August 14th

Repetition


My prayer beads are strung on my life span.
I am not allowed to skip a single bead :
Sometimes the bead is a seed. Or a bone.
Or jade. Or dry blood. Or semen. Or crystal.
Or rotted wood. Or a sage's relic. Or gold.
Or glass. Or a prism. Or iron. Or clay.
Or an eye. Or an egg. Or dung. Or a ball.
Or a stone. Or a peach. Or a bullet.
Or a bubble. Or lead. Or pure light.
No matter what the next bead is, I must count it,
Perform my daily austerities.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Until repetition becomes endurance.

People seldom understand the power of repetition. What is repeated over and over again can become enduring; what is done in a moment is seldom lasting. If farmers do not tend to their fields every day, they cannot expect a harvest. The same is true of spiritual practice. It is not the grand declaration or the colorful initiation that means anything. It is the ongoing, daily living of a spiritual life that has meaning. Our progress may range from dull to spectacular, but we must accept both. Each and every day should be linked together, strung into a long line of prayer beads. In life, you don't know how many beads you've counted already, and you don't know how many are yet to come. All that matters is fingering the one that comes to you now and taking the spiritual significance of that moment to heart.


Personal Interpretation

Each and every moment of our lives is a bead in the string that constitutes our lives. We don't know how many we have left to count and we must often take what we are given. Anything can be a prayer bead. Sometimes the materials that form the moments of our lives are luminous and sometimes they are duller. Sometimes they have their source in others. Sometimes it is our own actions that give rise to them. We must count and be glad for each and every bead. It is precious. We should count our beads over and over again, for repetition breeds endurance. A farmer must see to his crops on a daily basis if he is to reap a harvest. Likewise, we must practice our spiritual devotions each and every day of our lives if we are to grow in Tao. The very act of daily devotion gives us the strength to endure in the face of hardship. When we doubt ourselves we have only to look upon the beads we have already accumulated and marvel at how far we have come.