This is the last part of the “Action – Remorse – Gratitude – Praise” cycle.
When you praise, the most important thing is to have the heart of a child. The heart of a child is always excited about the future. Children are impressed with everything around them. They say, “Wow!” “Cool!” and “Super!” — they naturally praise everything and everyone.
With this heart, you can praise anyone, because you will see only the potential in others. And when you are impressed by and praise others, new ideas will spring out. Potential is opened up and it springs out with joyfulness from the root of our existence.
And actually, the root of our existence is joy. Joy always wants to spring out, but our adult mentality puts a lid on it — you could call this ego. It happens because we worry about what others might say, or because someone (usually parents or teachers) said something like to “Don’t be …” or “Don’t do …” to us.
But when you have the heart of a child, there is no need to worry about “what others might say” — nothing drags you down to living in the past. This way of being is full of potential — you will be living with extreme joy in an exciting future, and that’s when we are connected to the root of our existence.
And Pure Land (Heaven) is a place like that. Everyone sees potential in each other and is excited and praises others with joy. And those who are praised feel joy, because someone sees their potential and praises it.
And this happens everywhere in Pure Land: everyone praises and experiences joy with each other and feels joy for and praises each other. And this increases infinitely. This is Pure Land, and this is the root of our existence. (You can actually get this feeling through Ki Practice.)
This is infinite development. The appearance of infinite potential. There is no joy/pleasure without development. The word “development” is misused in everyday language. Joy is development. When the potential of the person opens up, when a person becomes able to do something they couldn’t do before, the joy this person feels, the joy that comes from the appearance of potential, is development. Development without joy is such a dry and boring word.
So why not praise others and share the joy?!
This can be an infinitely increasing cycle. Be impressed with others, praise them, and express your joy. When you praise people, they feel joy and will praise others.
These cycles will infinitely increase:
Cycle of Action: Determine the future, take action, and wishes will be realized.
Cycle of Remorse: Take action, remorse, and be free.
Cycle of Gratitude: Remorse, feel gratitude, and share the warmth.
Cycle of Praise: Feel gratitude, express praise, and share the joy. This connects to the Cycle of Action and all the other cycles:
Action – Remorse – Gratitude – Praise
These spiralling cycles lift up the energy of all beings.
Even a butterfly flapping its wings eventually causes a typhoon.
Let’s start a cycle that will create a better future for all beings!
