that no matter what happens, we can cope with it. We don’t have to manipulate everything to our own satisfaction.
At an interreligious conference some years ago, I met a Sufi singer from Turkey. He sang a very beautiful Sufi song about things that can go wrong in life, and the refrain rang out, “What of it?”
We traveled back to the New York airport together as we were both heading elsewhere. He was going back to Turkey. When we got to the airport, though, we discovered that none of his luggage had arrived. But he just grinned and shrugged and said, “What of it?”
And we all laughed! The whole situation was just a fact.
He said: “Oh, this is great. I don’t have to take all that luggage anymore—I am free. I can just go.”
I admired him tremendously because he was indeed taking his words onto the path. And so, when things go wrong, we can also say to ourselves, “What of it?”
People think that the Buddha was pessimistic because he spoke first about the unsatisfactoriness of our ordinary everyday existence. But he didn’t leave it there. He didn’t merely say, “Oh well, life is suffering; bad luck.” He spoke of why it is suffering. Our everyday life is composed of suffering because we grasp. We hold on so tightly and yet everything is impermanent. Ultimately what we hold on to so tightly will change. It is not things which are the problem, it is our grasping mind.
We need to allow for meaning in our lives. That is, we need to get our own mind and life together. In this way, we can benefit the most people as well as ourselves. All the problems that really come in this world, apart from natural disasters, are caused by human beings. We cause endless problems with our out-of-control minds. Wisdom and compassion are desperately needed, and yet they dwell within our own minds. They can’t be bought.
We need challenges in this world. And we have to cultivate qualities which in themselves cannot be cultivated unless we are faced with challenges. Far from being setbacks for our spiritual path, challenges are the spiritual path. We must develop an attitude which is open and which takes everything we meet and uses it. If things go wrong, if people are difficult, we cultivate patience and compassion. If people are in need, we cultivate generosity.
The Buddha said that to practice the Dharma is to be as a fish swimming upstream. Now, swimming upstream is a very lonely journey. You might ask yourself, Is it worth the time and effort to swim upstream when everybody else is going down with the current? But it is those who can swim upstream who reach the source. So if we want to do something meaningful with this lifetime, then the place to start is right where we are. And the only time to start is right now, in this moment. It is the only time we have. The future is just an idea. The past is gone. And the moment is flowing—like this.
The most valuable thing we have in our life is our mind. We can cultivate it. We can learn how to use our mind skillfully. At the moment this very precious jewel called a mind is covered with a thick casing of the mud of the eight worldly concerns, and we have to wash it clean so the jewel can sparkle again. We cannot say, “I don’t have time,” when every single breath we take, if we are conscious, is an expression of our practice.
Questions
Q: My question is about how to deal with people who make you feel good. I think of my friends, because they make me feel good. They say these nice things about me and that’s all right.
JTP: Well, that is all right, as long as you are happy and you also say nice things back to them and you love them. Ananda, the Buddha’s assistant, once said that he’d been thinking about companionship, and he felt that it was half of the spiritual path. The Buddha said, “No, Ananda, good companionship is the whole of the spiritual path.”
It is important to have good friends. But these good friends should be good friends because they also
At an interreligious conference some years ago, I met a Sufi singer from Turkey. He sang a very beautiful Sufi song about things that can go wrong in life, and the refrain rang out, “What of it?”
We traveled back to the New York airport together as we were both heading elsewhere. He was going back to Turkey. When we got to the airport, though, we discovered that none of his luggage had arrived. But he just grinned and shrugged and said, “What of it?”
And we all laughed! The whole situation was just a fact.
He said: “Oh, this is great. I don’t have to take all that luggage anymore—I am free. I can just go.”
I admired him tremendously because he was indeed taking his words onto the path. And so, when things go wrong, we can also say to ourselves, “What of it?”
People think that the Buddha was pessimistic because he spoke first about the unsatisfactoriness of our ordinary everyday existence. But he didn’t leave it there. He didn’t merely say, “Oh well, life is suffering; bad luck.” He spoke of why it is suffering. Our everyday life is composed of suffering because we grasp. We hold on so tightly and yet everything is impermanent. Ultimately what we hold on to so tightly will change. It is not things which are the problem, it is our grasping mind.
We need to allow for meaning in our lives. That is, we need to get our own mind and life together. In this way, we can benefit the most people as well as ourselves. All the problems that really come in this world, apart from natural disasters, are caused by human beings. We cause endless problems with our out-of-control minds. Wisdom and compassion are desperately needed, and yet they dwell within our own minds. They can’t be bought.
We need challenges in this world. And we have to cultivate qualities which in themselves cannot be cultivated unless we are faced with challenges. Far from being setbacks for our spiritual path, challenges are the spiritual path. We must develop an attitude which is open and which takes everything we meet and uses it. If things go wrong, if people are difficult, we cultivate patience and compassion. If people are in need, we cultivate generosity.
The Buddha said that to practice the Dharma is to be as a fish swimming upstream. Now, swimming upstream is a very lonely journey. You might ask yourself, Is it worth the time and effort to swim upstream when everybody else is going down with the current? But it is those who can swim upstream who reach the source. So if we want to do something meaningful with this lifetime, then the place to start is right where we are. And the only time to start is right now, in this moment. It is the only time we have. The future is just an idea. The past is gone. And the moment is flowing—like this.
The most valuable thing we have in our life is our mind. We can cultivate it. We can learn how to use our mind skillfully. At the moment this very precious jewel called a mind is covered with a thick casing of the mud of the eight worldly concerns, and we have to wash it clean so the jewel can sparkle again. We cannot say, “I don’t have time,” when every single breath we take, if we are conscious, is an expression of our practice.
Questions
Q: My question is about how to deal with people who make you feel good. I think of my friends, because they make me feel good. They say these nice things about me and that’s all right.
JTP: Well, that is all right, as long as you are happy and you also say nice things back to them and you love them. Ananda, the Buddha’s assistant, once said that he’d been thinking about companionship, and he felt that it was half of the spiritual path. The Buddha said, “No, Ananda, good companionship is the whole of the spiritual path.”
It is important to have good friends. But these good friends should be good friends because they also
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