Good morning. Yesterday started well. The work moved fast through the morning. And then, around midday, I simply stopped. Not tired of it. Not unwilling. My mind had taken on too much at once, and it quietly said: no more thinking today. Let me tell you what I noticed when I stopped.
▲ This morning’s Daimoku — a short record
When the mind simply stops
Yesterday was my day off. But I pushed on, as I always do — “at least finish the morning.” The fatigue had been building for a long time. My head went quiet. And it was hot. The heat sat right at the top of my skull, close to heatstroke. So I stopped. I washed my head with water to cool it. I dried it with a towel, lay down on the sofa, and rested about thirty minutes in front of the fan.
We are only flesh and blood
Normally I would have pressed through. “Just the morning,” I would have told myself. This time I chose to rest. We are only flesh and blood. Faith is not grinding yourself down. To rest when rest is needed — that, too, is part of a faith that lasts. I am not saying I have mastered this. I am saying I am learning it, again.
Start from the solution, then find the cause
Lying there, I kept asking: what is really the cause of what troubles me? With worry, if you chase the cause first, you can wander deeper into the maze. So I turned it around. Start from “how could this be solved,” and then walk back to the cause. The road opens more clearly that way. From this morning, I am facing my own task in that order.
Let’s Daimoku. I will not lose — that one thing I have decided, without a doubt. If you are someone who always pushes hard, please keep, as well, the courage to rest. Rest. Rise again. Chant. Begin the day. Somewhere in that repetition, the way to change our karma opens. May today be a day where you, too, bloom your own way, at your very best.
🙏 From Yukihiro Shima — Oubaitori.com
Bloom your own way, at your very best.
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