Shattering Hell

A Korean soldier suffering from severe depression went up into the mountains with a gun, planning to kill himself. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he heard an evening temple bell. He thought of his Buddhist mother, and he couldn’t do it. The sound of that bell shattered his hell. Our hells are created by our own thinking.
A monk living in New York once said, “When I wake up in the morning, the meeting starts right away. I’ve been practicing for twenty years, and I still have a meeting in my head every morning.” But now, he just ignores it. He doesn’t pay it any attention anymore. He simply lets the thoughts be, like background noise.
Birds make a lot of noise. Sometimes their songs sound beautiful; other times, it sounds like they’re arguing with each other. But that’s okay. It’s the exact same with our thoughts.
Mantras point to a mind that isn’t making anything—a mind that is free from suffering. Even when suffering arises, it is no longer “my suffering.” It is a suffering that comes from seeing and understanding the pain of others. And that you can turn into compassion and wisdom.