Michelle: Experiencing Everything with Wisdom

When you become a Buddhist you begin to recognize how transitory and impermanent this life is and how important it is to do whatever you can to benefit others and to think of your future lives. Once you make the resolution in your mind to do that, you start to live every day differently, and your intentions and behavior start to change. If you find yourself in trouble or encountering problems you stop wondering why it’s happening to you – you no longer blame the situation or the other person. You understand it’s due to karma and you start looking for a solution – how you can best respond so as to transform the situation or return to a peaceful mind. You might look like everyone else but internally you have a very deep motivation that’s different and beneficial for the world.

Of all the teachings I’ve received since joining the Center – I’ve been on the Teacher Training Program with Kadam Morten now for more than 25 years – it’s the ones on emptiness that have been the most revolutionary. These teachings are the real window to freedom. Understanding that everything – the things that bother you and the things that make you happy – are dreamlike in nature, changes you. Your attachments reduce, and your anger and aversions reduce. It’s taken me a long time to understand that these teachings aren’t esoteric or intellectual. They are practical instructions given by Buddha for me, in my daily life. Like when I walk my dog through the park in the early morning mist. There’s the woods, and the squirrels and the birds, the trees and the blossoms. Rather than being ordinary about it though, I think about how I’m walking the dog in a dream. And thinking like this, whatever worries I had vanish.