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To finish off the lectures, I want to change the emphasis a bit. A point was brought up. What do you do when you have a lot of sexual desire and it comes up in your meditation, and what do you do with it? In regards to the focus of meditation in the sense of our spiritual practice and becoming Enlightened, Enlightenment is very holistic. It is not that suddenly your spirit becomes beautiful and yet your body, your common desires are rejected out of your life. You have to have an inclusive process to become Enlightened. The ultimate expression of Enlightenment is that you are a perfect person in all facets of your being. Thus, you don't have rough edges anywhere. Bringing that back to our own level, as we spiritually develop, we have to think holisticly. In doing this we have to relate to who we are. And in seeing who we are, trying not to avoid what comes up. In that we have to have our initial motivation, the underlying feeling that we have when we do our practice which is "I would like to become more relaxed." or "I want to become more spiritual." whatever the feeling is. And that is like the motive we have in our mind. We think that "I am only going to get better." That we are going to be nicer and everything is going to be beautiful. And sometimes it doesn't seem to be that way. But it is actually that way and it does get better. But we always have to come back to appreciating it is a holistic process that we are involved in. And by that I mean that all facets of our being should be dealt with. In dealing with them all, as we become more whole, then we don't have any areas which we have not addressed. As we meditate, it sometimes seems that it's not as much fun as we would like it to be. We think that we are quite a beautiful person, we have really good energy and that we are alright. Then we meditate and all of a sudden we find that we have a devious mind, it is very manipulative. As you meditate you find that you sit there and find that you always interact with people and bring about a certain response from them, because that is your need. Another way is that you start meditating and then you find that you have a lot of desire. All of a sudden you find that there is an abundance of passion in your body and you think, I wasn't this way before! It sort of seems that you are going down hill a hell of a lot, and there is "Where is the tranquillity and peace when I sit down to meditate? All I see is my dirty face and I don't like that. I actually seem not as beautiful a person as I like to think myself!" Or also you get really strong feelings, emotional feelings that seem to consume you. Like a sense of passion that seems all out of proportion for what you think you would like to be. It sort of looks like meditation did it to you but if we sort of distract ourselves from that, separate it, and look back at what is happening, we have to say that whatever we are is what we are. And when we start to meditate, we start to center and become much less intellectual, less philosophical. We start to be. And when we become a little bit more in our body, more centered, then the things that we are, the things that we have repressed, and the things that we have never dealt with start to surface because we are starting to get close to home base. And home base means that maybe we have a bad relationship with our father, mother, and actually we have never had the love that we would have liked to have had or felt, and suddenly we are stuck with a real sense of hate for something which we have really never dealt with. We never saw it. Many things become apparent. We might say we were never this way before and it is the meditation. We reject it, lay the blame at the feet of the Buddha saying "It is all your fault for making me this way, isn't that lousy?" If we look at it though, we are coming closer to home base. I will speak from my own perspective in becoming a monk, at one point I thought I was pure as the driven snow. I was young, hadn't had any sexual or love relationships, I thought that was good. That I had my life squared away. After a few years, I found that I was fascinated with certain women and then I got into the initiation process. I received a very powerful initiation from about three different teachers and all of a sudden I was crying all the time, I was sort of pathetic, I found that I had a lot of unresolved emotions in regards to women that I had never addressed. I went into about a year and a half depression. It was a horrible thing. The incredible desire, and I was a celibate monk so I had to bottle it all up and yet it would bubble out all over. It was a difficult time in my life. I had a lot to work through. I remember at one point I thought I am going to disrobe. Quit the whole thing and become an ordinary person again. Isn't that fantastic. Because I had all these emotions just tearing me to pieces. So I was walking down this road thinking about this, I remember. Then I went down and saw my teacher Lama Yeshe and I was all set to say it was finished, here was my robes. And Lama Yeshe must have intuited it and looked at me and said "You could never disrobe!" Oh! And that was it. I didn't think about it again. But it was sort of funny because he hit me in the middle of mid stride. And he must have seen I was obviously going through this over a period of a month or two. And he didn't say anything but hit me on the head with that statement and it put me back a bit and I kept my ordination going and I did another ten years and I did alright. The point I am trying to make is, that at age twenty one I thought I was pretty good, I didn't have any so called emotional problems. I had never been crushed by any women, I didn't have nay heartbreak inside. I didn't have any unresolved passions that I hadn't fulfilled. So from my side I thought I was doing alright. But two three years later I had all this come up and I couldn't believe that this is part of me especially after the initiations where I started to come in touch with my own relationship to women,I found a lot of broken emotions and things which I had never resolved. And they had to be, and they had to be done skillfully. I think if you are a good meditator, you are much more in touch psychologically with yourself. You have to be. You can't think that you can meditate through things without having to deal with them. So when you have big emotions come up, you see that maybe you are not as pure in your heart as you thought you would be. You can't sort of deny it. You have to address that issue and ask what is going on here. Why do I feel this way? Or why do I manipulate people this way? Seeing that, you sort of adjust why you do it that way and begin to work with yourself. It is not an easy process, it is not like magic. That suddenly you are healed and beautiful. It takes a long time because you are getting close to home base. The person you are. The anger we have. The passion we have. The manipulative mind we have. All these things we have start to become revealed because they are not hidden any more. The are not just there in free form to express themselves. They are being scrutinized now. You are aware that they are there and that hurts. Sometimes it hurts like hell. This doesn't mean that the meditative process is bad. It just means that you have never looked at yourself and you have never addressed these issues satisfactorily enough because they are still there. The point is to realize that it is part of your own home base which is coming open. You could almost look at it with glee, happiness, because you can say now I really know where I have to work. It is something that if I work through this, I never have to do it again. It is resolved. If in one lifetime you very clearly identify a problem, go into it and resolve it, your next lifetime, it might come up. Let's say that next lifetime I try again to be a monk and again comes up the thing with women, whatever, I should go through it really quickly providing I don't blow it this lifetime and end up with all sorts of problems. As long as you have a very realistic approach to your life, and when something comes up, you look at it positively and say, "Alright, I'm going to resolve it this time. And it is not going to be a further problem in my life. I am going to grab a hold of it and I am going to fix it. And it might hurt. And it might Take a few years, but I am going to do it.



Because it means never again in the next lifetimes I am going to have it. Even in this lifetime I am not going to be hassled." Emotion, feeling, personality trait, whatever, that keeps on getting in the way of being an O.K. person. In meditating, realizing that a lot of our crud or bad side is going to come up, alright. No one is ever going to say that you are bad. And a really important facet is to think that no matter how ugly you seem to get in your own practice, the Buddha still loves you much as he ever did. Enlightened beings don't dislike you because you start to become more deluded. And that is important. Because very often in our practice we might say well the last few weeks I have been angry, I have been bad, I have not been meditating, arn't I a bad person? Of course you then say well, Jhampa is not going to like me very much for that! I promised to do this and that. Jhampa is going to be angry. Buddhism is not going to like me too, and then it comes down to the Buddha is not going to like me any more. And that is not at all the case! As long as I am fairly clear minded, I should have a clear relationship with you. And if you are practicing that is fine, and if you are not, that is fine too. My affection should be the same. And certainly the Buddhas affection is the same. The Enlightened beings don't dislike us if we all of a sudden get a lot of pimples on our face! In the sense that all of a sudden a lot of our delusions start to come out and we are really rampant with passions, anger, aggressiveness or whatever. It doesn't mean a thing. It is O.K. They are still there and they are waiting for that process to go through. If we were very together in our life, then that means, Say right now I have a lot of heavy delusion. What does that mean? What do I do? The Dalai Lama in an interview with western people was very frank. "In my younger years," he said, "I had a lot of sexuality that I had to deal with. I was a monk, had been a monk since I was six, and my feeling would come very strong. I used to call my feelings in front of me and would talk to them. I would say, what do you want? And then I would say, is that practical? Is that would I would like to do with myself?" And he would have a dialogue with his feelings. And that way, "If my feelings," he said, "had a very good argument, well then maybe I would do it." In regards to his own sexuality, he responded and decided that being a monk was better. It worked for my people and it works for me and my office and what I would like to do. So he said that to be a monk was the right thing for him. But he said it is very important to have a dialogue, a very real one, that you don't hide from a delusion when it comes to you. That you sort of grab it and ask what do you want. Would that make other people around me happy? Will it make me happy? And you ask questions to it. And then you let it respond to you. By thinking that it is your own delusion, you talk back to yourself. And then you can set up the reasons why you want to be a particular type of person. Why do you want not to have a particular kind of delusion consume you. And then you work with it in a positive manner. And if you can, you try to resolve it. When we meditate, we work with ourselves. We should never put ourselves down. You should never think that the Enlightened beings think less of us, or that our spiritual friends, people we live with and such should be putting us down. It's alright whatever is coming through us, what we are experiencing. And as long as we are addressing the issue for ourselves, that is what really counts. I don't think it is necessary to make confessions to each other. What is important is that we have our own life within our own grasp and whatever we feel is happening, it is in our control and we are aware of it. And that awareness, that intention to mend it is the important part we need on our side. And then just the love and support and friendship each one of us can give is important. What our teacher can give is important. The sense that our own Enlightenment nature and the Enlightenment nature of all the Buddhas is also there for us. Consistently there for is. It isn't rejecting us or saying, you are all deluded, I don't love you any more! In your practice and as your practice develops, don't ever fall into that category of thinking that you are getting worse than you were before. Secondly you should look at it as a healing experience. If you resolve the issue for yourself, in the future it won't be an issue for you any more. Having to deal with a strong emotion with somebody whether it is a negative or positive one, whatever. It does go away from you. If you don't resolve it, it will come back and will hassle you. Just to digress, when you have a feeling or a thought and you are fairly clear, you sort of have a bit of space and you don't have to act it out. But it is when you loose that little bit of space in regards to feelings and thoughts that you have, that you start to take yourself too real! Take children for example. And your child does something that bends your ego out of shape. Your ego gets very uptight. As soon as that child comes into your view, you have incredible intensity on that child and as soon as they do anything to even slightly validate your viewpoint, you fly off the handle, that is because you are taking yourself very real, the child very real, and you are intensively involved in the situation. If you can detach yourself from it, not feel so real about it, so identified with it, then you have the option at looking at your feelings, what the child is doing, seeing what is happening there! A little falls on our problem of taking our selves too seriously. Maybe all of a sudden we get a big passion. We are meditating and as you say, your lower chakra energy starts becoming quite activated and you feel intensive passion towards somebody. If you can laugh at yourself that is fine. That is the best thing possible. You laugh at yourself and say isn't that a fun feeling! It sort of keeps a distance in engaging as in being real. And then you sort of say is it practical. I'm married or I'm not married. If I'm not, then fine. Is the other person married, and if not, then go for it. If you are both married, then there is problems. You should back off from it, it is not going to be a very good situation, it is messy, you have your own children and family etc. The thing is you say it would be very impractical to commit adultery, or to break up that other person's marriage. So you have that in your mind. Secondly, you don't take yourself so seriously. We all have our flights of fantasy. So you say, it is just a fantasy. And sure enough a week or two later you laugh at yourself and ask why you would have a feeling like that, it seems silly now. You didn't take yourself seriously. I have this big emotional feeling for somebody. They are so beautiful and I am taking myself seriously, I am feeling so much passion for that person, I am very real. Well, you can really get ito it. Well then you have a hell of a thing to go through. You have got to sort of resolve your feelings, and then maybe you have flirted a bit with the other person so you have to deal with the fact that you are flirting. And was that real? And all these incredible emotions and so on. It is all because you take yourself and you take your feelings as being very real. I'm sure that we are all mature enough I mean, how may people have we fallen in love with and never said anything to them? Now they are not even an object of our consciousness. As a teenager I fell in love with so many people. Even as a monk I fell in love with so many people and I never really expressed that emotion to them at all and yet I am still alive today. I didn't ruin my life and I didn't ruin their lives and nothing came of it you know. The same thing. Apply that to yourself and say alright, right now I'm feeling a heavy feeling towards someone. Well, I've gone through this before. And then you sort of say, sure I've got this feeling right now, it bothers me a bit. But you at least sort of make some space in there and you laugh at yourself. Say, it's here again! In having that space you don't have the same emotional hassle to go through. You can joke with it and poke fun at it. You can do that consciously. Saying like, !Hey arn't you stupid, you know, it's a silly thing, it would never work!" So a lot of the point in being able to manage your life well is also not taking yourself seriously as in the thoughts and feelings you have. A really good thing to remember is that from the time that you were born or became a conscious entity till now, you have had a lot of ideas about what life is about, the things you wanted to do. And yet there is a whole change. So why now is it different, why isn't now also changeable. What I wanted to touch upon tonight was one, in getting closer to home base that it can sometimes become difficult for us but that is not bad. The spiritual community we have, our teacher we have and also the Enlightened beings don't get further away from us. And then on the side of our own personal responsibility is to try to have a sense of humor with your own feelings. Try to talk with them rationally, realistically and try to be positive in looking at it. If resolved now, you never have to deal with it again. Meditate Now! (These lectures were transcribed by T Vd Broek. Heartfelt gratitude is offered for all the hours of work spent on this Dharma activity. These talks are offered free of charge. They have been slightly edited.)

The Talkative Tortoise... The future Buddha was once born in a minister's family, when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares; and when he grew up, he became the king's adviser in things temporal and spiritual. Now this king was very talkative; while he was speaking, others had no opportunity for a word. And the future Buddha, wanting to cure this talkativeness of his, was constantly seeking for some means of doing so. At that time there was living, in a pond in the Himalaya mountains, a tortoise. Two young hamsas, or wild ducks, who came to feed there, made friends with him. And one day, when they had become very intimate with him, they said to the tortoise: "Friend tortoise! the place where we live, at the Golden Cave on Mount Beautiful in the Himalaya country, is a delightful spot. Will you come there with us?" "But how can I get there?" "We can take you, if you can only hold your tongue, and will say nothing to anybody." "Oh! that I can do. Take me with you." "That's right," they said. And making the tortoise bite hold of a stick, they themselves took the two ends in their teeth, and flew up into the air. Seeing him thus carried by the hamsas, some villagers called out, "Two wild ducks are carrying a tortoise along on a stick!" Whereupon the tortoise wanted to say, "If my friends choose to carry me, what is that to you, you wretched slaves!" So just as the swift flight of the wild ducks had brought him over the king's palace in the city of Benares, he let go of the stick he was biting, and falling in the open courtyard, split in two! And there arose a universal cry, "A tortoise has fallen in the open courtyard, and has split in two!" The king, taking the future Buddha, went to the place, surrounded by his courtiers; and looking at the tortoise, he asked the Bodhisattva, "Teacher! how come he to be fallen here?" The future Buddha thought to himself, "Long expecting, wishing to admonish the king, have I sought for some means of doing so. This tortoise must have made friends with the wild ducks; and they must have made him bite hold of the stick, and have flown up into the air to take him to the hills. But he, being unable to hold his tongue. when he hears any one else talk, must have wanted to say something; and let go the stick; and so must have fallen down from the sky, and thus lost his life." And saying, "Truly, O king! those who are called chatter-boxes -- people whose words have no end -- come to grief like this," he uttered these Verses:
"Verily the tortoise killed himself, whilst uttering his voice; though he was holding tight the stick, by a word himself he slew. Behold him then, O excellent by strength! And speak wise words, not out of season. You see how, by his talking over-much, the tortoise fell into this wretched plight!"
The king saw that he was himself referred to, and said "O Teacher! are you speaking of me?" And the Bodhisattva spoke openly, and said, "O great king! be it thou, or be it any other, whoever talks beyond measure meets with some mishap like this." And the king henceforth refrained himself, and became a man of few words.



KANNON BOSATSU, KANNON BODHISATTVA, LORD OF OMPASSION, GODDESS OF MERCY
Represented as both Male and Female
Assists People in Distress in the Earthly Realm
Sanskrit = Avalokitesvara, Avalokiteshvara, Lokeshvara
Japanese = Kannon, Kanjizai, Kanzeon, Kwannon
Chinese = Kuan Yin, Guanyin, Guanshiyin
Tibetan = Spyan-ras-gzigs
Often seen alone or next to a statue of Amitabha Buddha, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva -- in Chinese also known as Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy -- is the most popular and most venerated Buddhist figure besides Amitabha Buddha and Sakyamuni Buddha. A popular Chinese saying illustrates this aspect: "Everyone knows how to chant Amitabha Buddha, and every household worships Kuan Yin."
Why is this Bodhisattva popular in so many Chinese families? It may be because Kuan Yin is represented as a female with an appearance that embraces the qualities of compassion and motherly love. In addition, because many Buddhist scriptures state that one can invoke Kuan Yin's assistance by simply calling out her name, people feel that this Bodhisattva is very approachable.
According to the Huayen Sutra (Buddha-vatamsaka-mahavaipulya Sutra), Kuan Yin uses all kinds of ways to attract people: she makes gifts, uses words of love, and transforms herself into persons like those that she deals with. The "Universal Gateway" chapter in the Lotus Sutra lists thirty-two typical forms in which Kuan Yin may appear. For instance, if a boy or girl is about to gain some Enlightenment, Kuan Yin transforms herself into a boy or a girl to teach the child. If a monk is about to attain some Enlightenment, Kuan Yin transforms herself into a monk. In short, she can appear as a monk, a nun, a king, a minister, a celestial being, or a normal person like you and me. The purpose of such transformations is to make people feel close to her and willing to listen to her words.
"I am cultivating this method of great compassion and hope to save all living beings," Kuan Yin said. "Any living being who calls my name or sees me will be free from all fear and danger. I will activate that being's spiritual awareness and maintain it forever."
Sakyamuni Buddha confirmed Kuan Yin's vow: "If a suffering being hears the name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva and earnestly calls out to the Bodhisattva, Avalokitesvara will hear the call and redeem that being from his suffering."
In other words, this Bodhisattva's main attraction for people lies in her efforts to eliminate suffering and to make people live in peace and harmony. This kind of immediate benefit and the ability to receive protection or help simply by calling the Bodhisattva's name, similar to children receiving an instant reply when calling their mother, have contributed to Kuan Yin's great popularity.
A Sacred Island...   Like the other Bodhisattvas I have introduced so far, Kuan Yin also has a sacred place in China: Potala Mountain. This mountain is located near the city of Ningpo, in Chechiang Province on the East China Sea. It is actually an island with a radius of about thirty miles. Nowadays the island is full of temples. It is said that during the Liang Dynasty, a Japanese monk by the name of Hui Erh stole a Kuan Yin statue from Wutai Mountain in central China, hoping to take it back to Japan. But when his boat approached the island of Potala, it simply stopped moving. Feeling that it was the Bodhisattva's will, Hui Erh presented the statue to the islanders. Later, more and more Buddhist temples were built, and more and more stories of Kuan Yin's miraculous interventions circulated among the people, making Potala Mountain the sacred ground for this Bodhisattva.
Male or female?   Probably because of Kuan Yin's great compassion, a quality which is traditionally considered feminine, most of the Bodhisattva's statues in China since the Tang dynasty have appeared as female figures. In India, however, the Bodhisattva is generally represented as a male figure. In Chinese art before the Tang dynasty, Kuan Yin was also usually perceived as masculine, though literary and anecdotal evidence from as early as the fifth century points to a sexual transformation of this Bodhisattva. By the tenth century, Kuan Yin's statues were becoming increasingly feminine, and by the Ming Dynasty, the transformation into a female deity was complete. In the end, what is Kuan Yin, male or female? In Buddhism, the universe is divided into many realms. For instance, there is the Realm of Desire, the Realm of Form, and the Realm of Formlessness. The Realm of Desire includes the human realm with all living beings on earth. Above it is the Realm of Form, and above that the Realm of Formlessness. The beings in these latter two realms are considered celestial beings. The beings in the Realm of Form have outward appearances but no desires, and the beings in the Realm of Formlessness, have, as the name implies, no outward appearances. Without physical forms, the beings in the Realm of Formlessness have no gender distinctions. However, the beings in all three realms still undergo reincarnation. Arhats, Bodhisattvas and Buddhas (beings who have reached three progressive stages toward Enlightenment), on the other hand, have jumped out of the cycle of reincarnation and no longer have true physical forms. A Bodhisattva like Kuan Yin may therefore appear in either male or female form. Statues of these beings merely help us feel their presence.
The Kuan Yin statue...   Kuan Yin may be shown either in a standing or in a sitting position, but on top of her crown there is always an image of a Buddha, which is generally thought to be Amitabha Buddha. In her hands, Kuan Yin may hold a willow branch, a vase with water, or occasionally a lotus flower. The willow branch is used to either heal people's illnesses or bring fulfillment to their requests. The water symbolizes the cleansing of people's sins or illnesses. Kuan Yin's right hand often points downward, with the palm facing outward, the posture of granting a wish. This is the typical image of Kuan Yin in China and Taiwan. Many other forms also exist. The expression "thirty-three forms of Kuan Yin" in Sino-Japanese Buddhist art refers to thirty-three different appearances of the Bodhisattva. For example, besides holding a willow branch, Kuan Yin may also be depicted as standing on a dragon's head in a cloud. However, these other forms have no basis in Buddhist scriptures.
Former Existences...   Like Manjusri, Kuan Yin may have once been a Buddha with the name of "Brightness of True Dharma." However, there is little information on this topic. Although most scriptures refer to Kuan Yin as a Bodhisattva, some entries reflect a different view. The Peihua Sutra tells a story about a father-son relationship between Amitabha and Avalokitesvara. When Amitabha was a ruler in a previous incarnation, he had a thousand sons, and the eldest was named Pu-hsun. Pu-hsun vowed before the Buddha of his time that if suffering people would call his name, he would hear them or see their suffering, and he would try to eliminate their misery. When the Buddha heard Pu-hsun's vow, he praised him by saying that he would be named "Avalokitesvara." He also said that when Amitabha Buddha entered into Nirvana in the future, Avalokitesvara would succeed him and become a Buddha who would be known as "Universal Light-Issuing Tathagata King of Merit Mountain." Since people can simply call Kuan Yin's name for help without having to go through any ritual or ceremony, this Bodhisattva is the most popular figure in China and other East Asian countries. One of the most well-known forms of the Bodhisattva is the one with a thousand eyes and a thousand hands. The thousand eyes allow the Bodhisattva to see the suffering creatures in this world, and the thousand hands allow her to reach out to help them. Thus, this depiction is a popular symbol for the Tzu Chi Foundation, which tries to relieve the suffering in this world through the "thousand eyes and hands" of its volunteers. Actually, everyone can be a Kuan Yin. You may say that you don't have a thousand eyes or a thousand hands or that you lack magic powers, but it is your compassion that can transform you into a Kuan Yin. With your eyes and hands you can help others, and with your compassion you can bring peace and tranquility to this planet.

Do not trivialize small acts of peace and harmony thinking, "I will never reap what I have sown." A pitcher is filled one drop of water at a time and a person centered in oneness who proceeds in peace and harmony will soon manifest peace and harmony in his life.
Just as a merchant traveling with great wealth and a small escort avoids dangerous roads and those who cherish life avoid perilous acts, so one who cherishes peace and harmony remains centered in the oneness of Infinity and avoids confusion in the manifestations of the Infinite.
If one does not have a fresh cut on one's hand, then he can carry poisons with no ill effect. Poisons do not affect those who have no cuts. Likewise, those who are centered in the oneness of Infinity avoid confusion in the manifestations of the Infinite.
Whoever, in confusion, causes harm to another person will reap the fruits of his harmful act the same way dust thrown into the wind rebounds on the one who threw it.
Some souls choose rebirth in this reality. Those who are confused, exist in confusion. Those who stay centered in the oneness of Infinity live in peace and harmony. Those who are indifferent to all things exist in the supreme peace and harmony of Nirvana.
Not in the sky, not in the ocean, not in a mountain cave can a person hide from the fruits of the harm he does to others.
Not in the sky, not in the ocean, not in a mountain cave can a person hide from the inevitability of physical death in this reality.
Everyone trembles in anticipation of punishment and everyone trembles in anticipation of death. Remembering your oneness with all of humanity, do not kill or cause the killing of another human being.
Everyone trembles in anticipation of punishment and life is dear to everyone. Remembering your oneness with all of humanity do not kill or cause the killing of another human being.
One who values happiness for himself but creates anxiety for others is confused.
One who values happiness for himself and also values happiness for others is centered in the oneness of humanity and lives in peace and harmony.
Do not speak harshly to others because harsh words are generally countered with harsh words. Angry words tend to manifest conflict and conflict is the harbinger of confusion in physical violence.
If, like a broken gong, you can remain silent when falsely accused, then you are on the path of peace and harmony and you are not confused in contention.
As a cowherd drives cows to pasture with his rod, time drives human beings to the end of their physical existence.
When one is confused in wrongful deeds, he is not aware of their inevitable consequences. The consequences of wrongful deeds is eventual suffering comparable to being burned by fire.
One who unjustly inflicts punishment on the innocent will eventually reap one of these possible confusions; pain, great deprivation, physical injury, heavy affliction or loss of mind, prosecution by the government, devastation, accusations, loss of family, loss of wealth, loss of home by fire and upon his death confinement for a time in the great confusion of hell.
Neither nakedness, nor matted hair, nor a filthy body, nor fasting, nor sleeping on the ground, nor covering the body with ashes, nor squatting on one's heals can bring peace and harmony to one who is confused in the manifestations of the Infinite.
Even though a person is dressed in the finest of clothing, if he lives in the peace and harmony of the oneness of Infinity he is indeed a sage.
Is there anyone in the world so perfectly centered in the oneness of the Infinite that he is never subjected to criticism? Is there a horse so perfectly trained that he never feels the sting of the whip?
Be like a well trained horse who when touched by the whip becomes swift and spirited. By faith, devotion, vigilance and meditation remain centered in the oneness of Infinity and live in peace and harmony.
As an irrigator channels water into the fields, as a fletcher straightens the arrow, as a carpenter works wood, so the sage shapes his life.
(Sayings attributed to The Buddha)