This Elephant

Wednesday, August 28, 2013:

If this elephant of mind is bound on all sides by the cord of

            mindfulness,

All fear disappears and complete happiness comes,

All enemies, all the tigers, lions, bears,

            serpents (of our emotions);

And all the keepers of hell; the demons and the horrors,

All of these are bound by the mastery of your mind,

And by the taming of that one mind, all are subsided,

Because from the mind are derived all fears and

            immeasurable sorrows.

Shantideva

From: Glimpse After Glimpse,

Sogyal Rinpoche

&

Once the regular practice of self-examination and meditation is established, it is astounding how little effort it takes to keep my mind where it can be used productively. Training takes time and it doesn’t come automatically. Had I started young it might have been easier. Like a circus elephant tethered to a stake it is content to stay where it could, with the least effort, lift the stake and escape. It is difficult but not impossible to train the mind at my age even though I started at a late date. It takes patience and self-forgiving, but it can be done. I don’t aim for sainthood. I just need to be able to put a strap on the outrageous emotions that get in my way of my usefulness and I am okay with that, for my peace is easily disturbed in crises. It took great effort to hold back on all those fears when Bonnie was in I.C.U. I made it through fine but it took a toll as I was found exhausted and hospitalized myself afterwards. If it was just a matter of her surgery and a week or two of recovery I might have been okay with it but, when her recovery dragged on past a month my resolve was worn down. That was when I depended heavily on the Heart of Compassion within and beyond myself for strength. This is something we hear over and over again from people of all faiths; we can plow through the everyday trials on our own but, when challenged, we are forced to lean on a Power greater than ourselves. It is in these times that the rogue elephant of despair can become the dancing elephant of Genesh.

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