Each of us has an Avalokiteshvara bodhisattva inside waiting to grow. So, this is not exactly a prayer, but more a kind of mindfulness practice. You evoke the name of the Buddha in order to bring about your capacity for listening, because listening is healing, relieving the suffering of the other person…
There’s probably nothing more beautiful in this world than people relying on and trusting one another…
Anybody who is able to comprehend the doctrine of dependent origination has the capability to engage in his own cultivation and end his suffering…
Contemplate contentment and gratitude. This isn’t an imperative to be content and grateful. I’m not saying you have to feel these emotions. It’s more like encouraging a way of living in which these kinds of feelings come to you; you cultivate them. In monastic life we deliberately cultivate contentment. It doesn’t come that naturally. A lot of the time we’re discontented with everything. But through contemplating discontent and the suffering that comes from always complaining or wanting something to be better, you see the suffering of those negative mental states…
Whoever makes endeavour for the riddance of wrong purpose, for the attainment of right purpose, that is his right endeavour. Mindful, he gets rid of wrong purpose; mindful, entering on right purpose he abides in it. That is his right mindfulness. Thus these three things circle round and follow after right purpose — that is to say: right view, right endeavour, right mindfulness…
