H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III Wan Ko Yeshe Norbu’s

Selected Philosophical Sayings About Worldly Matters

(This is a translation of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III Wan Ko Yeshe Norbu’s philosophical sayings about worldly matters originally written in Chinese.)

XI.

Undue haste causes delay, and procrastination causes loss. With this point of view, one shall choose the Middle Way as a principle. When a violin is tuned too low, its strings produce disharmony, but when it’s tuned too high, the strings are likely to snap.

XII.

What standards does one go by in choosing a person for a particular undertaking? It is both weaknesses and strengths that make a person what he is; these qualities are inseparable. Don’t dismiss a candidate just because of his weaknesses, or you will end up with no candidates at all. The wise thing to do is to give him a chance to make the best of his strengths.

XIII.

Deliberation is needed before one makes a move, but no conclusion is to be drawn from deliberation alone. It has to be tested in action. Suggested moves are not to be adopted in haste, nor are they to be rejected out of hand; they are not to be dismissed even when tests have proved them worthless, for in this case an inquiry into their legitimacy has to be made. When a rainbow is blocked from view by clouds, it does not mean that there is no rainbow out there.

XIV.

A person not appreciative of the good life he is living is one who has forgotten his past miseries. A person in good health is not aware of its blessings until he loses it.

XV.

A wise person knows that negative experiences in life are just as useful as positive ones. That is why he remembers both of them. Negative experiences are taken as warnings against erring and positive ones as means to increase the well-being of others. Such is the attitude of a wise person toward life experiences.