How to Make Eggplant

One day a man was watching his wife preparing an eggplant for their dinner. (When I heard this story, the wife was preparing a pot roast but this is a vegetarian blog after all.) Watching her cut off and then throw away the end of the eggplant, he asked his wife why she had done that. She replied that this was the way her mother had always fixed eggplant.

His curiosity growing, he suggested they call the mother to find out the reason. When they called the mother, she replied that this was the way her mother had always fixed eggplant.

Growing increasingly agitated, the husband suggested they call the grandmother in an attempt to figure out the reason for this apparent family tradition. When they asked the grandmother, she replied that the reason was very simple—she didn’t have a large pan so she cut off the end of the eggplant to make it fit the pan she had.

If we want to truly benefit from our practice, we need to understand the principles and reasons behind what we do. Otherwise, we will just go through the motions.

Can You Shift it a Bit to the Left?

I am giving a talk today on stress management.

The timing on this is ideal since we are working hard at the Amitabha Buddhist Retreat Centre to get it ready for the official opening on August 11th. I say "ideal" because if you saw the amount of work to be done and the three-person live-in work crew, you'd be looking at laboratory conditions for a stress study.

Charles, aged ninety-two, is in the best shape. Lest you get the wrong opinion about the condition of Celine and myself and become alarmed, please allow me to explain. Charles practiced the giving of fearlessness in the past and is reaping the wonderful benefits now—a long and healthy life. He works all day long and has built most of the centre himself.  

He is currently up on a ladder painting the eaves of the centre roof and when he is not on the ladder is carrying rocks (large ones) when they’re needed for the garden. The only way I can get him to not do something is to plead that I will have to bear the karmic results if he injures himself since I requested the work to be done.  (With just a glimmer of wisdom, one knows the right thing to say to attain a beneficial result.)

I’m also on the rock detail. It was my idea to have the rocks since I’m trying to put in a drought-resistant garden and I harbor a long-held love for Japanese gardens. In Elkhart, I had been looking forward to getting exercise when in Nanango, but as they say, you need to be careful of what you wish for. Exercise is one thing—hard labor another!

Celine does more than her share with her own work and trying to look out for Charles and myself. When I hear her “Venerable!” I know to not pick up that rock. She also does all the cooking. I’d rather be carrying rocks.

The work could be overwhelming. There is no hope of doing everything we want to do in time for the opening. This is where the Buddhist stress management comes in.

·   What is destined to be done will be done. What is not destined to be done will remain undone. Worrying will do nothing to alter this reality.

·   When we are doing what is good, we can be happy in the doing. There is no need to worry about the outcome. All we need to focus on is doing our best.

·   If our intention is to be of benefit to others, we will receive the help we need when we need it. (Gomi and Ashley, William and Crystal, and Patrick are the proof this one works.)

·   Enjoy the moment and be fully in it.

·   Do not have any expectations. Everything will change. Especially when you’re working with rocks.

·   Be flexible. As Patrick said, where the rock landed is where Buddha wanted it to be.
 

Healing Herbs

 

May all beings wish to become
healing herbs in the days of epidemics to cure the ill.

May they wish to become
rice plants in the days of famine to save the hungry.

~ Buddha

Through the Eyes of a Buddha-to-be

There is no difference between me and you and they. We are all part of one another: we each have a Buddha-nature waiting to awaken. Every person—every being—we will encounter today is a future Buddha. A Buddha-to-be caught just as we are in our lack of awareness. 

Unaware, they suffer just as we suffer. They too get hooked by their habits and carelessly react from those habits, not from wisdom. Deluded, they suffer just as we suffer. They too take wrong ideas for the truth and view the truth as falsehood. They too act out of ignorance and make many mistakes, not realizing the harm they are doing.

Today, all those we encounter will undergo trials. Take their disappointment and difficulties in as your own. And view them clearly and non-judgmentally through your eyes—the eyes of a Buddha-to-be. 

Finding Time

Sometimes it is difficult to find time to meditate each day. But we always have time to watch TV. We always have time to go shopping. We always have time to get a snack from the refrigerator. Why is it that the 24 hours run out when it is time to meditate? When we understand the value and effect of spiritual practice, then it will become a high priority in our life, and when something is very important, we find time for it.

~ Ven. Thubten Chodron