Show notes
Stop wasting your time. That's the first thing this poem tells you. Then it gets real, calling out our love for gossip, our cravings for comfort, and how we pretend to be better than we actually are. Sound familiar? But here's the good news: you can change. The poem shows you how, bit by bit, like softening a stiff piece of wool. Be steady like a river. Stay alertlike a deer. Support others like the earth beneath your feet.
Thirty short lines. No fancy words. Just honest advice that actually helps.
Read it. Sit with it. Then try one small change today.
Milk of the Bounteous Cow
Line 1: "Ah, supreme child of noble family,"
Line 2: "Be careful not to idle away your time."
Line 3: "Causes of regret are gradually approaching,"
Line 4: "Due to our bestial, cow-like behaviour,"
Line 5: "Especially our fondness for meaningless prattle."
Line 6: "For even as we might feign noble conduct,"
Line 7: "Generally we crave tea, alcohol and meat, and"
Line 8: "Habitually pursue attractive young partners,"
Line 9: "In contradiction to the Tathāgata’s teachings."
Line 10: "Just look at this, our miserable situation."
Line 11: "Know that if this is how it is right now,"
Line 12: "Later on, our pain will exceed that of a hundredillnesses."
Line 13: "Make an effort therefore to cultivate puremotivation,"
Line 14: "Nurture the training in the transcendent perfections,and"
Line 15: "Only be of benefit to all beings,"
Line 16: "Purely like the milk of the supremely bounteous cow."
Line 17: "Quite like the cooling camara fan, which"
Line 18: "Repels the threat of excessive heat, and"
Line 19: "Steadily like the flow of the River Ganges,"
Line 20: "Train to develop perfect diligence."
Line 21: "Utterly reject arrogance and haughtiness,"
Line 22: "View with disdain coarse, unwholesome conduct,"
Line 23: "Wholly avoid all forms of busyness and clamour,"
Line 24: "Expertly adopt noble, respectable behaviour."
Line 25: "Yearn to tame the mind that is as tough as yak-horn,and"
Line 26: "Zealously refine it until it’s soft and smooth likewool."
Line 27: "Guard yourself in the manner of a deer."
Line 28: "Sustain living beings, just like the great Earthitself."
Line 29: "Give up, in short, all unwholesome forms of conduct"
Line 30: "And meditate on the unborn, the meaning of A."
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