Now apply the other way, the Buddha way. You do not have to humiliate yourself or be humble. Just be compassionate to others and to yourself. Automatically your tensions will subside. There is no defeat so there is no ego-jugglery, but your ego might prevent you from being compassionate because you think you are using logic, the faculty that decides and determines. When you use logic, compassion stands waiting, naturally, till you decide. You have to apply this precision to your mind, to your own conceits and deceits. When compassion soothes the mind, you will have no trouble seeing your own wrongs. You will have no agitation or non-acceptance of the things that are within you. You will have no trouble accepting your responsibility.

 

O SMOOTH OUT THE MIND you have to bring in compassion. You can apply this even to animals, birds and insects. Let’s say you are cutting wood in the forest and loading logs in a truck or piling them up for storage. Now, supposing you have to finish in a certain time. That leaves you not caring for the small creatures that may die or be hurt in what you are doing because you have no time to care for them. You are losing compassion there. But what if within the same circumstances, the same amount of time, you see the small creatures that might get crushed and you take time to let them out safely? You might lose two or five or ten minutes, by which you accomplish less work, but your tensions, agitations and rushing are relieved by doing it compassionately, being a Buddha. In that way you will see your heart and mind will achieve peace and relaxation and you will find joy in working. You will not feel a pinch of loss of having collected less wood because you have achieved the state of mind of compassion.