do terrible things on purpose. Now we accept responsibility for what we have done.

That's why I did it, it really was her fault.' But now we see that this was a way of protecting ourselves (see ' Stop Blaming'). In the past we might have said to ourselves, 'I only said that because she really needs straightening out if she hadn't done that to me, I wouldn't have said that to her. Having come this far with our mind training, we can't help but notice them, we feel bad. Pay close attention to our actions of body, speech, and mind, noticing when we do, say, or think things that are harmful of unkind.

They create a positive attitude in the mind or heart that will strengthen us for the good. All of these intentional positive actions, directly religious and not, generate virtue. From a religious point of view, doing good also includes wholesome religious acts like chanting a sacred text, studying, meditating, or giving money and other gifts to the spiritual community. We genuinely try to be helpful and kind and thoughtful in as many small and large ways as we can every day. But to practice them intentionally is to work a bit harder at actually meaning them when you do them, to actually cultivate a sense of caring and feeling for someone else that is as real as you can make it, paying attention to what you say, how you say it, and how you actually feel it, or don't. Say hello to people, smile at them, tell them, 'Happy birthday!' or 'I am sorry for your loss, is there something I can do to help?' These things are normal social graces, and people say them all the time.

This double need, according to circumstances, seems to go with the territory of being human.įirst, do good. We need both profound religious philosophy and practical tools for daily living. On the other hand, if practice is too mundane, if we become too interested in the details of how we and others feel and what we or they need or want, then the natural loftiness of our hearts will not be accessible to us, and we will sink under the weight of obligations, details, and daily-life concerns. This is the moment when the Zen master whacks you with her stick and says, 'Kill the Buddha!' We may be soaringly metaphysical, movingly compassionate, and yet unable to relate to a normal human or a worldly problem.

EVIL LUNACY FULL

If practice is too profound, it's no good: we are full of wonderful inspiring, lofty thought, insights and speculations but lack the ability to get through the day with any gracefulness or to relate to the issues and people in ordinary life. If spiritual teachings are to really transform our lives, they need to oscillate between two levels, the profound and the mundane. Four-in-one this week! These four reminders - slogans to try to live by - fit together, and bring us back down to earth.

Evil lunacy