Turning

 

Yutang Lin

 

 

Capable of turning around
　　Only then being lively
With grasping, having attachment
　　Couldn't turn around

Mind turns around situations
　　Because it grasped to the situations first
Turning cognition into wisdom
　　At first needed to let go of all grasping

Complaining about environment and people
Not only enhancing grasping
　　But also adding entanglements
Thus self-torturing would not cease
　　And engulfment in suffering worsen

To practice Dharma
　　One need to learn turning
All problems do not rest on how it is outwardly
　　But on how the practitioner would respond

To a mind free from
　　Greed, anger, ignorance, pride and doubt
Any situation is equally well at ease
Practicing Dharma in life amounts to
Learning how to turn the Five Poisons
　　Into Bodhicitta of mercy, compassion, joy and equanimity

In life who does not have problems
As problems turn up
One who intends sincerely to practice Dharma
Should pay attention to how to turn one's own mind around

Written in Chinese and translated on March 5, 2012
El Cerrito, California    

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