throughout every day of our lives! This gift is given
to us by the unexpected circumstances referred to
in this slogan.
After the gap, when you’ve begun to talk to your-
self again—”That horrible person” or “Wasn’t that
wonderful that he allowed me to rest my mind in the
nature of alaya?”—you could catch yourself and start
to do tonglen practice. If you’re veering off toward
anger, resentment, any of the more unwanted “nega-
tive” feelings, getting really uptight and so forth, you
could remember tonglen and the lojong logic and
breathe in and get in touch with your feeling. Let the
story line go and get in touch. If you start talking to
yourself about what a wonderful thing just hap-
pened, you could remember and send that out and
share that sense of delight.
Usually we’re so caught up in ourselves, we’re
hanging on to ourselves so tightly, that it takes a
Mack truck knocking us down to wake us up and
stop our minds. But really, as you begin to practice, it
could just take the wind blowing the curtain. The
surprise can be something very gentle, just a shift of
attention. Something just catches your eye and your
attention shifts, and you can rest your mind in the
nature of alaya. When you start talking to yourself
again, you can practice tonglen.
The surprise comes in pleasant and unpleasant
forms—it doesn’t really matter how. The point is
Empty Boat 111