Tendai Calligraphy - II

Ven. Kobori, abbot of Sanzen-in temple brushed this, one of Dengyo Daishi's most renowned and important sayings, including the four characters MO KOU RI TA: forget self, benefit others.

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In meditation, if you are able to calm the mind to the point where thoughts of self are not present, then what IS in your mind? Is it not either thoughts of others, or thoughts of the Buddha-Dharma-or-Sangha? In either case, this constitutes "right mindfulness," the 7th of the 8-fold path to liberation. Mindfulness involving thoughts of "me" and "mine" is not right mindfulness.

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And you will also be thinking of others, not self, when invoking and visualizing Vaisravana ("extensive hearing") or Avalokiteshvara ("he who hears the cries of the world") or the Healing Buddha, Yakushi Nyorai.