My dear friends,
The final precept in Geshe Chekawa's Mind Training in Seven Points is:
It is, rather, we who should be grateful to all sentient beings,
for it is on their behalf that we practice the perfections,
it is in their well-being that we find our own happiness,
it is in their freedom from suffering that we find our own freedom,
it is in their skillful actions that we rejoice,
and it is in their peace that we find our own.
As it has been said,
- from an oral teaching by Gelek Rimpoche
Let us be especially grateful to all those who have brought us these teachings down through the ages:
let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely,
and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith,
who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame....
-- Hebrews 12:1-2
Let us, with Geshe Chekawa, be able to say:
then because of many of my wishes, having undergone suffering, insults, and criticism,
I requested the instruction for taming self-grasping.
Now if I die, I have no regrets.
- Geshe Chekawa (1102–1176)
Translated by Brian Beresford in Advice from a Spiritual Friend
And finally, with the Apostle Paul, let us say, when the day comes:
- 2 Timothy 4:7
Kind & Generous