Notice from 

The Good Fortune Bank:

Statements will no longer be issued.

Not knowing how much good fortune we have makes it difficult to determine whether we’re accumulating or depleting it. Our financial institutions update us monthly; with many providing phone apps so we can check how much money we have 24/7/365. We can even request to be notified the instant anything changes. Wouldn’t it be convenient if the Good Fortune Bank also notified us? Alert: you just helped someone; you now have X. Or, Alert: You bought something you didn’t need; your balance has decreased to Y. Not receiving such updates, we have no idea how much good fortune we have left! If our bank stopped updating us, we would start keeping a mental tally. We can do the same with our good fortune. Not knowing our balance, we can keep a daily score secure in the knowledge that at the end of the day as long as we achieve more selfless acts than selfish ones, our balance will have increased.

Circumstances

—favorable and unfavorable—

provide practice opportunities.

When life is going well, our complacency often emerges. We’re too busy enjoying our good fortune to think of increasing it, too happy to think of ending others’ suffering. When things are not going well, we can feel so overwhelmed by events that cultivating to attain a future goal seems irrelevant compared to surviving the day unscathed. But all circumstances are suitable for practice. For example, when in danger, we cultivate a calm mind. In fearful times, we practice giving others courage as well as letting go of our attachment to ego. When others are enraged, we strive to engender patience to help diffuse the anger. When everything is going well, we exercise humility and gratitude. While enjoying happy occasions, we compassionately strive to help others find joy as well. And always, whether times are good or bad, we chant “Amituofo.”

Those with great authority

need great wisdom.

Those of us who do not wield much influence over others should be grateful. And immensely relieved. Saying or doing something inept, any harm we do is limited in scope. And so at least the damage we could do is minimized. But consider those who, due to position and wealth, do affect the lives of untold numbers of people. Terrifying! Unless they act from empathy and wisdom, from the heart of selflessness, they will act from arrogance. And intolerance. And fear. These are not the qualities of greatness; they are the instruments of discord. The more far-reaching the authority, the more extensive the harm, the more intense the pain. At such times, and indeed at all times, we each need to blink, step back, and then examine what lies at the heart of our own actions. Discerning the possibilities that lie within our own small sphere of influence, we can then join the ranks of those who alleviate, not inflict, pain. 

“Why should I re-read a Buddhist book 

when I know what happens?”

So many books today seem best suited to a mere single reading. This could well be due to our having learned all they had to tell us. Fortunately, there are other books, like Buddhist sutras and commentaries, which we can return to and benefit from for the rest of our lives. In fact, the more we read these books, the more we benefit from them. No longer do we need to hurriedly turn a book’s pages to find out “what happens.” We already know. Knowing what lies ahead, our mind can be at ease. As the very familiarity of the words calms us, our now peaceful mind can more deeply absorb the embedded wisdom in what we are reading, lingering contemplatively on a particularly moving passage, viewing another in a formerly unseen light. Thus, repeatedly reading our Buddhist book transforms what was once a leisure activity into a meditative practice as we take in the book at progressively more sublime, subtle, and meaningful levels. 

No one departs 

a confrontation unscathed.

Whether a participant, an observer, or someone further removed, everyone involved in or touched by a dispute is harmed. Those who exchanged harsh words or even actual blows will have planted the seeds for future karmic retributions. Those who witnessed what happened will find themselves impacted in varying ways and degrees. All those affected will continue to influence others they come into contact with as the rancor engendered by the conflict injures everyone in its path like embers falling away from a smoldering fire scorch and sear all they touch. Thus the number of beings negatively impacted continues growing in ways the combatants never imagined. But regardless, as each of those untold beings is affected, the adverse karmic retributions will continue to mount for the original participants, especially the one who chose to begin the confrontation. Yet another reason we should think before acting.