a correction

Saw my serendipitous younger/older friend again this morning at Winnings. The one who informed me, at our last meeting, that my mind is an army of love and compassion. Today she exclaimed, "I was hoping to see you!" and offered a small yellow booklet, carefully wrapped in a plastic bag. It title was "The Thirty-Seven Bodhisattva Practices".

We had a little while to talk before I headed north to start my work week. The words wandered between subjects: uncluttering one's inner life, gardening, English as a second language, sustainable developments around the world, and the current economic "situation". At this point she startled me awake with one of her illuminating word choices. "I think what's going on, really," she remarked, "is that we're being offered a CORRECTION." "You mean," I asked, "a chance to re-examine our priorities, maybe take them back, and maybe choose different ones?" "Yes", she replied. "It's like Life is saying, 'YOU CAN DO BETTER...', and we know this, and we want to try..."

Doing better, she went on to suggest, might just mean better sharing of what we've already got. This linked me with another conversation the day before, two friends also pondering the "economic situation", and the emptiness in general of what the mass mind is saying about it. My response to them was that it's not really getting harder to make a living, only to keep the same old definition that we've always had for that phrase. Those of us finding hope in the Now are, I think, transforming that tired expression "make a living" into "make a life". That's our work now. And it's not (very much) about money. It's all about sharing. It's all about simplifying. It's all about making/growing/building for yourself (ourselves). And it's about remembering (like sleepers finally waking up) how much of our lives, in quality and content, that we do have the ability to choose, and to create, and to make room for...

Practice #2 of the Bodhisattvas speaks to me about remembering priorities, and so regaining freedom: "The mind of attachment to loved ones wavers like water. The mind of hatred of enemies burns like fire. The mind of ignorance which forgets what to adopt and what to discard is greatly obscured. Abandoning one's homeland is the Bodhisattvas' practice."

I wonder what the writer of these words meant by "homeland"...as a guess, I could replace it with several words, such as "routine", "comfort zone", "familiarity" or even "agenda". Even "knowledge"... All things which, when abandoned, have certainly been found to make room for tremendous (if challenging) freedom.

And this one, #27, has to be written for all of us service industry workers: "To Bodhisattvas who desire the pleasures of virtue, all those who do harm are like a precious treasure. Therefore, cultivating patience devoid of hostility is the Bodhisattvas' practice."

And now, I'm off to visit all of my precious treasures in the pizza business...