Volunteer caretaker, pilgrim rest hut, Kochi. January 31, 2012
If we have been together since beginingless time,
Then we have all been each other’s companions,
Friends, enemies, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and children.
My enemy has been my friend — and my friend, my enemy.
Each of us owes an enormous debt, impossible to repay.
Our happiness is the bequest of a staggering chain of causality, the gift of the known,
Our happiness is the bequest of a staggering chain of causality, the gift of the known,
But also the legacy of the unknown, the unnamed, and the unnameable.
Our happiness is the result of untold acts of kindness, generosity, sacrifice and care.
If this is so, as we know it is, then we owe everything to every other being,
And there are no enemies.
Our happiness is the result of untold acts of kindness, generosity, sacrifice and care.
If this is so, as we know it is, then we owe everything to every other being,
And there are no enemies.
Dharma Matters 
A number of years ago, the Associated Press ran a brief story out of Russia. It was the tale of a fellow who had gained quite a following of his conviction that all things were “empty.” So convinced did he become of his own view that one day he announced he would stand on the railroad tracks while an ’empty’ freight train approached. The Associated Press did not say what funeral arrangements were made in the wake of this experiment.