Robii pacatelor
 

No one wants to suffer, but everyone suffers without choice.

No one wants to experience dissatisfaction, but everyone experiences it without choice.

No one wants to be sick, but everyone falls ill without choice.

No one wants to grow old, but everyone ages without choice.

No one wants to die, but everyone dies without choice.

No one wants to wander in samsara, but everyone does so without choice.

Regardless of status, nationality, or sex, all living beings have to suffer without choice.

Each rebirth they take inevitably ends in an uncontrolled death.

However high they rise within one life, they eventually fall to lower states.

However many possessions they acquire, they necessarily lose them all.

Whatever relationships they form inevitably end in separation.

The cruelty of samsara is such that in all these matters living beings are completely without choice.

If we reflect deeply on this point alone we shall develop strong compassion for all living beings.

If in addition we think about the specific sufferings that they constantly experience, our compassion will grow even stronger.

Six points of similarity
 

The plight of living beings in samsara has six points of similarity with the mechanism of a well:

(1) Just as a bucket is bound to the windlass by rope, so living beings are bound to samsara by delusion and law of cause and effect.

(2) Just as a windlass is forced to rotate by its operator, so living beings are forced to wander in samsara by their unpeaceful and untamed minds.

(3) Just as one turn of a windlass is immediately followed by another, so one rebirth in samsara is immediately followed by another.

(4) Just as a bucket tumbles to the bottom of a well with great ease but is drawn up again only with much effort, so living beings readily migrate to lower rebirths but rise from them only with great difficulty.


(5) Just as when a windlass is spinning quickly it is difficult to identify where one rotation ends and the next begins, so as living beings wander in samsara it is impossible to tell which comes first - delusions, actions, or effects.

(6) Living beings wander in samsara in dependence upon the twelve dependent-related links.

Within these, there are three that are delusions, two that are actions, and seven that are effects.

The three delusions are
• dependent-related ignorance,
• dependent-related craving, and
• dependent-related grasping.

The two actions are
• dependent-related compositional actions and
• dependent-related existence.

The seven effects are
• dependent-related consciousness,
• dependent-related name and form,
• dependent-related six sources,
• dependent-related contact,
• dependent-related feeling,
• dependent-related birth, and
• dependent-related ageing and death.

The three delusions cause the two actions, which produce the seven effects, which in turn lead to the three delusions, and so on.

In this way, the twelve links revolve unceasingly, and it is impossible to say which comes first.

For example, we may feel that the delusion ignorance must come first, but there can only be ignorance if there has been birth, there can only be birth if there has been action, there can only be action if there has been ignorance, and so on.

A HOMAGE TO COMPASSION
OBSERVING MERE LIVING BEINGS

I bow down to that compassion for living beings
Who from first conceiving I with respect to the self,
Then thinking ‘this is mine' and generating attachment for things,
Are without self-control like the spinning of a well.

Through humility observe the beauty of the ultimate
And change the imputation of self on what is perfect.
This is the secret of holy communion.

Humility has eight causal wisdoms and one resultant wisdom.

1. humility of the last
2. humility of waiting
3. humility of not-knowing
4. humility of rejected
5. humility of choosing the least
6. humility of contentment
7. humility of worthless
8. humility of serving

9. humility of emptiness

ce ne-am face daca cei ce cunosc limba araba sau chineza, ar posta in aceste limbi?
traiasca copy-paste! ...

The false conception of 'I' is overcome by nine humilities.
The false conception of 'mine' is overcome by three poverties.

The three poverties are in fact three special wisdoms, as follows:
'devoid of worldly possessions'
'devoid of body possession'
'devoid of status'