Lead me from dreaming to waking.
Lead me from opacity to clarity.
Lead me from the complicated to the simple.
Lead me from the obscure to the obvious.
Lead me from intention to attention.
Lead me from what I'm told I am to what I see I am.
Lead me from confrontation to wide openness.
Lead me to the place I never left,
Where there is peace, and peace
- The Upanishads

*note* nice article from Bill's blog...man..is he wise or what?..you tell me.
-added by danny-
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The Times You Keep Quiet

I learned from my teacher there are several situations where you shy away from giving advice

First, whether two individuals should get married or not. The divorce rate today is over 50%, nearly 60+% and beyond, and of course every couple will have marital problems from time to time. When things go wrong, many people look for someone else to blame rather than take personal responsibility. I’ve seen this happen let’s say about a million times or so (exaggeration).

Marriage is a person’s own personal decision, and yet when things go wrong they will blame YOU for their difficulties (as if it’s your fault) if you had given even the slightest encouragement as a teacher. “YOU told us we should get married” – how many times have I heard that tossed at bystanders? Who said all marriages are necessarily good? Such big decisions are 100% your responsibility, not even your parents’. Why are you listening to anyone other than your own commonsense and avoiding full responsibility for what is supposed to be an important life decision you make on your own?

Whether a person should become a monk or not. This is another personal decision that has nothing to do with you once again, and yet people will somehow try to twist this one into your responsibility as well. It’s usually someone who just wants to drop out from the world and is also looking for someone to pin the blame on. It’s their decision 100% once again. Anything goes wrong, they don’t like the lifestyle, etc. etc. and you’re the first one to blame if you said anything. What’s their karma is their karma, what they choose to do is what they choose to do, and yet they WILL find some way to blame you. I’ve seen it happen….not just once, so my teacher is wise. A good rule my teacher established is to refrain from commenting at all. Why are you seeking approval anyway if that’s your fervent desire in your deepest mind? That’s what it should be if you want to do this. Don’t pull other people into your decision, especially people who aren’t nuns or monks in the first place.

When you see that someone will be reborn an animal because of bad deeds, never tell them this either. They won’t change their behavior that has produced such a fate.

I’d also add answering questions about health supplements. If you have a question, call the manufacturer, read the label, read other websites on the product, or go to a doctor or naturopath or nutritionist who will personally see you and your condition. They are paid to do that – they’ll give you a questionnaire that helps determine contraindications. Yeah, you PAY them to give you advice that after careful consideration of all the factors in your case, are right for you.

Your health, what you consume, and what you do is your responsibility, especially if you want to experiment. Do your own due diligence, just like when you want to get married. Like anyone else, I never diagnose or advise anyone. I simply tell people what’s available that they should research as a kindness. Do your own research as to dosages and whether it’s right for you or go and pay someone to SEE you to determine if something matches. How can you expect anyone to help you who doesn’t physically see you and your physical condition or get your history? And most of all, don’t write asking where you can buy something when there’s something called the “internet” right in front of you. As if I’m supposed to do a google search for you and then send you the results. Sure enough, people ask … and then they don’t buy anyway. So our job in life, I suppose, is to waste our time for such people? As for myself, I try to be very respectful of other people’s time and the efforts they make on my behalf, including monies they spend.

Never give an interview. The reporter is sure to misrepresent you and get things wrong. You have nothing to sell, so why be interviewed? They’re the ones looking for an angle, and look at the movies — too often it’s something called “sabotage” or misrepresentation. No, you cannot control the press. If they want to make a monster a saint, they will, and if they want to make a saint the devil, they will again. People think the press is trustworthy. Sorry, people have agendas. Honest, they do.

Never debate. You’re just here to offer. Who’s qualified to debate you anyway? It’s usually some individual who has their own little book or tiny viewpoint and wants to become famous through opposition. They know one school, if at all. They neither have cultivation gong-fu nor vast learning in many spheres of cultivation (the two things that would make them qualified for a conversation) nor prajna wisdom — they simply hold on to their one book claiming, “But my Book says this” and “The Book says that.” It’s all self-reflexive — they’re not debating, they’re insisting that what they read, in the way they read it, is right over everything else in the world. No gong-fu, no wisdom, no wide learning but they think they are right as to the tradition/viewpoint they’ve been born into or become attracted/attached to, and that they’re even qualified to debate in their own self-reflexive way. They proceed from the viewpoint that their tiny one book is right in the first place. That being the case, what debate? It’s a sham from the start, and those who “want a debate” are just looking for argumentative entertainment. If they were seekers they’d read, ponder, cultivate, attain and then compare. So ignore such nonsense seekers. You’re just here to offer.

Rating another teacher. People always ask for an opinion on this or that cultivation teacher and their method(s). Who you study with is your business, not mine, and is of no interest to me. My teacher doesn’t care either. Why would my opinion change anything anyway and why would I be interested ? I’m a publisher, not a teacher, nor a competitor. If another teacher is “okay” it changes nothing, and if “not kosher” then all you end up doing with my words, which are supposed to be private anyway, is point trouble my way because you’d blab out, “Bill said this.” Why would you want to give me trouble if you respect the work I’m doing?

Because of my teacher’s example, I’ve never commented on another teacher and won’t. It’s none of my business what they do, just as it’s none of my business what anyone does. What do I care what you’re doing inside your house … it has nothing to do with me. So I’ve avoided the fate I’ve seen happen to others where a private comment was leaked to a whole community of ardent followers who now made it a campaign to go after that speaker. Such folks, rather than ignore comments, want to justify themselves to themselves, as if some third party’s opinion mattered, had to be defeated, and by doing so they were vindicated in the whole wide world. They wouldn’t dare enter a crowded Jewish synagogue and say “you fellows are all wrong,” or announce themselves in a crowded Church that way, or go inside a mosque and say “you’re all mistaken” but sure enough they’ll start pestering some poor guy who innocently offered just their own personal opinion privately, opinions which are a dime a dozen.

Go ahead and laugh because this happens. Yes it does. Six billion people in the world and people believe one certain individual’s opinion has to be changed, but not opinions of the other six billion minus one folks, and like you’re going to be able to change that guy’s opinion anyway? So my teacher never comments on other teachers, and neither do I. It does not lead to edification.

“Everyone needs to make money to live. I don’t want to destroy someone’s livelihood,” is what he jokingly says when we talk about cheaters. (As if it was HIS responsibility to do something, and as if he could do something about it.) You should just laugh. It’s true, it’s true….try it and you’ll see you cannot change anything anyway except get yourself embroiled in an argument and then impede all the other good work you’re trying to do in the world. You cannot save people from their own bad karma; they have to save themselves. Cheaters are much smarter than you, have more energy than you do and more time on their hands, and protect their livelihood fiercely because that’s all they can do. So don’t ask for my opinion and get me embroiled with cheaters. Do your own thinking according to the non-denominational principles of the path. I’ve done enough typing for you already.

So who your teacher is and what you believe as to a proper meditation method and what you practice or do is your own karma and has nothing to do with me. If you cannot read the site articles, understand the non-denominational principles of cultivation and then form your own educated opinion – which is what the site is supposed to do for you — then no one’s opinion can help you understand, so why are you asking? At best you’re just trying to give me trouble.

The culture of my country is so low that people always want to give trouble to people who have tried to help them. They want others to get into a fight so that they can sit back and watch and get entertained, like on Jerry Springer. Form your own opinions and seek your own counsel if you’re that way. You have to take 100% responsibility for your own cultivation in the world, including the mistakes you make, and you have to discover them for yourself because you WANT to know and search out the right answers. If you don’t work hard enough or read enough or study enough or mantra enough or meditate enough or hang out with the wrong crowd or lose money or one of a million other things it has nothing to do with me. Lucky for me I don’t look at all these teachers and gurus and masters to know what they’re doing, so I can say “I don’t know.” I have plenty of other things to keep me busy.

These are just a few of the circumstances where you learn to say nothing. I’m sure you can think of more situations in life where wisdom has taught you to remain silent. That being the case, why wouldn’t the field of cultivation have such moments of silence as well.

Look about you — there are several billion people you cannot save, lost you cannot wake up, whom you cannot do this or that for. All you can do is offer. If they come, let them come. If they don’t come, that’s their business. If you offer the pure dharma, be kind and friendly and generous and welcome everyone. If you offer them a quick tantric means that can shave off aeons, scare them away, put up barriers, create obstacles, look mean, be hard to find, remind them they’re not qualified (because they aren’t), make them not like you so they run … but offer it nonetheless out of mercy. That’s skillful means, and the non-smart ones won’t know it but will leave, proving they don’t have the merit for it. They’ll just turn away because they don’t know you’re using skillful means. You must create some way that they turn away of their own accord because you cannot offer the gems so freely — they have to prove they want it. Choose your own way to so offer. Create your own way to establish the tension. It’s all up to you in the end. You can keep silent, which is what 100% of the teachers do, and teach nothing, or you can show compassion but then must adopt a means where there is a barrier. Speaking honestly, it’s better not to teach anything at all, which is why you won’t find anything in Taoism, the Esoteric school, Vajrayana, and tantric yoga, etc. I’m too kind like an old grandmother, so I better make myself look like witch! ha ha ha. You choose your own route. It all depends on your wisdom and mercy.

Which reminds me. Don’t try to please people. The more you try to please people, the less you can say or do that’s useful, and then you end up saying and doing nothing useful at all. Witness the politicians. Their income depends on pleasing people so nothing substantial is said, promises are made but not kept, issues are not handled in a statesmenlike way, and everyone suffers. Salesmen please to get the sale, and then they walk away leaving you with the problems and no service. No, your job is not to please people. Be pleasing and palatable and attractive - YES - but your job is not to please people who are looking for cultivation guidance and the true cultivation path. It’s hard, not easy. Offer honesty and expect respect. If respect is not granted, it is usually not a place to teach. People reveal themselves by their own acts of merit, and their own actions and behavior.