Month: March 2023
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Chapter 2: Reflection 28 – As Though Finding a Treasure of Precious Jewels
The Lord gave it to me, Brother Francis, this way to begin doing penance. Because, when I was in sins, it seemed very bitter to me to see lepers. And the Lord himself brought me amongst them and I made mercy with them. And when I withdrew from them, what had seemed bitter to me…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 27 – Battling Heart-wounds
“With al keping kepe thin herte, for lijf cometh forth of it.” (Wycliffe Bible, Proverbs 4.23) 1 The third verse of Langri Thangpa’s 8 Verses reads “During all my activities I will probe my mind, / And as soon as an affliction arises – / Since it endangers myself and others – / I will…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 26 – Allowing Others to be of Supreme Importance
“No thing bi strijf, nether by veyn glorie, but in mekenesse, demynge eche othere to be heiyer than hym silf.” (Wycliffe Bible, Philippians 2:4) 1 In the second stanza of his Eight Verses on Mind Training, Langri Thangpa (1054-1093) writes: “Whenever I interact with others, / I will view myself as inferior to all; /…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 25 – Transformed into Nothing but Pure Joy
In his short 1999 book How to Generate Bodhicitta, Tibetan Buddhist monk, Ribur Rinpoche (1923-2005) teaches: What is the measure or sign of having generated great compassion in your mind? It is that you feel towards all sentient beings the same wish for them to be free of suffering that a mother would feel for…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 24 – Generating Compassion Until Tears Flow
While the eyes of many Christians in the medieval West glistened with compassionate devotion, so did those of many spiritual practitioners in the Land of Snows, and with no less tenderness. The great Kadam master, Geshe Langri Thangpa (1054-1124), who is “famed for his great compassion,” was often in tears, because of “his constantly contemplating…
Julian of Norwich and Other Tibetan Lamas 