from the Itivuttaka...

Ven. picked up "the pocket Buddha reader" edited and translated(?) by Anne Bancroft, at a used book sale. I highly recommend it, so this morning I opened at random and the first thing I had marked was:

"Nunks, (ok, I changed this) this committed life is not lived in order to deceive people, or to convert them. It is not lived for the sake of gain or honor, or reputation or financial profit. There is no idea of "let me draw people's attention to me by being a this or a that." No, nunks, this committed life is lived for the sake of seeing into things and understanding them." 

                              ~From the Itivuttaka of the Pali Canon, the collected teachings of the Buddha.

Like all the Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha, this paragraph is like a seed, like an infinitely shrinking set of Russian Dolls, like a cell of our bodies holding all the information needed to create a new one. Though it seems simple at first glance, if it were all that was left it could guide one to finding and following the same principles outlined in the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path. This is our job as the Great Determination Sangha, to support each others Practice that we may see into things and understand them.

Why would we do that? Because that effort alleviates suffering, being Noble friends alleviates suffering, understanding things is the alleviation of suffering. The Practice is not the intellectual exercise of learning it is doing and it is fun, it brings joy and when you are enjoying you are not suffering! To live with this joy for even a moment makes life worthwhile. Do it and spread the joy.