#atisha

Maybe once upon a time, we were children too, and the world conveniently forgot that...

two of nine paintings by Mia Roeder of spiritdirt.com inspired by the contemplations on death by Buddhist thinker Atisha.

DO NOT REMOVE CREDIT

and verbal forms of activity.

My mental activities, too, I shall purify

And do nothing that is non-virtuous “.

Don’t ponder over others’ defects, It is none of your business!...

But there are great moralists whose whole work is to see who is doing wrong. Their whole life is wasted! They are like police dogs sniffing here and there. Their whole life’s work is to know who is doing wrong...

Atisha says: That is an ugly trait and sheer wastage of time and energy. Not only is it wastage but it strengthens and gratifies the ego. And an ego more gratified becomes more a barrier...

There were few things Hanin truly enjoyed more than a spar with someone whose skill equaled or surpassed his own. It was a difficult thing to find among the clan, with so many of the best warriors too busy to bother entertaining the whims of an eighteen year old who didn’t know when to quit.

But Ghilan was not one of them.

Laughing, the warrior danced backwards and gave an impressed whistle. “Good form, Hanin!” Grinning, he dodged to the side as Hanin doubled back, refusing to skip a beat. “A little predicable, but your footwork is–”

A smirk flashed across Hanin’s face. He lunged, the positioning a little awkward, but that was precisely the point. Up until that moment, he had been practically perfect. Precise. The problem with that was it made him too easy for a skilled warrior to read.

It was time to shake things up a bit.

Ghilan’s expression went slack with surprise, the smile wavering as he moved in a hurried attempt to counter Hanin’s blade. They locked weapons, neither using a training sword, both confident in the other’s ability to keep things relatively bloodless. It was another thing Hanin used to his advantage.

Tensing his arms, Hanin twisted his sword, locking the decorative hilt of Ghilan’s blade with his own simpler one. What he was doing was immediately obvious to the older warrior, who attempted to disengage only to find Hanin bearing down on him every step of the way, refusing to give him room to breathe. Once he had Ghilan’s back almost pressed to a tree, Hanin jerked his blade sharply to the side, ripping Atisha from his mentor’s grasp.

But Ghilan was far from done.

Atisha says ..