If the warrior does not
feel alone and sad, then he or she can be corrupted very easily. In fact, such
a person may not be a warrior at all. To be a good warrior, one has to feel sad
and lonely, but rich and resourceful at the same time. This makes the warrior
sensitive to every aspect of phenomena: to sights, smells, sounds, and
feelings. In that sense, the warrior is also an artist, appreciating whatever
goes on in the world. Everything is extremely vivid. The rustling of your armor
or the sound of rain drops falling on your coat is very loud. The fluttering of
occasional butterflies around you is almost an insult, because you are so
sensitive.
Experience is always changing, like the
movement of clouds against the sky. Realization – the stable awareness of the
true nature of your mind – is like the sky itself, an unchanging background
against which shifting experience occur.
The search for
happiness is not about looking at life through rose-colored glasses or blinding
oneself to the pain and imperfections of the world. Nor is happiness a state of
exultation to be perpetuated at all costs; it is the purging of mental toxins,
such as hatred and obsession, that literally poison the mind. It is also about
learning how to put things in perspective and reduce the gap between
appearances and reality. To that end we must acquire a better knowledge of how
the mind works and a more accurate insight into the nature of things, for in
its deepest sense, suffering is intimately linked to a misapprehension of the
nature of reality.
You don’t need to be an “excellent meditator” to
start with. All you need to do is have your heart and mind make the following
agreement: “Let’s rest. There’s no reason right now to wander around following
thoughts or worrying. Let’s be relaxed and open.” There’s not even any need to
shut down your thoughts. Just be there with them, but not overly concerned or
engaged. Let there be total openness, and just relax within that.
感恩,是最簡單又最困難的事。前者在於隨時、隨地、隨誰、隨事都可來做;後者在於,被我執綑綁的心,怎麼都看不見值得感恩的對象,不是遺忘,就是忽視!Appreciating everything is the easiest and the most difficult thing to do. Easiest in the way that you can do it whenever, wherever, whoever, however you are. Difficult in the way that the ego-clinging mind never gets to see the real object of appreciation. It always forgets or neglect such a thing.