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

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The World of Desire         The World of Form      The World of No-form
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 only feel compassion
Thinking of those whose lives are bound by their attachments to earthly things

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
How can anyone understand unless they experience it?

Now the moon of my life is reaching its final phase
My remaining years draw to their close

As I approach the Three Ways of the Hereafter
what do I regret?

In the quiet hours before dawn
I ask myself​ this question

"Thus to live alone in the woods"

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

My heart does not reply

I can only murmur   two or three times   an invocation to the Buddha
and practice patience

                                                                          Kamo no Chomei

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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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