The Perfection of Giving: Documentary

http://theperfectionofgiving.com

Lecture on Patience

Chapter 6: Patience
Lecture on anger and learning to "love our enemies" by Robert Thurman and Sharon Salzburg
http://www.onbeing.org/program/embracing-our-enemies

The universal bridge

It is the supreme medicine

That quells the world's disease.

It is the tree that shelters all beings

Wandering and tired on the path of conditioned existence.

It is the universal bridge

That leads to freedom from unhappy states of birth,

It is the dawning moon of the mind

That dispells the torment of disturbing conceptions.

It is the great sun that finally removes

The misty ignorance of the world,

It is the quintessential butter

From the churning of the milk of Dharma.

For all those guests traveling on the path of conditioned existence

Who wish to experience the bounties of happiness,

This will satisfy them with joy

And actually place them in supreme bliss.

Today in the presence of all the Protectors

I invite the world to be guests 

At (a festival of) temporary and ultimate delight.

May...all be joyful

(A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, ch. 3, v. 30-34, trans.  Stephen Batchelor)

Just like a blind man

Just like a blind man

Discovering a jewel in a heap of rubbish,

Likewise, by some coincidence,

An Awakening Mind has been born within me.

It is the supreme ambrosia

That overcomes the coverignty of death,

It is the inexhaustible treasure

That eliminates all the poverty in the world.

(A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, ch. 3, v. 28-29, trans.  Stephen Batchelor)

Equanimity: May all have the fortune to fully awaken

If, in those who encounter me,

A faithful or angry thought arises,

May that eternally become the source

For fulfilling all their wishes.

May all who say bad things to me

Or cause me any other harm,

And those who mock and insult me

Have the fortune to fully awaken.

(A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, ch. 3, v. 6, trans.  Stephen Batchelor)

Salisbury, CT, August 2013

Sorrow is transcended

By giving up all, sorrow is transcended

And my mind will realize the sorrowless state.

It is best that I (now) give everything to all beings

In the same way I shall (at death)  

(A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, ch. 3, v. 12, trans.  Stephen Batchelor)

Matthew 6:19-21

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁹ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

²⁰ But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

²¹ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

May I be placed close beside

May I be the doctor, the medicine

And may I be the nurse

For all sick beings in the world

Until everyone is healed.

May a rain of food and drink descend

To clear away the pain of thirst and hunger,

And during the aeon of famine

May I myself change into food and drink.

May I become an inexhaustible treasure

For those who are poor and destitute;

May I turn into all things they could need

And be placed close beside them.

(A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, ch. 3, v. 8-10, trans.  Stephen Batchelor)