Don’t surrounding yourself with hopelessness.

 We really do have to be careful with whom we mix, until we are genuinely no longer affected. Mixing with others who are fearful, negative, over-positive, fixed in their knowledge, or spiritually mechanical can have a subtly detrimental effect on us.

I once had a conversation with a psychologist/therapist/Buddhist about referring to ultimate truth ‘ordinariness’: he could not get his head around what I meant by this. He just saw the word ‘ordinary’ in an ordinary sense, and could get past this. Maybe the problem was that he was American and I am English: we are known as two peoples separated by a common language!

After that, we could never speak again, as we now knew that we saw things differently, even though we were on the same path, with the same teacher. There comes a time when this recognition is truly helpful…just a nod and a smile! (incidentally, I questioned a teacher called Ringu Tulku about calling the ultimate nature “ordinariness”: he paused, considered, and replied, “Yes.”)

 There is no way on earth that people will be ‘one’. Near enough is good enough.

 Like the food we eat, what we digest mentally from our environment can cause us indigestion. That is why yogis live in caves! We can be town yogis, but we have to watch our step and be honest with ourselves.

When mixing with others,
we can sometimes lose our confidence,
and doubt ourselves.

 We have to be true to our understanding and capacity
until something comes along
that can upgrade us.

 Until then, stick with what you know,
otherwise you will be living someone else’s life.