Friday, December 29, 2006

Taming the mind

Are you willing to tame your mind? That's really what it's all about - the meditative tradition, that is. Here's something I just found on the subject:

Religion does not mean just precepts, a temple, monastery, or other external signs, for these as well as hearing and thinking are subsidiary factors in taming the mind. When the mind becomes the practices, one is a practitioner of religion, and when the mind does not become the practices one is not.

--His Holiness the Dalai Lama

External signs such as ritual, ceremonies and the like certainly help bring us to mindfulness but if we don't use those reminders as a means of working skillfully with our consciousness it is all to little or no avail. True religion is about transformation - whatever our belief system may be.

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