Ramblings. . . March 29, 2015

Currently I’m studying the Dharma with a Dharma friend, Tashi Nyima.

One of the things Tashi shares with us quite a bit is that everything, absolutely everything we do begins in the mind.

Sometimes, I just want to say. . . no way. I just did that. . .ex nihilo…It came from nowhere. But if I follow the act back to its inception, sure enough, there’s a thought right there at the start of things.

So, I’m reading this book written in the Lovecraft tradition, Reanimators. It’s a story written in the Lovecraft world, so of course there’s a mad scientist.

I’m up to the part where the mad scientist guy is thinking back on how he got himself into this mess. And how did it all start? Like this, “It was little more than a notion at first, but it then grew into a thought, and then an idea. Before long it was a plot and then a plan.”

Hmmm..sounds familiar.

This reminds me of one of my favorite mind training prayers:

As the wheel follows the ox that pulls the cart,

all my thoughts, words, and deeds have consequences.

Bless me to keep my view as high as a white-tailed eagle’s,

and my conduct as careful as a blind man’s on a steep mountain trail!

If only the mad scientist had caught those dastardly thoughts before they became deeds!

If only we could catch our mad scientist mind in the act, and see with perfect clarity that all our thoughts, words, and deeds have consequences!

The name of this mind training prayer is Life and Death. Really? Is it that serious? I believe it is. Every action matters; therefore, every thought matters.

My mind is still mostly mad scientist. . . I ain’t there yet!