The Dharma of All Movements

Under Kachenla’s [who mentored the author during his brief stay in a monastery in Tibet] kindly guidance, I soon learned to become conscious of many of the small things to which formerly I would not have given any importance  or attention, and which yet proved to be very useful as means of keeping the mind tuned to a higher level and in consonance with one’s aspirations, by making on’s movements and behavior part of one’s “sadhana” (ritual practice) and meditation.

 

I learned how to unwrap and handle a sacred book — treating it with the respect due to the embodiment of wisdom — how to turn the pages of the loose sheets of which the book consisted, without upsetting their order — and how to look upon each letter of the alphabet as a “mantric symbol,” so that even a discarded or damaged piece of writing was not to be thrown away carelessly, lest it might be trampled underfoot . . .

 

I learned how to move about within the precincts of the monastery: always in the direction in which the planets move around the sun — signifying that one should always feel oneself in the presence of the Buddha, the Enlightened One, who used to be honored by circumambulation in this direction, as being the spiritual sun, the illuminator of mankind.

 

Lama Anagarika Govinda

from The Way of the White Clouds