Sublime

The Buddha once spent a night in a potter’s shed. In the same shed there was a young recluse who had arrived there earlier.1 They did not know each other. The Buddha observed the recluse, and thought to himself: ‘Pleasant are the ways of this young man. It would be good if I should ask about him’. So the Buddha asked him: ‘O bhikkhu,2 in whose name

Whatever you do, do without egoism, that is without the feeling ‘I am doing this’. When a man reaches that state even his own wife will appear to him as the Universal Mother. True Bhakti (devotion) is surrender of the ego to the Self.

As we transform suffering into compassion, we realize our interconnectedness with all of life. This profound realization gives rise to a second and key aspect of the bodhisattva’s aspiration: “May my life be of benefit to all beings.”