Patience is the sprouting of religion, firmness its root, good conduct is the flower, the enlightened heart the boughs and branches, wisdom supreme the entire tree, the “transcendent law” the fruit, its shade protects all living things. Say then! Why would you cut it down?
–Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king
From “365 Buddha: Daily Meditations,” edited by Jeff Schmidt. Reprinted by arrangement with Tarcher/Putnam, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.