Mindfulness is this kind of attention. It is a nonjudging, receptive awareness, a respectful awareness.

There is a way of moving wisely and graciously through the world, bestowing blessings and happiness upon yourself and others, in times of trouble and ease. To find this freedom, you must learn how to quiet the mind and open the heart.

“Praise Allah, and tie your camel to the post.” Pray, but also make sure you do what is necessary in the world.

In the Christian mystical tradition one of the great texts is Dark Night of the Soul by Saint John of the Cross, in which he talks about the periods of loneliness, fear, and doubt that one goes through after the initial awakenings into the light. Evagrius,

bodhisattva vows based on the words of the beloved sixth-century sage Shantideva: May I be a guard for those who need protection A guide for those on the path A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood May I be a lamp in the darkness A resting place for the weary A healing medicine for all who are sick A vase of plenty, a tree

form. As Zen master Dogen says, “Flowers fall with our attachment, and weeds spring up with our aversion.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., understood this when he said, “If a person sweeps streets for a living, he should sweep them as Michelangelo painted, as Beethoven composed music, as Shakespeare wrote his plays.”

To continue this journey requires reinforcing the necessary foundation of virtue. By establishing a practice of basic morality, of nonharming, virtue becomes a safeguard on the path, guiding and protecting us and all we touch from harm. In the simplest fashion these safeguards are spelled out in the five traditional Buddhist precepts: (1) not

Living Buddhist Masters.