L'Ami de Bien

We are suffering.
I am not talking here about the suffering of the mind caused by confused and illusory thoughts, but about the pains of the body.
Pain is not an enemy but an event that gives us the opportunity to be good to it.
Pain is never pleasant, but we can make it even more unpleasant by fighting it, complaining about it and enduring it.
Everything that happens to us is an opportunity to observe its spirit, its manifestations, its tendencies, so that we can finally rise above it and deal with it in the way we would deal with a Friend of Good.
Looking back on my life, I've noticed that it's my 'worst enemies' who have pushed me further along the Path of the Awakened Ones.
Did they do it unconsciously? No matter, they played their part perfectly, putting others before themselves.
Even today, I think of our neighbour who set up diggers and lorries just opposite the monastery, exactly three metres from the writing room that used to be the dojo.
He, the mayor who doesn't do his job, the oblivious and noisy neighbours, all these people are pushing us to leave and renew ourselves.
Of course, this means selling up, looking for another place, contacting agencies, planning a move and all the worries that go with it.
But even if an operation is painful, we feel better afterwards, as if renewed, as if resurrected from our habits, however zen they may be.
So we can understand that evil becomes good and good can become evil.

We always have the choice to think this way or that way. That choice is ours. It's not the neighbour's choice, or the mayor's, or the circumstances, it's our choice.
Although on the surface it may seem that we are subject to the laws of others, in reality we are subject to our own tendencies and bad habits of thought.
The friend of good is all around us and the innumerable Dharmas are "the Friends of Good".
The greatest Friend of Good is, of course, the one who indicates the absolute Way that frees us from suffering, but all things are there to realise the inconceivable that lies beyond our ideas and desires.
We can always fight against events, but we must know that we will not take our possessions with us. On the other hand, our memory, which we will have encumbered with struggles and misfortunes, will continue even after death. Memory is indestructible.
The defiled dharmas will continue and sooner or later will have to carry out their work of transformation.
Everything is born from the seeds of the past. It's a never-ending cycle of transmigration.
We can escape many things, but not our memory.
This is the importance of the Buddhadharma.
All our lives, we must transform our obstacles by freeing them from their suffering.
Here and now, we must raise the banner of victory, rising above the vicissitudes of life, standing tall and victorious.