Welcome to the Buddhist boot camp podcast.

Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life.

Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.

The other night, a few friends came over for dinner. Most of us enjoyed the meal, but some

found it way too spicy. This reminded me of how people react to world events. Some are

strongly opinionated and extremely vocal about whether or not they approve, while

those of us who are familiar with the Tenzo code of conduct, known in Zen kitchens

around the world as the no praise, no blame precept, don't view anything or anyone as superior or inferior.

There is no judgment. The pepper isn't good or bad. It's just a pepper.

One time when I oversaulted a pot of soup, my teacher just smiled and said,

well, we apparently needed extra sodium in our diets today. We chuckled and

maybe drank a little bit more water that day than we normally would. By increasing our tolerance

for salt, for pepper, for people, and for life itself, our capacity for compassion grows in equal

proportion. This inevitably dilutes the bitterness of disappointment.

Do you see how it's in your best interest to increase your tolerance?

The metaphor that is often used to depict this concept is adding a tablespoon of salt to

a cup of water or a tablespoon of salt to an entire lake. In the cup, the salt makes the water

undrinkable, but in the lake, a

tablespoon of salt is unnoticeable. The teaching implies that if you are quick to judge,

your mind and heart are the size of a cup, quickly and easily affected by every grain of salt.

So the invitation is for us to expand our capacity for compassion in all circumstances,

and with all people, with a heart like a lake, undeterred by a tablespoon or two of salt.

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