Slogan #15
Four practices are the best of methods.
The four practices are:
accumulating merit through any actions or words that lessen self-absorption and thus create more space in your mind and heart,
laying down evil deeds through honest and joyful self-reflection,
offering to the dons by welcoming mishaps because they wake you up, and
offering to the dharmapalas by expressing your gratitude to those who protect the teachings that help you and your fellow beings to wake up.
Norman Fischer offers a pithy, reality-driven translation of slogan #15: “Do good, avoid evil, appreciate your lunacy, pray for help.”
Let’s follow his practical advice with an intentional, deliberate practice. Make a daily commitment to track your life according to this aphorism. Today’s practice is all about creating and maintaining a self-compassion journal in which you pay close attention to the actions of your body, speech, and mind. Imagine that we’re all on retreat together and every morning (or evening) we will gather to write about the four practices and how they have affected our lives. Author Anthony Doerr describes journaling as “..a way to train yourself to look and listen. You slow down and translate a big, confusing world, like a prayer.”
Journaling will be our unique way to accumulate merit, to better understand the balance between outer alignment (actions) and inner attunement (sensations, emotions, and thoughts)—to see patterns in order to connect the dots. The truth of our words will be tempered by the fierce sword of compassion; in fact, I’m going to define truth as the exquisite balance between wisdom and compassion. Can you direct loving kindness inwards and be open, receptive, accepting, and loving to all parts of yourself? Accepting our shadow doesn't give it strength; suppressing these emotions does. Can you embrace both your strength and vulnerability, your discernment and fallibility, and your power and fragility? Can you celebrate your humanness? Having the aspiration of loving kindness for our humanness is a beautiful gift that we can give ourselves.
Let’s generate goodness, clear away negativity, bow to our particular brand of craziness, and develop receptivity to the quiet voice of the heart. Let’s help each other to wake up. I’ll end today’s commentary with my favorite quote:
In our scriptures, it is said that there are four kinds of horses: excellent ones, good ones, poor ones, and bad ones. The best horse will run slow and fast, right and left, at the driver’s will, before it sees the shadow of the whip; the second best will run as well as the first one, just before the whip reaches its skin; the third one will run when it feels pain on its body; the fourth will run after the pain penetrates to the marrow of its bones. You can imagine how difficult it is for the fourth one to learn to run. When we hear this story, almost all of us want to be the best horse. If it is impossible to be the best one, we want to be the second best. But this is a mistake. When you learn too easily, you’re tempted not to work hard, not to penetrate to the marrow of a practice. The best horse may be the worst horse. And the worst horse can be the best, for if it perseveres, it will have learned whatever it is practicing to the marrow of its bones.
Shunryu Suzuki