Maintaining the Middle Way, neither biased nor extreme, is not compromise but wisdom.
· It is not stagnation, but dynamic balance.
· It is not ambiguity, but precise "just right."
· It is not having no stance, but standing on the side of the whole and the long term.
Remain optimistic and upward-looking, with a mindset unaffected by others. Remember this!
Paint the canvas of your own life; be the master of your own destiny, not a passively reactive canvas. Take up your sincere heart toward the Buddha, clearly see and accept the unease within, without complaint or defining the endpoint of the entire painting. With the wisdom of non-attachment and arising mind in Buddhism, use this heart as the brush and peaceful breath as the ink, sketching those uneven ravines into meaningful textures and dimensions on the canvas.
It may have experienced dark colors, but the light becomes warmer and richer in depth because of it. It never declares completion, thus forever brimming with vibrant vitality.
Thus, you truly achieve "doing as you please without overstepping boundaries"—every choice you make is both free and unrestrained, yet naturally aligns with the Middle Way and ultimate goodness. You are not creating a work to be judged but engaging in a life expression that resonates with the universe. Embrace life’s imbalances with equanimity and transcend the world of dualities! Time and space may merely be a grand, intricate, and immensely useful narrative framework created by human consciousness to understand this complex world.
See yourself as an unfinished TV series, where you are the protagonist. Shifting your perspective in this way will alleviate much of your suffering and bring liberation. It is a state where you can deeply invest emotionally yet remain detached as an observer. You can cherish the present without being trapped by the past, strive with all your might without fearing failure. Your life becomes the grand narrative you most love to watch.
Realize that you hold the brush and can make changes. If the current plot direction is unsatisfactory, you have every right to turn it around in the next episode. The past is not a final conclusion—it is merely the previous plotline.
Shift from being a critic to a connoisseur. Accept reality with compassionate tolerance: since it has come, accept it calmly and adapt to circumstances. Reflect on your own thoughts, observe your own observations, and understand the laws of the mind.
When you can step outside the framework of the "self" to examine and observe the story of the "I" experiencing pain, you are no longer equated with that pain. Instead, you become a larger container. Remember the story of the water cup I told you? A larger container allows you to accommodate greater life fluctuations and transform these experiences. You then achieve a mind as vast as the void, capable of transforming phenomena.
When we see ourselves as a water cup, a drop of ink (representing pain or trouble) falling into it will turn the entire cup murky. But when we see ourselves as a lake or even an ocean, the same drop of ink will be quickly diluted, accommodated, and transformed, unable to alter the clarity of the vast body of water.
This means your "heart container" has expanded to be as boundless as the universe ( 心如太虚 void)（ All things in the world—whether honor or disgrace, joy or sorrow, gain or loss—are like stars arising and ceasing within this void. They can exist but cannot tarnish or shake the emptiness and stillness of the void itself. You are no longer swayed by external matters; instead, you possess the power to freely transform their meaning.
"A mind like the void" 心如太虚 you have transcended the script itself. You become the "space" that contains all stories. The script (life experiences) arises and ceases within you, yet you remain unmoved. You are a player in this cosmic game, while also deeply aware that you are the underlying reality constructing this game.
From "accommodation" to "transformation":
· "A larger container" emphasizes accommodation and dilution.
· "Capable of transforming phenomena" elevates to active alchemy. Pain is no longer ink that needs to be diluted but raw material that can be turned into gold. You possess the inner energy to transform suffering into wisdom, obstacles into stepping stones, and pressure into diamonds. As The Doctrine of the Mean says: "Grasp the two extremes and apply the Middle Way." You can hold both poles of a matter and extract the neutralizing force to use for your purposes.
Those with "a mind like the void capable of transforming phenomena" experience "the environment transforms according to the mind"—how my inner self perceives and defines things determines the "meaning" the external environment presents to me. The same failure, which may seem like a blow to others, could appear to you as a hidden gift and a guide forward. By changing the mindset with which you view things, you change their impact on you.
This is liberation from the drama of the "small self," ultimately realizing the freedom of the "great self" united with all things in heaven and earth. This is not theoretical empty talk but a truly practicable path to absolute inner freedom.
Just now, I dreamed that my husband and I went to a bar, where a pair of women kept flirting. One of them snatched my husband's phone and said that if he wanted it back, he had to give her a light kiss. In the dream, I felt incredibly jealous. After waking up, I told my husband 😊.
Sometimes, the emotions we feel in reality are the same as those in dreams—anger, frustration, jealousy, and so on. This is entirely normal. Dreams are the stage for our subconscious mind. Emotions, worries, and thoughts suppressed or overlooked by rationality during the day often release themselves at night through dreams. This dream may reflect my emphasis on the security of our relationship and also indicate how much I value my husband's attention and loyalty.
Sometimes, engaging in emotional communication and letting him know how I feel can greatly soothe the unease after waking from the dream, strengthen the genuine bond between us, and allow us to face things together. So, there’s no need to feel embarrassed or overly troubled by the emotions in the dream. It is not a prophecy but a mirror, reflecting your cherishment and commitment to this relationship. Acknowledging these feelings and sharing them with your loved one is the best way to transform the "jealousy" in the dream into "deeper love and understanding" in reality.
The Diamond Sutra says: "All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows, like dew and lightning. Thus should they be contemplated." The scenes in the dream are illusory, but the jealousy that arose is real. Thus, it should be contemplated—without clinging to the truth or falsity of the dream and harboring resentment toward my husband, nor denying my own emotions. Observe the dream, understand it, and ultimately transform it through sharing and communication.
Instead of remaining in the nihilism of "everything is an illusion," I took a step further—using the false to cultivate the true. By leveraging the illusory dream, I cultivated more genuine trust, communication, and love in reality.
Dreams are metaphors of the heart, and I am my own best interpreter. Not only did I understand the metaphor, but I also turned the dream’s revelation into nourishment for our relationship. In the end, this dream became another profound emotional affirmation between my husband and me.
Similarly, the experiences you encounter in reality can be treated like a dream—seek understanding, then engage in communication, using it as an opportunity to deepen your understanding and comprehension of Buddhist scriptures.
Christine
8/25/23
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