These loves, hates, frustrations etc, unpleasant as they seem, are the essential manure out of which the lotus of enlightenment grows and blossoms. And the bigger the clay, the bigger the Buddha, as the Zen men say, so the more and better the manure, the better for the flowering.
We see and know impermanence as a constant. And that is liberating. All the mental suffering about what is going to happen to us, about being this or that person who will eventually disappear, about becoming ‘nothing’, is dissipated and this moment becomes a vast timelessness. The Buddha called it ‘birthlessness’ and ‘deathlessness’, freedom from birth and death…
The causes of happiness rarely occur, whereas the causes for suffering are abundant. Yet without suffering, there is no renunciation. Therefore, mind, stay firm!
Telephone meditation is in the same spirit. Suddenly, you have a Bell Master from very far away. He or she invites the bell to ring for you. When you hear the telephone bell, just sit wherever you are and enjoy breathing in and out. The sound of the telephone is the bell of mindfulness. This is a very strong meditation.
Put your body in order. It will follow naturally that the mind will improve. Mind—body—mind—body—mind . . . Mind and body will always be in harmony.
Short film (about 2 minutes) from Pathé newsreels on the The Dalai Lama’s arrival in India in 1959
And this is a most important part of meditation practice, to really know when there is no suffering…
Never forsake, even at the cost of one’s life, those spiritual friends who understand the meaning of the great way and personify the bodhisattva’s practice…
Buddhism now 