Now I've heard some people say, ''Oh, this year I was really in a bad way.''
''How come?''
''I was sick all year. I couldn't practice at all.''
Oh! If they don't practice when death is near when will they ever practice?
If they're feeling well do you think they'll practice?
No, they only get lost in happiness.
If they're suffering they still don't practice, they get lost in that.
I don't know when people think they're going to practice!
They can only see that they're sick, in pain, almost dead from fever...
that's right, bring it on heavy, that's where the practice is.
When people are feeling happy it just goes to their heads and they get vain and conceited.
We must cultivate our practice.
What this means is that whether you are happy or unhappy you must practice just the same.
If you are feeling well you should practice, and if you are feeling sick you should also practice.
Those who think, ''This year I couldn't practice at all, I was sick the whole time''...
if these people are feeling well, they just walk around singing songs.
This is wrong thinking, not right thinking.
This is why the cultivators of the past have all maintained the steady training of the heart.
If things are to go wrong, just let them be with the body, not in mind.
There was a time in my practice, after I had been practicing about five years,
when I felt that living with others was a hindrance.
I would sit in my kuti and try to meditate
and people would keep coming by for a chat and disturbing me.
I ran off to live by myself. I thought I couldn't practice with those people bothering me.
I was fed up, so I went to live in a small, deserted monastery in the forest, near a small village.
I stayed there alone, speaking to no-one - because there was nobody else to speak to.
After I'd been there about fifteen days the thought arose,
''Hmm. It would be good to have a novice or pa-kow7 here with me.
He could help me out with some small jobs.'' I knew it would come up, and sure enough, there it was!
''Hey! You're a real character! You say you're fed up with your friends,
fed up with your fellow monks and novices, and now you want a novice. What's this?''
''No,'' it says, ''I want a good novice.''
''There! Where are all the good people, can you find any?
Where are you going to find a good person?
In the whole monastery there were only no-good people.
You must have been the only good person, to have run away like this!''
...You have to follow it up like this, follow up the tracks of your thoughts until you see...
''Hmm. This is the important one. Where is there a good person to be found?
There aren't any good people, you must find the good person within yourself.
If you are good in yourself then wherever you go will be good.
Whether others criticize or praise you, you are still good.
If you aren't good, then when others criticize you, you get angry,
and when they praise you, you get pleased.