The Path of Asking Humbly and Practicing Diligently
Today's teaching begins with cold weather and the matter of clothing, but within it is the meaning that practice is not a matter of ignoring our environment or our body. If we cling only to form, it is easy to lose sight of reality. A practitioner should see present conditions correctly, protect body and mind, and be able to continue the Dharma.
As today's good teaching, the monk conveyed the instruction to plant faith within the Dharma and to lower oneself without becoming proud. Pride is an obstacle that seeps very subtly into the path of practice. If I think I already know, do not ask what should be asked, and close my mind before someone from whom I should learn, the Dharma cannot enter more deeply.
Therefore, we should respect and follow wise and virtuous people, and toward all sentient beings we should have compassion and patient endurance. Asking someone more excellent than oneself about the Dharma one has not heard is not shameful; it is the correct attitude of a practitioner. The moment we ask humbly, the door of learning opens.
The Dharma we have heard should be practiced outwardly so that it does not become empty. Hearing many good words is not enough by itself. When we lessen the vain thoughts and wrong views we have been carrying through the power of the teaching, and actually put even one thing into practice in life, the Dharma talk becomes our own.
Today, lower pride, ask what should be asked, practice what you have heard, and establish a mind that cultivates without stopping. Even if the path to complete awakening feels far away, it begins with the small diligence of trying to stay awake in each moment.
Planting faith and lowering oneself without pride are the beginning of practice. We should ask the virtuous, bring forth compassion and patient endurance toward all beings, and practice the Dharma we have heard. When we cultivate diligently without stopping, the Dharma talk becomes life.
