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Vajrasattva Retreat 2005:
Motivations by Miles - Mar 5, 2005
John Bragg, the inmate
I am corresponding with, wanted me to share this with you: "Please
convey my best wishes to the "group of 7" and I sincerely
hope retreat is going well! I only wish I could be there."
So, with all of our friends in mind (from afar, and on behalf of
all the supporters and mother sentient beings) we begin our day
of purification together by bowing to our and other's true nature.
35 Buddhas:
- Maybe we can all come over here and look
at our friends in the prisons.
- In your mind say to him, "I am doing
this practice for you." Hold it in your heart through the
practice.
- By doing this we create a karmic connection
with that person and by doing this practice cultivating strongly
Bodhichitta, in future lives we will be able to lead them on the
path to enlightenment quickly.
- Just think, they would love more than anything
to be here doing this practice. Cherish this fortune!
Motivation:
- (my morning motivation is a little…different.
I don't know where it came from, and it is simply a serious of
questions, but I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and take
a risk, so I'm giving it a try.)
- Imagine you are you in ten yrs…your
sitting outside somewhere, reading your journals from retreat.
The sun is shinning, birds are chirping and you kind of feel a
little remorse and miss your Dharma family. Really imagine this.
- You turn to the page for today, March 5,
2005. What do you think you wrote about?
- Did you write about the morning's tight muscles
and sore knees, your heavy eyes, perhaps the slight excitement
for breakfast? Would the bugs or people's bodily noises annoy
you still? Would you still wished to have slept in just one time?
(Would you have written about each mantra or mala?)
- No! You would not write or remember all this.
…What would you remember?
- Perhaps that you had a "good" visualization,
or you felt a feeling of thankfulness for your Dharma family?
Perchance you wrote about a realization that you're going to have
today?
- But in actuality, the question of now should
be this: will you be alive in ten years to remember today? (Than,
would the past two months of retreat be such a big deal?)
- We do not know! We have no idea if we will
make it for another 10 years.
- So, what is important to remember now? This
morning, treasure beyond knowing has fallen into our laps. We
have the superior opportunity to practice the Dharma- to create
the causes of peace, love and happiness.
- Mantra, by mantra, mala by mala, smile by
smile- we are purifying the world today; creating the causes for
the freedom of all beings. We can fulfill life's purpose. How
lucky we are…
- (It would be a shame to waste a moment of
this by thinking of the non-existent future.) Determine to make
today as meaningful as you want.
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