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September 28, 1979
Milepost 7.97, Booneville Road
Dear Shih Fu,
We're thirteen miles from home. The scenes and experiences of the last two-and-a-half years are spinning in my mind like leaves in the wind. Have I changed? What have I learned? Yes, I have changed. No, I haven't really changed; I'm more the same than ever. How is this?
The biggest change inside has come from learning to respect and follow the rules. It's called "offering up your conduct according to the teachings." Every time I put my whole heart behind true principle and the Master's instructions, I change. I tumble off the road like a car in the ditch. The Buddha dharma I have absorbed stands pure and solid in my mind, amid all the debris of false-thinking and bad habits. True principles guide our steps through the narrow paths of the mind, the same way highway sings keep drivers on the alert. "Rough Road," "Falling Rocks," "Slippery When Wet or Frosty."
When Bodhisattvas see deeds which the Thus Come One has warned us about, (deeds which are) stained with afflictions, they completely forsake them. If they see deeds which accord with the Bodhisattva Path and which the Thus Come One has praised, they completely cultivate them. Avatamsaka Sutra Fourth Bodhisattva Ground