Mindfulness

Aware of my own fragile mortality, sensitive to the suffering of all sentient beings, I make this offering out of gratefulness and the deep respect for all sentient beings.

At first, since most people find it difficult to practice patience, accepting life as-is takes great effort when they expect life to benefit them. Yet this effort becomes easy with practice.

Often people are ungrateful about what happens to them because they prefer what good happens to them over what evil befalls them.

Once we are honestly thankful for living, suffering becomes less painful with happiness nearby.

Tempering forgiveness prudently while not condoning what another person does out of ignorance, the happiest people tend to forgive what other people do to them.

Yet, out of concern for the well-being of others, even the happiest of people may condemn willful ignorance and malice.

Suffering is relieved when we act out of loving-kindness to help relieve the suffering of others. Just relieving our own suffering is the first step in preparation for the end of all suffering.

Though there is evil and good in life, one should not crave good out of fear of evil, nor should one turn to evil out of disrespect for good.

Thus, through mindful practice, one should strive to develop a deep abiding love that does not enslave but instead frees self and others.

If a simple person worships various passions in the form of projections of his mind, then harm is done when in the midst of his worship he sacrifices the happiness of other sentient beings needlessly.

In order to free oneself of projecting onto others, one clears the mind of these passions by training the mind through mindful practice and thoughtful meditation.

Sitting still often requires great sacrifices for people who are often in motion. A deeply wise person who thinks nothing of sitting still should strive to abandon clinging to or grasping after bliss, lest all mindful awareness is diverted from truth as-is and all concentration is blind to reality as-is.

When meditating, any thought of "I am meditating" indicates the difficulty in applying one-pointed concentration.

Just be as you are (thusness), thinking of nothing but things as they are (suchness). Once you realize your own thusness, it merges with the suchness of life.

In rarely mentioning the Buddha, bodhisattvas or even gods, the intent is to focus on the mind, rather than on symbols representing various activities of the mind; this is known as mindful awareness.

Mindful awareness is what the Buddha showed through his example that each and every one of us could achieve through mindful practice.

Mindful practice is meditation which consists of rightful action, deed and thought found through acceptance, forgiveness and thanksgiving.

When considering acceptance, forgiveness and thanksgiving, this is what the bodhisattvas contemplate before finding the joy which can be shared with other people out of compassion and the deepest yearning to help others attain a higher state of mind naturally.

When one attains a higher state of mind, it is necessary to be of service to ordinary people.

Hence the terms "gods" and "jealous gods" refer to holiness and piety yet inspire us to being morally upright yet have an abiding sense of humility.

May all people who meditate on these words be inspired by mindful awareness surpassing both limited intellect and self-powered mind.

May all people realize that mindful awareness embraces the ordinary mind, transforming it into the true and real mind which appreciates truth as-is, fully seeing reality as-is.

May all people fully seeing reality as-is come to realize the true, real and sincere mind that attains the psychic state of true and real happiness, Nirvana itself.

May all people upon attaining Nirvana in this way quickly return to help other sentient beings realize the true Buddha, enlightenment, Nirvana, and the Pure Land through proper cultivation of mindful awareness of the Buddha by the practice of Buddha Remembrance.

May this offering be an aid to achieve happiness through mindful awareness realized by cultivation of deep hearing.

Homage to the boundless compassion and wisdom of Amida Buddha!