Losing Pounds for Insisting on Pennies

Yutang Lin

When you brood over your grudges
That is adding manure for stagnant stay in transmigration
When you are angry
That is covering the wisdom eye
When you criticize others
That is forgetting that you also have similar shortcomings
When you attempt to control the situation
That is failure to realize that none can steer any evolution

As long as you are stuck with someone or something
You lose the opportunity to become fully enlightened
How unworthy it is
Would a Buddha or Bodhisattva be so antagonistic to anyone or anything
They sustain only compassionate tolerance born of limitless oneness
And incessantly provide universal guidance toward enlightenment

Each thought of greed, anger, ignorance, pride or suspicion
Is the juncture for continuation in transmigration or disentanglement
Buddha's sons and daughters, if you are sincere in your quest for liberation
At the pass of each thought that could lead to failure and death in spiritual life
Soon learn to become fully alert and realize that
It is indeed a senseless insisting on pennies that will cost you more than pounds
And thereby turn around to become alive again
With each letting go you return closer and closer to limitless oneness
What a joyful thing to do, and why wouldn't you

Written in Chinese February 8, 2008
Translated on February 11, 2008
El Cerrito, California

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