Bonsai is the Japanese art form of growing miniature trees in pots. Wiring is one technique bonsai artists use to train and reposition the trunk and branches. Copper or aluminum wire can be wrapped around a branch to create a certain shape, change the position of foliage, or suggest movement and age. The wire provides stability until the branches are set into its new form. Just as the wire provides support for the miniature trees, so too can an altruistic resolve help reinforce our practice. When life delivers a series of discouragements or difficulties, we can get off track in our spiritual path. Our meditation period may be shoved to the side as self-interest consumes our attention and time. Yet this slogan suggests we can use our challenges to find our way back: we use our adversity to remember the suffering of other people. When we rededicate ourselves to the service of others, we extract ourselves from the mire of self-pity and lose our sense of isolation. Our altruistic focus becomes the wire that reshapes our self-seeking behavior into benevolence that supports us as well.
If egocentrism is a constant source of torment, it is quite otherwise for altruism and compassion. ~ Matthieu Ricard
For more information on the fortieth slogan, go here.
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