Four pillars

In an instruction I gave during one of our retreats, I enounciated four limbs or pillars that should always stay in our memory, especially if we practice the dharma:

Those are devotion, loving compassion, openness, and respect towards everyone and everything. From devotion arises compassion which results in openness which evokes respect. The four limbs connect like chain links, without gap.

If we always remember these, recall them and their meaning, then our lives will be rich. Rich in joy, love, security and protection. All of which we desire and hope for so deeply, will become part and parcel of us.

Why and how is that possible? Because all these qualities sleep within us. Sometimes they seem deeply buried and sometimes as natural as anything else in our daily lives. They are part of us and are waiting for to escape the hard shell, the stirdy boundary that entwines around our hearts, into the vast brightness, The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

In the end, devotiom and faith, love and compassion, openness, and respect mean to trust in our own hearts, our real “me”.

Chöje Lama Palmo