fire alarm rings and confusion erupts, we feel irri-
tated and upset.
It’s all opportunity for practice. There is no inter-
ruption. We would like to believe that when things
are still and calm, that’s the real stuff, and when
things are messy, confused, and chaotic, we’ve done
something wrong, or more usually someone else has
done something to ruin our beautiful meditation. As
someone once said about a loud, bossy woman,
“What is that woman doing in my sacred world?”
Another point about this slogan is that part of
awakening is to cultivate honesty and clear seeing.
Sometimes people take the lojong teachings to mean
that if you’re not to blame others but instead to con-
nect with the feelings beneath your own story line, it
would be wrong to say that someone has harmed you.
However, part of honesty, clear seeing, and straight-
forwardness is being able to acknowledge that harm
has been done. The first noble truth—the very first
teaching of the Buddha—is that there is suffering.
Suffering does exist as part of the human experience.
People harm each other—we harm others and others
harm us. To know that is clear seeing.
This is tricky business. What’s the difference be-
tween seeing that harm has been done and blaming?
Perhaps it is that rather than point the finger of
blame, we raise questions: “How can I communi-
cate? How can I help the harm that has been done
unravel itself? How can I help others find their own
Bringing All That We Meet to the Path 61