2.24.2011
Posted by
Mike |
This a wonderful parable about a father and son, and the loss and recovery of their relationship, much like the biblical story of the Prodigal Son. The story starts with the the boy running away from home to others countries where he wanders for fifty years, unsuccessful in his endeavors and living a poor and desperate existence. His wanderings eventually bring him back, and unaware, to his native country and to his fathers city. Meanwhile, the father having searched always for the son, becomes very prosperous at home but filled with regret that he no longer has a son to leave all his possessions to, and so never speaks of his son. The son used to hiring out as a unskilled laborer finds himself at his fathers house, but doesn't recognize the father who is surrounded by opulence, attendants and the citizenry. Thinking that he is worthless and fearing that he could be enslaved by this king, the son runs away, but not before the father recognizes him. The father immediately sends men to bring the son back, but the son confirming his fears, resists and collapses on the ground. The father witnessing the event sends word to his men to release the son. The son delighted by the turn of events, leaves to seek shelter and food. The father reconsiders his strategy and sends new men to address the son, this time with humble demeanor and dressed shabbily, and with the offer of work shoveling dirt, for which the son will be paid double and in advance for his labors.
The father witnessing his son in labor, gaunt and filthy with dirt and desiring to be reunited with the son, takes on the appearance of a common laborer to supervise the son, thereby placing him in close contact with the son. With continued employment the father, looks after the son, slowly increasing his wages and responsibilities and putting in his mind that he should be the son the father never had. The son happy with his new situation, remains fixed in his attitude that he is still a humble hireling, and so continues his labors under the fathers direction for twenty years, over which time the sons builds his confidence and is allowed to come and go as he pleases. Now the father is taken ill and knowing he will soon die tells the son it is his will for the son to become aware of all the fathers possessions treasures and operations, because he is trusted and has in-fact become a son to him. The son accepts, but remains convinced he is unworthy of the task.
After a time, the father believing his sons attitude has enlarged, assembles the relatives, kings, minsters, citizens along with the son and proclaims to all that the son is truly his son who left the family at a early age, and that all his possessions are hereby transferred to the son who is well acquainted with his wealth and business. Upon hear the news the son reflects:
You have to love the tactful ways of the Buddha. He knows we are attached to inferior ideas and are not ready to aspire to become a buddha even though it is our birthright as we come into this world with a buddha nature. Yet he is patient, and teaches us according to our capacities, providing us with the three vehicles to make us spiritually mature.
The parable stresses the importance of attitude. We are poor in the sense that we are not looking to become buddha. Instead we come to Buddhism because we are broken, suffering and need relief. In this state, we are open only to what Buddhism teaches about suffering and how uncover its roots and to find relief. Only after our pain subsides do we become open to the deeper levels of the teachings. We continue refining ourselves through learning, daily practice and selfless compassion for all, and eventually gain an appreciation for our great cause - to become buddha.
The sons final words, reaffirm that enlightenment is not something we pursue and attain - its already in us waiting to be revealed.
The father witnessing his son in labor, gaunt and filthy with dirt and desiring to be reunited with the son, takes on the appearance of a common laborer to supervise the son, thereby placing him in close contact with the son. With continued employment the father, looks after the son, slowly increasing his wages and responsibilities and putting in his mind that he should be the son the father never had. The son happy with his new situation, remains fixed in his attitude that he is still a humble hireling, and so continues his labors under the fathers direction for twenty years, over which time the sons builds his confidence and is allowed to come and go as he pleases. Now the father is taken ill and knowing he will soon die tells the son it is his will for the son to become aware of all the fathers possessions treasures and operations, because he is trusted and has in-fact become a son to him. The son accepts, but remains convinced he is unworthy of the task.
After a time, the father believing his sons attitude has enlarged, assembles the relatives, kings, minsters, citizens along with the son and proclaims to all that the son is truly his son who left the family at a early age, and that all his possessions are hereby transferred to the son who is well acquainted with his wealth and business. Upon hear the news the son reflects:
Without any mind for or effort on my part these treasures now come of themselves to me
You have to love the tactful ways of the Buddha. He knows we are attached to inferior ideas and are not ready to aspire to become a buddha even though it is our birthright as we come into this world with a buddha nature. Yet he is patient, and teaches us according to our capacities, providing us with the three vehicles to make us spiritually mature.
The parable stresses the importance of attitude. We are poor in the sense that we are not looking to become buddha. Instead we come to Buddhism because we are broken, suffering and need relief. In this state, we are open only to what Buddhism teaches about suffering and how uncover its roots and to find relief. Only after our pain subsides do we become open to the deeper levels of the teachings. We continue refining ourselves through learning, daily practice and selfless compassion for all, and eventually gain an appreciation for our great cause - to become buddha.
The sons final words, reaffirm that enlightenment is not something we pursue and attain - its already in us waiting to be revealed.
2.17.2011
I'm taking a moment to write to a classmate who is going through a difficult phase of her life.
A,
I'm writing because I hope it will help you think differently about your circumstances and hopefully improve your outlook on life. I don't claim to have any answers, I only offer what is working for me.
I believe our attitude is perhaps the only thing we can truly control in life. I also believe its the most influential tool we have. In Buddhism class we are being taught a great many things that we know to be true but find difficult to incorporate into the chaos of our daily life. One fundamental truth is that life plays out through a endless cycle of causes and effects that are unpredictable, impossible to control and creates an inescapable undertow in our lives. The feeling that your being swept away is universal.
The process is described in the Buddhist principal of "The Ten Suchnesses", wherein stuff (i.e., people, events, things) continually combines under various conditions producing effects which in-turn create new conditions and stuff to arise and combine ... in perpetual motion. Its quite natural to feel like we are just food for this machine.
Just as your new recovery buddy has recently come into your life, so people, events and things continually arise and fade away in your life as they have in all your previous lives. This process I believe is the handiwork of karma, which I also believe we should think of as a teacher. I look at karma as a force similar to gravity, in that it can't be seen but its effects are experienced in a real way. To me, karma has only one purpose, to teach you to become enlightened. I like to think of it as a manifestation of all the Buddhas - another example of their clever and tactful ways.
Karma works by continually teaching you what you need to know which is determined by tallying up all your deeds over all your lives. If you do bad things you get more bad things, not because of retaliation or tit-for-tat, but so that you have more situations to investigate, glean insight and learn from. Once you understand the message karma is giving you, you will be free from those situations or at least their impact on you will be greatly lessened or eliminated. The key therefore is not to ignore the opportunity karma presents, but investigate it deeply.
It may helpful to step out of yourself and pretend you are a private investigator. You have one client - A, and your job is to impassively investigate what makes A tick. When A has an emotional reaction to a situation, you analyze the conditions, figure out why things developed, from the perspectives of all the parties involved, and make note of A's reaction. Then assess if the emotional reaction was appropriate given an objective assessment of the situation. You proceed in this manner and after a while you recognize you keep spiraling down to the same core reasons - perhaps fear of rejection, lack of self-love, need for security, perhaps A has been unfairly wronged in life and has come to believe she deserved it. The core reasons are the roots for all of A's suffering.
why --> because
but why --> because
but why --> because
but why --> because
ahh!
For many of us the need to be accepted by others (perhaps a mother, father, or mate) far exceeds the need to love ourselves. We crave acceptance and this causes us to act irrationally - against our nature. We base our self-esteem on the love or acceptance reflected back to us from others. The reflection is further distorted by our biases so that what we perceive is likely not even closely in-sync with the opinions of us from the people we interact with. How often have we found out afterward that our impressions of how people thought about us was completely wrong.
It may help to escape this trap by reminding yourself that everyone has a buddha nature, i.e., a capacity for compassion for others and an innate desire to become spiritually awakened. For this reason, an attitude of self-hate also condemns the buddha, which for Buddhists is inconceivable. Always remember that the buddha took a vow to lead all sentient beings sinking in a sea of suffering to nirvana. When we focus on these ideas we find strength and purpose and feel better about ourselves. We begin to derive our self worth not from external factors but from internal virtues.
The people that are causing you to suffer are also suffering, and for you to put your suffering aside and do some act of kindness for them in recognition of their buddha nature is the buddha-seeds that alter the outcome of the cycle of cause and effect. Your experiences will mirror your attitude. When you feel yourself getting angry, let that sensation be a trigger to remember your buddha nature, your purpose. Take a long deep breath and be open to the message karma is sending you.
A,
I'm writing because I hope it will help you think differently about your circumstances and hopefully improve your outlook on life. I don't claim to have any answers, I only offer what is working for me.
I believe our attitude is perhaps the only thing we can truly control in life. I also believe its the most influential tool we have. In Buddhism class we are being taught a great many things that we know to be true but find difficult to incorporate into the chaos of our daily life. One fundamental truth is that life plays out through a endless cycle of causes and effects that are unpredictable, impossible to control and creates an inescapable undertow in our lives. The feeling that your being swept away is universal.
The process is described in the Buddhist principal of "The Ten Suchnesses", wherein stuff (i.e., people, events, things) continually combines under various conditions producing effects which in-turn create new conditions and stuff to arise and combine ... in perpetual motion. Its quite natural to feel like we are just food for this machine.
Just as your new recovery buddy has recently come into your life, so people, events and things continually arise and fade away in your life as they have in all your previous lives. This process I believe is the handiwork of karma, which I also believe we should think of as a teacher. I look at karma as a force similar to gravity, in that it can't be seen but its effects are experienced in a real way. To me, karma has only one purpose, to teach you to become enlightened. I like to think of it as a manifestation of all the Buddhas - another example of their clever and tactful ways.
Karma works by continually teaching you what you need to know which is determined by tallying up all your deeds over all your lives. If you do bad things you get more bad things, not because of retaliation or tit-for-tat, but so that you have more situations to investigate, glean insight and learn from. Once you understand the message karma is giving you, you will be free from those situations or at least their impact on you will be greatly lessened or eliminated. The key therefore is not to ignore the opportunity karma presents, but investigate it deeply.
It may helpful to step out of yourself and pretend you are a private investigator. You have one client - A, and your job is to impassively investigate what makes A tick. When A has an emotional reaction to a situation, you analyze the conditions, figure out why things developed, from the perspectives of all the parties involved, and make note of A's reaction. Then assess if the emotional reaction was appropriate given an objective assessment of the situation. You proceed in this manner and after a while you recognize you keep spiraling down to the same core reasons - perhaps fear of rejection, lack of self-love, need for security, perhaps A has been unfairly wronged in life and has come to believe she deserved it. The core reasons are the roots for all of A's suffering.
why --> because
but why --> because
but why --> because
but why --> because
ahh!
For many of us the need to be accepted by others (perhaps a mother, father, or mate) far exceeds the need to love ourselves. We crave acceptance and this causes us to act irrationally - against our nature. We base our self-esteem on the love or acceptance reflected back to us from others. The reflection is further distorted by our biases so that what we perceive is likely not even closely in-sync with the opinions of us from the people we interact with. How often have we found out afterward that our impressions of how people thought about us was completely wrong.
It may help to escape this trap by reminding yourself that everyone has a buddha nature, i.e., a capacity for compassion for others and an innate desire to become spiritually awakened. For this reason, an attitude of self-hate also condemns the buddha, which for Buddhists is inconceivable. Always remember that the buddha took a vow to lead all sentient beings sinking in a sea of suffering to nirvana. When we focus on these ideas we find strength and purpose and feel better about ourselves. We begin to derive our self worth not from external factors but from internal virtues.
The people that are causing you to suffer are also suffering, and for you to put your suffering aside and do some act of kindness for them in recognition of their buddha nature is the buddha-seeds that alter the outcome of the cycle of cause and effect. Your experiences will mirror your attitude. When you feel yourself getting angry, let that sensation be a trigger to remember your buddha nature, your purpose. Take a long deep breath and be open to the message karma is sending you.
2.15.2011
In keeping with the Buddha's assertion that he teaches by tactful means, his teaching strategy now switches from teaching by theory to teaching by story telling. What following is the first of several parables taught by the Buddha. The story of the burning house is about an old man, very wealthy with a large family dwelling in a very large run-down house. The house is not only inhabited by his family but all manner of animals, hungry spirits and demons. The house is in such disrepair it is on the verge of collapse. When the story begins, the elder from outside sees a fire start simultaneously in all parts of the house. He is told that his children are at play in the house, and comes into the house, through the only opening a narrow gate, to save his children. He confronts the children warning them of the impending danger, but the children absorbed in their play, and with no concept of fire, pay no mind to him. The objects of their play are three carts; a goat cart, a deer cart and a bullock cart. The elder, reconsiders how to get the children to leave the house. He consider physically rescuing them, but thinks he may loose one or two, which is unacceptable. After some thought, he realizes that the children are self-motivated by their play and with this in mind tells the children that beautiful new playthings await them outside the house, and they will surely be sorry if they don't leave immediately. Thereupon the children scramble over themselves to pass through the gate to the outside. The elder relieved his children are safely outside, provides all the children with the finest bullock cart, richly adorned, and drawn by a large white cow.
The Buddha asks Sariputra if it was wrong that the elder gave the finest cart equally to each child. To understand the question we must understand the metaphors in the story. We can readily see that the house represents our view of reality and the all-consuming fire, the damaging nature of our attachment to cravings - the children unaware in their play being an example. The elder is of course the Buddha who has taken a vow to lead all people from their suffering. The three carts, being a means of transport, represent the three vehicles described in previous chapters. The goat cart refers to the teaching, or spiritual understanding of a shravaka, the deer cart symbolic of the spiritual understanding of a pratyekabuddha, and the great bullock cart, the teaching amassed by a bodhisattva. By these the teachings the father leads his children through the gate, beyond which suffering is abated and wisdom may be attained. Its important to note that the buddha doesn't simply use his divine power to deliver his children to safety but instead tactfully puts in their mind an idea they follow naturally, by their own desire. There is but one gate, like the truth that we pursue.
Sariputra, being the astute pupil, and having been tormented by self-doubt that he wouldn't reach enlightenment, realized that the Buddha’s previous teachings, although claiming extinction, only led to freedom from the cycle of rebirth which is not real extinction. It is only through the one great vehicle (the figurative bullock cart) that one may become a Buddha.
The sutra concludes by the Buddha admonishing Sariputra not to teach to those who slander the sutra in any way.
The Buddha asks Sariputra if it was wrong that the elder gave the finest cart equally to each child. To understand the question we must understand the metaphors in the story. We can readily see that the house represents our view of reality and the all-consuming fire, the damaging nature of our attachment to cravings - the children unaware in their play being an example. The elder is of course the Buddha who has taken a vow to lead all people from their suffering. The three carts, being a means of transport, represent the three vehicles described in previous chapters. The goat cart refers to the teaching, or spiritual understanding of a shravaka, the deer cart symbolic of the spiritual understanding of a pratyekabuddha, and the great bullock cart, the teaching amassed by a bodhisattva. By these the teachings the father leads his children through the gate, beyond which suffering is abated and wisdom may be attained. Its important to note that the buddha doesn't simply use his divine power to deliver his children to safety but instead tactfully puts in their mind an idea they follow naturally, by their own desire. There is but one gate, like the truth that we pursue.
Sariputra, being the astute pupil, and having been tormented by self-doubt that he wouldn't reach enlightenment, realized that the Buddha’s previous teachings, although claiming extinction, only led to freedom from the cycle of rebirth which is not real extinction. It is only through the one great vehicle (the figurative bullock cart) that one may become a Buddha.
The sutra concludes by the Buddha admonishing Sariputra not to teach to those who slander the sutra in any way.
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