Earl Grey or Dragon Pearl Jasmine?

 

To learn something new, we must let go of the old.

Picture in your mind a teacup. Imagine that is filled with tea, Earl Grey tea. Now imagine wanting to try another tea. This time, Dragon Pearl Jasmine. If the cup is full and we try to pour more tea into it, the cup will overflow. Even if it is not full, if we pour in the Jasmine and it mixes with the remaining Earl Grey, the mixture would not taste right.

Learning is like this. If we try to take in new teachings but our cup is already full, we’ll take in more than we can handle. Even if our cup is only partially filled, if we had different teachings we may become muddled—an intellectual version of conflicting tastes.

Sometimes, we need to clean the cup—let go of former ideas and notions—to fully and purely appreciate that which is new and different.

The Four Immeasurables

"Rahula, practice loving kindness to overcome anger.
Loving kindness has the capacity to bring happiness to others without demanding anything in return.

Practice compassion to overcome cruelty.
Compassion has the capacity to remove the suffering of others without expecting anything in return.

Practice sympathetic joy to overcome hatred.
Sympathetic joy arises when one rejoices over the happiness of others and wishes others well-being and success.

Practice non-attachment to overcome prejudice.
Non-attachment is the way of looking at all things openly and equally. This is because that is. Myself and others are not separate. Do not reject one thing only to chase after another.

I call these the four immeasurables.
Practice them and you will become a refreshing source of vitality and happiness for others."

~ Buddha, to his son Rahula, from Old Path White Clouds by Thich Nhat Hanh 

Practice in the Face of Laziness

A reader raised a very good point regarding the November 19^th entry “A Change of Heart”. To summarize, she wrote that she finds that while “we are somehow, with great concentration, able to control our speech and what we do but it is the THOUGHT that is hard to control. Even minor bad thoughts will arise even though we are able to control our speech and actions…I have the belief, and I had vowed to go to Pureland but it is the practical effort that I lack in chanting due to my LAZINESS....and even though I know its a hinder to my cultivation.”

In response, Master Chin Kung (in Changing Destiny) talked of the difficulty of changing by trying to catch each thought in. The problem is that there's just too many of them. (A copy of the book is available here.)

Essentially, the best way to change is from the heart. To do this, we need to replace our old habits, like that of laziness, with new ones. If this were easy to do, we'd be sitting in the Pure Land having this discussion!

Like everything that is worthwhile, we need to keep working on breaking those bad habits. We can think of how we feel when we practice and contrast that with how we feel when we don't. As with any good habit, we feel much better when we’ve done what we knew to be right. And yet, even knowing this, we still give in to laziness.

As I mentioned in practice on the meditation cushion, we can set aside some time in the morning for chanting. Or perhaps at night when we’re done with our work and household chores and enjoyed time with our family. It’s fine to start our practice of chanting, or other meditation, simply and just for a little while, say five or ten minutes. As we feel good about having met our goal, we can gradually increase the time.

Today, we are used to quick fixes, immediate gratification. I don't know of an easy way to break our habit of laziness. It takes work, and it takes patience. If we have vowed to be reborn in the Pure Land, we can think of why we made that vow. We wanted to help all beings end suffering. Since it's difficult trying to get our mind around "all beings," we can think of those we love. Thinking of how much we want to help them can motivate us to do our cultivation.

A Public Opinion Poll

I began this blog a little over a year ago. The initial reason for its formation, the reduction in the time I could spend away from my mother who was not well, ceased the day she passed away. The initial goal of the blog, to help in the propagation of Pure Land Buddhism and to suggest a less self-centered way of living, has remained the same.

As an example of the principle that everything changes, I've gradually included other's writing and added more categories. I've periodically tinkered with the layout, appearance, organization. (To those who were reading the blog while I was trying different color combinations and banner images, I send a big apology. I thought I was working just on the template, but discovered the changes were appearing in the actual blog. Oops!)

When I give a lecture, I can see from the faces in the audience, how I'm doing. With a blog, it's more difficult to gauge. Comments are great for feedback, but I know people often don't like to write for a variety of reasons. That leaves me trying to guess what's working and what isn't, what I could add and what I could focus less on.

So what would help me is to hear from you. Are there topics you want to read more about? Or less about? What are your thoughts of the blog's focus, its organization, categories, appearance, or anything else? Are there any questions you wish someone would ask?

Your feedback is much appreciated.
 

Missing the Chance to Know the Truth

A young tradesman came home and saw that his house had been robbed and burned by bandits. Right outside what was left of the house, there was a small, charred body. He thought the body belonged to his little boy. He did not know that his child was still alive. He did not know that after having burned the house, the bandits had taken the little boy away with them. In his state of confusion, the tradesman believed the body he saw was his son. So he cried, he beat his chest and pulled out his hair in grief. Then he began the cremation ceremony.

This man loved his little boy so much. His son was the raison d’etre of his life. He longed for his little boy so much that he could not abandon the little boy's ashes even for one moment. He made a velvet bag and put the ashes inside. He carried the bag with him day and night, and whether he was working or resting, he was never separated from the bag of ashes. One night his son escaped from the robbers. He came to the new house built by his father. He knocked excitedly on the door at two o'clock in the morning. His father called out as he wept, still holding the bag of ashes, "Who is there?"

"It's me, your son!" the boy answered through the door.

"You naughty person, you are not my boy. My child died three months ago. I have his ashes with me right here." The little boy continued to beat on the door and cried and cried. He begged over and over again to come in, but his father continued to refuse him entry. The man held firm to the notion that his little boy was already dead and that this other child was some heartless person who had come to torment him. Finally, the boy left and the father lost his son forever.

The Buddha said that if you get caught in one idea and consider it to be "the truth," then you miss the chance to know the truth. Even if the truth comes in person and knocks at your door, you will refuse to open your mind.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh, no death, no fear