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HENG SURE: May 28, 1977
Voice I: Real cultivation has to want to do it and nothing else. You must e mindful of your Dharma method/door at all times. You can’t take a break, a vacation, a holiday, you can’t "reward" yourself for good work by stopping the work. This is defeat. So once you begin you must keep on pushing--right up over the edge. Anything less will not get you there. It is unnatural and difficult.
Voice II: Cultivation when it’s real is a gradual natural process which would come in stages. As you breath in and out, your cultivation should allow for effort and rest, effort and rest, never retreating but not forcing the way either. Excess force leads to a strong reaction just like the circles in t’ai chi: the fast the punch the harder the return punch.
Met a young California blue jay, a teenage who was out to break the rules and draw near the humans. He sat on the open door and squawked squarked at us--not so interest in the food we gave him, rather he seemed to want to talk and listen--so we gave him the Three Refuges and the Four Great Bodhisattva Vows and told him to come back and save all the other jays next time. He ate a Ritz cracker and listened hard.