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Taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha is not only the way to enlightenment; it is also the way to let the Buddha’s vow for universal enlightenment work itself out through you. Surrender to that vow and enter onto the great highway of awakening, plunging into the timeless current of all those beings on the path to Buddhahood.

Mahayana, the principal form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, is sometimes referred to as The Great Vehicle. Mahayana is known as the most compassionate, altruistic, selfless way to enlightenment. The Great Vehicle can be likened to Noah’s ark, a noble ship that delivers all beings across the raging oceans of continued suffering to the so-called other shore of nirvana. Let go, open your heart, unfold your spiritual sails, open your angelic wings, and soar on the wind. Enjoy the infinite.

Mingling Dharma with

Your Daily Life

When I lived in my teacher’s monastery in Nepal, the most traditional lamas had thick, handwritten books of power words or phrases known as mantras. These books included a mantralike benediction for every single activity. There was a mantra for walking through a door or eating a meal, just as there was a mantra for using the toilet. These mantras were significantly more than mere words or empty rituals performed mechanically by rote. They were used to bring a practice of mindfulness, meditation, and gratitude into everything that was done. Many Western families grow up with a tradition of saying grace before meals. In Buddhism, a moment of mindfulness is like a “grace;” these moments can consecrate every activity, waking each of us up to the sacredness of what we do, as we do it. In this way, we recognize everything we do as a spiritual activity.

Here are some ways that we can cultivate mindful awareness and bring meditation, calm, and clarity into our daily activities:

Breathe and smile. Relax. Take a moment to let go, and just be. Enjoy it.

Do standing meditation, while waiting in line for a movie or bus or train. Just stand there, breathe, and awaken.

Whenever you sit down or stand up, stop and appreciate a moment of change, of freedom.

Whenever you cross a threshold, go through a doorway, or enter a room, see it as entering a temple and do so reverently.

Walk barefoot in the grass or on a thick carpet and feel fully each sensation with your toes and soles.

Walk on the edge of a beach, where the water meets the sand, with your eyes closed, feeling your way along, totally vigilant and attentive.

Walk slowly upon crunchy snow or autumn leaves, attending to the crackle of each step.

Sing, chant, or pray till you totally forget and lose yourself; then stop and drop into a moment of inexpressible isness, completely beyond concepts, stories, and strategies.

Experience simple, repetitive work like sewing, embroidering, or even washing dishes as meditation in action, focusing totally on the moment in hand and nothing else.

Try doing manual labor in a sacred manner, just doing what you are doing as if it is the ultimate divine service, for it is.

When eating, chew each mouthful fifty or one hundred times, getting the most out of the food as well as being further nourished by the richness of each moment.

Try chewing one single raisin for several minutes and experiencing everything you can about it.

Before speaking, notice what motivates your words.

Set a beeper on your watch or alarm clock to ring every hour on the hour, reminding you to wake up and appreciate the miracle of every moment. Call yourself by name and say, “Wake up!”

Recognize the Buddha-light shining in everyone and everything and treat others accordingly.

Enjoy the indescribable joy and peace of meditation.

PART TWO

Walking the

Eight-Fold Path to

Enlightenment—The

Heroic Journey

How joyful to look upon the Awakened and to keep company with the wise.

Follow then the shining ones, the wise, the awakened, the loving, for they know how to work and forbear.

But if you