Achieving a Mind at Rest

Since I forsook the world and broke off its ties
I have felt neither fear nor resentment.

I have committed my life to fate,
without a special wish to live or a desire to die.

I have few attachments.
Like drifting cloud   I rely on no one.

My only luxury is a sound sleep.
My enjoyment,   the beauty of the changing seasons.​

The World of Desire         The World of Form      The World of No-form
these worlds are entirely of the mind.

If the mind is not at peace
then palaces and pavilions are of no help.

Within this lonely hut
I am content.
There is room to sleep at night.
Room to sit in the day.

In Kyoto the people stared at my poverty.
I felt ashamed.

But here, I simply feel compassion,
thinking of those whose lives are bound by attachment.

Consider the fish,
they do not tire of water.

Birds love the woods,
yet no one knows how they feel.

It is so with the life of a hermit.

One lives a quiet and simple existence.

How can anyone understand unless they have experienced such a life?

Now the moon which has lit my journey is reaching its final phase.

In the quiet hours before dawn
I ask myself​

Thus to dwell alone in the woods,

Has it really been to follow the path of enlightenment?
Do attachment and ignorance still control my actions?"

My heart does not respond.

The most I can do is repeat two or three times 

an invocation to the Buddha
and practice patience,

reflecting on the universal truths

Anicca   (impermanence)

​Dukkha    (dissattisfaction)

Anatta    (no soul)

                                                                          Kamo no Chomei      (1153  -  1216)

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Do Not Believe

I teach one thing and one thing only
 “suffering” and the end of suffering
                                                                                       The Buddha
Do not believe ...
in traditions merely because they are old

and have been handed down for many generations and in many places

Do not believe ...
anything on account of rumours or because people talk a great deal about it

Do not believe ...
anything because you are shown the written testimony of some ancient sage

Do not believe ...
in what you have fancied, thinking that, because it is extraordinary
it must have been inspired by some god or other wonderful being

Do not believe ...
anything merely because presumption is in its favour
or because the custom of many years inclines you to take it as true

Do not believe
anything merely on the authority of your teachers and priests

But whatever
after thorough investigation and reflection
you find to agree with reason and your experience
as being conducive to the good and benefit of one and all
and to the good and benefit of the world at large
accept only that as
true

Shape your life in accordance with it

                                                                                                                 The Buddha

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