-- When They Sleep
All people are children when they sleep.
There's no war in them then.They open their hands and breathe in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them.
They pucker their lips like small children and open their hands halfway, soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters.
The stars stand guard and a haze veils the sky,a few hours when no one will do anybody harm. If only we could speak to one another then when our hearts are half-open flowers.
Words like golden bees would drift in.
-- God, teach me the language of sleep.
~ Rolf Jacobsen ~
(The Roads Have Come to an End Now, translation by Robert Hedin)
------"When will you stop?"
When you wake each morning, start the day by reaffirming your intention to practice loving-kindness and compassion. Remind yourself each day to work at letting go of ego clinging, selfishness, controlling behavior, negative thoughts, possessiveness, aggression, resentment, and confusion. Resolve each day to find one small way that you can change a frozen behavior pattern, and try to do so.
When you lie down at night, reflect on the day that was. Remember your accomplishments and your frustrations - things done as well as undone. Who or what pushed your buttons? Use clear discernment and discriminating awareness to genuinely examine your behavior and the quality of your life. Recognize your familiar repetitive patterns. Assess how fruitful they actually are.
Finally, examine your day for lingering resentments and self-destructive, harmful, egocentric, or narcissistic thoughts. Find joy in awakening the noble-hearted spirit of bodhicitta. Rejoice in all the good works of both others and yourself, and share in all that good karma. It will help you find rest.
Then rest. "Done is what had to be done," as the Buddha said.
"Wait, wait," a follower once cried after the Buddha as he disappeared into the forest. "I stopped a long time ago," Buddha replied. "When will you stop?"
- Awakening The Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das