During this month's retreat at the Amitabha Buddhist Retreat Centre in Nanango, we were discussing how Buddhas and bodhisattvas come to this world to help us. They may come as ordinary beings to teach us through their behavior. They may come to help us by stopping us from making mistakes. They may come to show us what kindness really is. As ordinary beings they might be our neighbor, co-worker, family member, friend, or a stranger.
It is their basic goodness and their quality of seeming quite ordinary that helps us learn from them. It is their kindness and compassion that touches us. They may be high-level bodhisttvas well-advanced in their practice or they may be lower-level bodhisattvas working diligently on their practice.
I had ended by saying that not knowing whether the person we are regarding is a bodhisattva or simply an ordinary being like us, it behooves us to treat everyone as a bodhisattva.
I thought of this a few minutes ago in the kitchen of our dormitory. After several days of summerlike weather, Sunday brought a sudden return of cold weather with both rain and fog. Not having my winter clothing here, I wasn't that inclined to go out to the dining hall for dinner. Instead, I went to our kitchen to see if I could find something simple to heat up.
This is actually a risky undertaking because virtually all the food in our dorm comes from Taiwan or China. This is not the produced in China food that we see in the West with all the labeling written in English. The writing on these packages of food is all in Chinese. I was focusing on the pictures on the packages and looking for something that looked familiar.
I had pulled out one possible bag and was looking intently at it (apparently thinking that my concentration would enable me to miraculously read Chinese) when one of the nuns came into the kitchen. Seeing the bag in my hand, she laughed softly and said "No, that's from China." I immediately realized that what she graciously meant was that it was something from China that I would not like. I laughed with her and put the bag back, grateful once again that my brothers all know what I can and cannot eat.
My thoughtful brother then carefully examined the cabinet and pointed out two bags, one with an almond powder mixture and another with black bean powder, and while still softly laughing said I would enjoy those two together. I mixed them and of course, she was absolutely right, they were delicious.
As I said the other day, we just never know when a bodhisattva will come to help.