brief review - the vow of the bodhisattva

the deluding passions are inexhaustible. i vow to extinguish every one.
sentient beings are numberless. i vow to liberate every one.
the truth cannot be told. i vow to tell it in its entirety.
purity is impossible to attain. i vow to attain it.



i went to easter vigil and i prayed without ceasing, the same four, over and over: salve regina, hail mary, soul of mary, and the memorare, with the certain petition: strengthen me in body and mind, make me your hands and heart, to work here where we live. despite all that love - love so as to make the eye fill and the heart overflow - it's really the bodhisattva vow i say every day. it's okay, really, it is permissible, in my world, to be a rapturously dedicated - catholic, for lack of a better term, as well as an extremely serious - buddhist, for lack of a better word. i figure as long as i neither swerve into devotional fanaticism or become entranced with chilly spiritual rationality, i won't go to either hell, and i can't do much harm.

and in times of doubt i can think on the dharma
and of the enlightened one's who've graduated samsara
--the beastie boys