Saturday, November 24, 2007

Gyalse Tokme

Gyalse Tokme wrote Thirty-Seven Practices of A Bodhisattva in the fourteenth century and, needless to say, it still works. Susanne Fairclough has given us a fine translation, available from Padma Publishing.

Here are three of my favorites:

"Even if someone denigrates you in various ways, spreading slander throughout the three thousand fold universe, to extol her qualities with a loving mind wherever you go is the practice of a bodhisattva."

"Even if, amid a gathering of many people, someone exposes your faults or speaks abusively, to honor him respectfully, considering him a spiritual guide, is the practice of a bodhisattva."

"Even if someone you cherish as dearly as your own child happens to regard you as an enemy, to love her even more, as a mother loves her ailing child, is the practice of a bodhisattva."

Things like this are easy to read but so hard to do for some people.

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