Imagine feeling so calm

that others can perceive it.

One day, I was doing prostrations in my dorm room. I forget how long I prostrated, but I do remember very clearly how happy and calm I felt afterward. It had been an unusually good session. After putting away my mat, I left the dorm to go to another building.

Along the way, a fellow nun was walking toward me. As we got closer, we both smiled and greeted one another. Then, pausing for a second or two, she admitted to having something upsetting to tell me. Not wanting to distress me, she had been putting it off for several days. But seeing my unusually serene demeanor, she decided the time was right to tell me. And she did.

I don’t remember what she said. But I do remember my reaction.

“Okay.”

Needless to say, she was much relieved. Laughing, she told me that because I looked so calm and relaxed that she easily found the courage to give me the bad news.

Just imagine us looking so calm, thanks to our chanting and practice, that those we encounter can perceive it.

Well, we can.

“What do you Buddhists believe?”

Our lives today are a rare opportunity,

a precious chance to choose 
and progress.

Very rarely are we reborn as humans. Rarer still are we reborn at a time when we can learn what the Buddha taught. And do what he encouraged us to do: practice and experience his teachings. Even now, with the teachings widely available, few learn and practice them. What seems so clear and obvious to these few remains unacceptable to many others. Or perhaps inaccessible.

Those who have the conditions to learn and practice in order to evolve into more loving, caring people have received a gift. Yes, it’s a gift received due largely to their past hard work and sincere efforts. A gift, nonetheless. One from awakened beings!

When presented with a gift, the wise recipient is appreciative. It would be hubris, not to mention bad manners, to murmur “Thanks” and then set the gift aside, undervalued and unused. And so, upon receipt, we hold our gift and marvel at it for it shows the way to a bright, loving future.

Do not waste it.