“One who wishes to guard his training must scrupulously guard his mind. It is impossible to guard one’s training without guarding the wandering mind.
Rutting elephants roaming wild do not cause as much devastation in this world as the roaming elephant, the mind, let free, creates in Avici and other hells.
But if the roaming elephant, the mind, is tethered on every side by the cord of mindfulness, every danger subsides, complete prosperity ensues.
So too tigers, lions, elephants, bears, serpents, and all malign beings, and all the guards of hell, ogresses, demons,
all these are bound through the binding of a single mind, and through the taming of a single mind, all are tamed,
since all fears and incomparable sufferings arise from the mind alone. So it was taught by the Teacher of Reality.
Who fashioned the wepons in hell so industirously? Who the pavement of scalding iron? And who sired those sirens?
Every single thing aridses from the evil mind, sang the Sage. So there is nothing dangerous in the three worlds other than the mind.
If the perfection of generosity consists in making the universe free from poverty, how can previous Protectors have acquired it, when the world is still poor, even today?
The perfection of generosity is said to result from the mental attitude of relinquishing all that one has to all people, together with the freut of that act. Therefore the perfection is the m ental attitude itself.
Where can fish and other creatures be taken where I might not kill them? Yet when the mental attitude to cease from worldly actis is achieved, that is agreed to be the perfection of morality.
How many wicked people, as unending as the sky, can I kill? But when the mental attitude of avger is slain, slain is every enemy.
Where is there hide to cover the whole world? THe wide world can be covered with hide enough for a pair of shoes alone.
In the same way, since I cannot control external events, I will control my own mind. What concern is it of mine whether other things are controlled?…”
From The Bodhicaryavatara by Santideva
This slim book is one of the most amazing and inspiring Buddhist texts, written in the 8th century AD, describing the path of a Bodhisattva, one who wishes to save all beings from suffering.
Allyndreth Stead
Editor