Practice Is Really Mending

📖Master’s Reading

Many think practice is the pursuit of perfection and strength, but the truth is: "We are mending a past life that was flawed and incomplete, so speaking of 'cultivating' means little — speaking of 'mending' is what has meaning." We came to this world in fact to "patch holes." The more we owed in past lives, the larger the holes, the harder this life becomes.

These holes appear precisely in every layer of life. If there were financial debts in past lives, this life they show in the wealth-store, so you cannot hold onto money; if killing karma was made in the past, the hole shows in bodily health. The places in life where you feel lack and pain are all unfinished gaps from the past waiting to be mended. We must create the soil of merit to patch the holes; the more holes, the greater the price to pay.

Rather than complain that fate is unfair or blindly seek outward, true practice is honestly facing your own shortfalls. Whatever you feel most in debt over in life, work to patch that plot of soil. Owe wealth — mend with the wealth-deity practice and giving of wealth; poor health — fill it with the Medicine Buddha practice and giving of medicine. When we are willing to stop fleeing, steadily mend the gap, and fill the hole bit by bit, life naturally moves toward completeness. Practice was never to become strong, but to let the soul regain wholeness.

🌱Reflection for Daily Life

• Understand that saṃsāra is to mend a flawed, incomplete life.
• Notice the formless holes of lack and pain in life.
• Stop complaining about fate; honestly face your own shortfalls.
• Mend what you owe; steadily fill the gaps of destiny.
• Practice is not the pursuit of perfection but the mending of a flawed soul.