Sincerity

Mavrica, I have learned to love things that irritate me. One time when I was younger, I was listening to a monk talk, it was question time and I raised my hand, but he kept talking! What about MY question?! But because it was a monk and I have respect for the Sangha I had to investigate, I had to question myself. That monk is a very precious teacher, he taught me something that other people could not, and since then I love times when I am irritated. This is not a good analogy, but our mind is like a house full of nice furniture with nasty things hiding underneath, irritation is like moving the furniture, if you have nasty things hiding, they come out of hiding and you have a chance to pin them down and destroy them.

When people tell me, "all is empty, why bother?" I also point out dreams. I say something like, "In a dream, nothing you see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or often apprehend(like memories, this is good or bad, what you think about things) is real, you know that, but you still suffer, you still fear, you still build up good or bad qualities. Suffering is real, fear is real, your good or bad qualities are real, so don't be foolish. If you can bare the results of your actions happily then do them, if not, act in accordance with karma." This isn't true through and through, because it presents suffering, fear, good, bad, as solid and real, not dependent on conditions, but it shows careless people who deny karma what's wrong with their understanding of emptiness.

Hmm,.. Buddha Shakyamuni made a point to not make it a rule to not eat meat, he refuted and spoke out against Devadatta on this. My thinking is that vegetarianism is not always practical, especially for monks. We are humans, it is a horrible part of being human that we must eat. If you become vegetarian, I will support your decision, especially if it is to hold a high standard of ethics, that's very precious. But I will follow Buddha on this and say,.. I don't support mandatory vegetarianism right now,.. it just doesn't seem practical.

Michael, my thoughts on love are this, when I look closely at my feeling love, it's because I've extended my sense of self to cover them too and I just want to give them everything they need, make them happy, help them as if they were myself. I get so much joy when I meditate because I see my thinking like this, so when I equalize self and others, ohhh, there's just so much bliss, especially when I think of the pain in the world my love and joy go out of control, more bliss than my body can handle, this mind training truly transforms sorrow into joy, fear into fearlessness, this body into a bodhisattva's body, this speech into a bodhisattva's speech, this mind into a bodhisattva's mind, and the world into a pure land.