Three occasions to remind ourselves to stay vigilant

There are two reasons why practice is hard for us.

- First, of the six faculties, we have only one, the mind faculty, with which to look back at our own mind.

- Second, the ego deceives us, making us forever self-important and unable to see our own mistakes.

Because beings are caught in these two obstacles, they never see that they are wrong, the path of practice is closed to them, and they remain deluded from one life to the next, drifting in the cycle of birth and death. Once we are determined to practise, we have to untangle this, but only someone with wisdom and sky-high resolve can do it.

This is why the path of practice is extremely hard. It is also because of this difficulty that beings, seven billion humans and countless animals on this planet, remain sunk in the murky cycle of rebirth. Now we must do two things: first, develop the mind faculty hundreds of times more than before in order to illuminate our inner self; second, not let the ego deceive us into praising ourselves and failing to see our own mistakes.

How do we avoid being deceived by the ego? We must remind ourselves to stay vigilant.

The first occasion is when kneeling before the Buddha

Repent of the faults we have just discovered in our mind, and ask for the Buddha's power to support us in overcoming them. The more detail we go into when speaking of our faults, the more responsiveness we meet from the Buddhas.

There are times when faults have already been committed

I blame myself: how could I have been so unrestrained?

Head bowed before the Buddha, tears welling

I beg to repent my boundless wrongs.

It is the same even with our teacher. When we repent, the more meticulously we explain our fault, the more our teacher cares for us, because they know the disciple is sincerely practising and has wisdom.

The second occasion is when facing ourselves. Probably almost everyone looks in the mirror every day. Looking at the person in the mirror, some think: “I'm probably no less beautiful than a beauty queen,” or: “With this face, if I try hard at practice I will surely be reborn in the heavens as a stunningly beautiful goddess,” “If I became a monastic I would be an accomplished one”… When we know how to practise, we try to see ourselves more objectively. Looking at the person in the mirror, what will we say to that person? Let us say: “You must respect everyone, you must love all beings, you must live a whole life of dedicated sacrifice, sparing no effort, without clinging to credit.” It is said lightheartedly, but not only when looking in the mirror: whenever we are alone, facing ourselves, that is an occasion to remind ourselves.

And the third occasion is when meeting people. Stepping out of our room we meet family, opening the door to the street we meet our neighbours, at the workplace we meet colleagues, at the temple we meet fellow practitioners, turning on the television we see the whole world in it… Whenever we see people, let us also remind ourselves to stay vigilant and remind ourselves to cultivate compassion and respect for people. For our karmic conditions in this life are sown with beings. Through countless lives we have sown countless bad and good conditions, tangled and interwoven. Once we know the path, we have only one wish: to form good connections with all beings, and no longer create hatred, adverse conditions or grudges with anyone.

Every day we vow to love and respect people, vow to bear with forbearance, vow to be grateful forever: whenever we owe a debt of gratitude to someone, we vow to repay that debt to all beings; and we vow to live worthily, so that when we open our eyes and look at people there is nothing in our heart to be ashamed of.

There is a story from the time when the Buddha was in the world:

From time to time the Buddha would wander alone to liberate those whom he knew had the affinity. Once, observing that a landowner had the affinity to be liberated, the Buddha went to him. Each morning this man would hand out rice to the hired farmers before they ploughed and planted his fields. The farmers held their bowls waiting their turn to have rice and food ladled into them. That day the Buddha, too, stood waiting at the very end holding his bowl. To see the World-Honoured One quietly queuing behind the farmers to receive his portion of rice truly “wrenches the heart”, yet one's heart also feels boundless admiration and loving reverence.

When he had finished ladling rice for the farmers, the landowner saw only one ascetic still standing nearby with his bowl; he gave him nothing and even retorted sarcastically:

- Ascetic, plough the field and then you will have something to eat. We plough the fields, so we have something to eat.

The Buddha remained gentle:

- Householder, the Tathagata also ploughs, and the Tathagata also has something to eat.

- I don't see any field, any buffalo, any ploughshare, any yoke or whip of yours. How can you say you plough and also have something to eat?

- Householder, I have a whole field of mind to till. I have the ploughshare of wisdom to turn up all the weeds of ignorance and affliction. I have the buffalo, the strength of unceasing diligence. I have the whip, the strength of conscience and shame, knowing what to be ashamed of. And so I too plough, and I have something to eat. Householder, the field you are ploughing is only impermanent and temporary; one day it will lie waste. The house you live in will one day collapse. But the field of mind that I am ploughing will lead me into a deathless life. Householder, till the field of mind that I have just spoken to you about.

The landowner awoke, fell to his knees and bowed to the Buddha, begging to make an offering. The Buddha declined, because he never accepted offerings after teaching the Dharma.

The Buddha pretended to beg for food in order to liberate the landowner. He liberated a person with just a few pointed words, in which he said that the ploughshare of wisdom, the buffalo of diligence and the whip of conscience and shame are the tools for tilling the field of mind. How remarkable!

And just as a mechanic has special tools for welding, joining, taking apart… to repair a broken vehicle, what do we have to weld and repair our own mind? They are the words with which we remind ourselves to stay vigilant every day: the reminders we give ourselves when kneeling before the Buddha, when facing ourselves and when meeting people. These are the very tools for repairing the vehicle of our mind.