Chapter 1
“We are what we think.
All that we are arises with out thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with an impure mind,
and trouble will follow you.
As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart,
We are what we think.
With out thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with a pure mind,
And happiness will follow you.
As your shadow, unshakable.
‘look how he abused me and beat me.’
Live with such thoughts and you live in hate.
‘Look how he abused me and beat me,
How he threw me down and robbed me.’
Abandon such thoughts and live in love.
In this world,
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible.
You too shall pass away.
Knowing this, how can you quarrel?
How easily the wind overturns a frail tree.
Seek happiness in the senses,
Indulge in food and sleep,
And you too will be uprooted.
The wind cannot overturn a mountain,
Temptation cannot touch the man.
Who is awake, strong and humble,
Who masters himself and minds the law.
If a man’s thoughts are muddy,
If he is reckless and full of deceit,
How can he wear the yellow robe?
Whoever is master if his own nature,
Bright, clear and true,
He may indeed wear the yellow robe.”
The words of buddha can only reach you receive them in silence. Be meditative while you are reading this text. Then you no longer need to memorize, then these words of truth will sink deep in you, it will be a part of you. these words will manifest in your reality. You will be a living teaching of buddha. Words are inadequate, silence communes totally. Truth has its own way of convincing people, it needs no other proofs.
There is an undercurrent that runs everything smoothly. Be in tuned with it and you no longer need to be divided and unknown about what and why things are happening to you. Only in awareness you can say that whatsoever happens, always happens rightly. Without awareness your words will be empty, they will have no substance. If you can look at the whole, all the whys disappear. We become attached to the fragments of truth without knowing the full picture. Be in tuned with the existence and all shall be known to you. Without relating to the universe, your life has no foundation, no meaning. If you are not bridged with the total, you cannot have any significance of your own. You will remain a driftwood, at the mercy of winds and not knowing where you are going. Mind means not knowing where you are going and still pretending to know the goal. Senses cannot give you foundation, because they are always changing. One moment, eyes say that this looks beautiful, next moment another thing looks more beautiful. Don’t depend on senses, depend on awareness.
Be a disciple, which means to have the capacity to learn, capacity to drop old prejudices. When mind is set aside, something remains. It is no-thing. not nothing, but no-thing. Impure mind means mind, pure mind means no-mind. How to achieve no mind? Mind is darkness. Darkness is removed only by bringing in light. Bring the light in. Become silence, conscious, alert, aware and awake of yourself.
That is what meditation is, to be external to your internals. Watch you body, internally what is happening to you, see all the thoughts arising. Be inclusive, don’t exclude, don’t concentrate. In the name of mindfulness all we get is to concentrate. Concentration is not awareness. All our energies are going outwards, bring the attention to your own self and then include whatever comes to you. Only then attention becomes awareness. When you watch the body, be aware of the mind. Mind means thoughts. at first it will not be easy because we are habituated to distractions. Slowly you will have the knack to deal with the distractions.