Be Good

It's the eve of the One Humanity, Many Faiths regional summit, and we're now in Brisbane. The other monastics have gone across Ann Street to Brisbane City Hall to see the main hall, the exhibition hall, and other rooms we'll be using for smaller sessions. The summit is jointly organized by the Pure Land Learning College Association in Toowoomba, where I spend most of my time here, and the Griffith University Multi-faith Centre here in Brisbane.

I'm in the hotel room enjoying a cup of chamomile tea and listening to the chanting machine and the barely discernible city noises outside the window and thirteen stories down. And working on my laptop. And looking for entries that I can pinch for the next few days since I've been seriously neglecting this blog with all the time required to prepare for the summit. Oh, the entries I'm pinching are from here so since we define stealing as taking something without permission of the owner, I guess I'm not really pinching anything. ;-)

So tonight I'm advance posting some entries that I hope you'll enjoy and which you may not have read. I'll be offline for four days, so if there are comments, I'm afraid they'll have to wait till I'm back in Toowoomba.

When I first attended the Dallas Buddhist Association, it was as a participant in a meditation group that was started for westerners. Several of us had called at the time a monk arrived from Miami. He was extremely out-going, with an infectious laugh.

One evening, I was helping him carry some supplies to the building the group met in. In Chinese culture, it is very normal to ask someone their age. Since the Chinese respect elders, you quickly realize this is an excellent way to determine how to act properly toward another person and not necessarily a reason to worry about your recent behavior.

As we were walking, the monk asked me how old I was. I told him that I was forty-eight. He carefully considered this for a moment and very sincerely responded, "Too old to learn. Just be good."

Over the years, people have reacted differently to the "Too old to learn" comment. Perhaps it was the way he said it, but I didn't get upset over the first part. I zoomed in on the latter part, "Just be good."

Such a simple instruction—just be good. That's all we have to do. We don't need to complicate our practice. Just recite and learn one sutra. Just chant one Buddha's name. Just focus on this moment. Just be good.

Comments

[Theresa]

:)

That says it all, certainly.

I hope you have an enlivening conference!