Old Cow Practice

Remember the example of an old cow:

She’s content to sleep in a barn.

You have to eat, sleep and shit ---

That’s unavoidable --- anything

Beyond that is none of your business.

Do what you have to do

And keep yourself to yourself.

Patrol Rinpoche

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When it gets right down to it my faith is un-faith. I get all tied up in a knot with dogma and credos when I depart from the basics. The basics to me are the simple things I must do each day that must be done. Life gets complicated when I start adding things to it. If my attention strays from its center I am useless to myself and to anybody else. Moralistic jingoism gets set aside along with patronizing self-righteousness. They are replaced with a humility that allows others the freedom of their own dignity. Do the next right thing and then shut up about it. Allow the merit of compassion to sink in before I take credit for it because compassion is its own being and knows no restrictions. I become content to be free of encumbrances as an Old Cow practicing the three basics: eating, sleeping and shitting.

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