Tempering One’s Heart and Will

Reaching Consummation, obtaining Buddha’s Fruit,
Eating bitterness treated as joy.
Toiling the body does not count as bitterness,
Cultivating the heart is most agonizing.
Each and every barrier must be broken through,
Here and there, demons are everywhere.
A hundred hardships falling all at once,
See how one lives.
Able to endure suffering in the world,
Transcending the world, is a Buddha.

December 17, 1976