The moment you wake up in the morning there are actually three things we can do. First, you should appreciate that you are alive. Be thankful to the objects of refuge, in our case, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. We are grateful to them that we are still alive. The second thing is that we will not waste this precious life in general.
It is important to recognize this. Otherwise we don’t appreciate our life. It could have easily ended when we were asleep. It could have gone away yesterday. But today we are still here. So we are grateful. So we don’t want to waste our time in general and in particular, today. Then, while not wasting time, what do I do? Whatever I do I will try to benefit all living beings, trying to bring them to the state of Buddhahood. I myself need to become a Buddha so that I have the effortless, unlimited capability, so I can fulfill my commitment. Such a thought will push the individual a very long way on your spiritual journey. Such a thought will make positive whatever you do during the day – not only the virtues, but even neutral thoughts.
Simply sitting there and day-dreaming, simply not doing anything, just relaxing, all of those will become virtue, because of the power of the thoughts of that morning. That’s why mind is important. That’s why mind makes a difference. That’s why one individual has to be good and kind minded, a kind person.
How does one become a kind person? If you say “poor thing, poor thing” alone when you see someone suffering, that just becomes “po ting la.” It doesn’t really become compassion. It doesn’t become kindness. It almost becomes lip service. But whether you say “poor thing” or not, if you have developed such a mind every day, as a religion, for your own benefit and for the benefit of those who are connected and particularly your own family, your spouse, your children and so forth, if you do that, and particularly for yourself, you can do nothing better for the day, actually. That is what this lam rim demands. They even call it, “ge sem kye par je” – a very special, virtuous mind. It is really referring to bodhimind.
~ Gelek Rimpoche, Delam – The Smooth Path To Enlightenment, 2013, p. 20
