We do not require diverse chants and mantras . . . (Click image for video)

Behaving morally, we’ll be more free 

as we break away from the restrictions 

imposed on us due to our bad karmas. 

We’re all prisoners, all confined to life in a cell. Some cells feel spacious and luxurious with walls of sparkling glass so clear we’re not even aware of their presence. Others are cramped and barren with rusting, impregnable bars cold to the touch that, for all their decrepitude, powerfully encircle us.

Our guards and fellow inmates may be attentive and understanding, eager to lessen our suffering. Or they may be mean-spirited and vengeful, intent on making us pay for our offenses, real or perceived. But whatever our current cell’s conditions, once we leave our cell, it will only be to enter another one.

The way to escape?

When alone or with others, look around our cell and the surrounding ones and determine all the ways we can think, speak, and behave honorably and selflessly. And then do so. This will make us more at ease in our current cell. In the future, we will leave all the cells behind, leave samsara.

Minding one’s own business may not be a lack of caring . . . (Click image for video)

Forming Dharma affinities 

one smile at a time. 

Unless we’re absorbed in our thoughts, we tend to mirror others’ reactions. Say someone looks at us and smiles. Normally, we would return the smile. Normally.

Last week in a restaurant, a person in my line of sight looked at me. No smiles. Glared is a harsh word, so let’s just say he stared. While I usually would have smiled, it had been a tiring morning, and my energy was running low. So I just looked back. No smile from me either. We both resumed eating our own lunches, and I thought “Well darn. I just blew my chance to form a Dharma affinity.”

Fortunately, on the way out, his companion stopped by our table and asked what I was having (it was a vegan burger). She then explained that she was newly vegan. We ended up talking, and even her friend became friendly. So the opportunity wasn’t lost after all.

But because I had allowed myself to be affected by another person, I came perilously close to losing the opportunity to form a Dharma affinity.