If not, the Buddha recommends a final and rarely used last resort: “Such thoughts should be met with force, teeth clenched, tongue pressed against the roof of the mouth, determined to constrain, crush, and subdue these thoughts as if constraining a violent criminal. In this way does one become a master of thought and its courses. In this way one be

What we repeatedly visualize changes our body and consciousness. Visualize freedom and compassion.

“When the crowded refugee boats full of families fleeing Vietnam met with storms or pirates, if everyone panicked, all would be lost. But if even one person on the boat stayed calm, it was enough. It showed the way for everyone to survive.”

PRACTICE: THE COMPASSIONATE REPLACEMENT OF PAINFUL THOUGHTS

Though I do not believe a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders. —Thoreau

“It’s simple—be the knower, not the owner.”

11 There is a personal and a universal unconscious. Turning awareness to the unconscious brings understanding and freedom.

Forgiveness is not weak. It demands courage and integrity. Yet only forgiveness and love can bring about the peace we long for. As the Indian sage Meher Baba explains, “True love is not for the faint-hearted.”

When you have established a sense of equanimity and peace, begin to picture, one at a time, your loved ones. Carefully recite the same simple phrases: May you learn to see the arising and passing of all things with equanimity and balance.