Near a Forest, a River, or a Brook

 

Among the followers of the Buddha, including lay practitioners, there were Buddhas of the past and great bodhisattvas. They manifested as ordinary people but were actually saints. The Essentials says: “The sound-hearers were listed first because they assumed the appearance of one who has renounced the world, because they always followed the Buddha, and because the spreading of the Dharma depends on the Sangha.” The sound-hearers always appeared as monastics who had renounced the world, but the bodhisattvas did not always appear as such. Most bodhisattvas had the appearance of lay people. The bodhisattvas did not always follow the Buddha but the sound-hearers did because they had not completed their study. The sound-hearers were bhiksus, and bhiksus were students of the Buddha who had not completed their study and thus needed to constantly follow the teacher. The bodhisattvas had completed their study and could thus leave the teacher’s side.

There was no set place for the Buddha to teach. Where did he teach? In a forest, by a river, or near a brook. There were no buildings or any facilities. They slept under the trees and ate one meal a day before noon. They lived in the wilderness. When the kings and ministers heard about the Buddha, they were full of admiration and sincerely wanted the Buddha to live in their countries to teach. The Buddha accorded with the conditions and went wherever people invited him. He was able to spread his teachings to a large area and to truly benefit all beings. The bodhisattvas also went everywhere to teach. Because there were many places where the Buddha was invited to teach and because he could not go to all of them, sometimes the sound-hearers were sent out to teach on his behalf. After teaching for a period, the students would come back, and other students would be sent.

~ Based on Ven. Master Chin Kung's 2003 lecture series on the Amitabha Sutra

True Confessions

I confess. I'm not a spider person. No, don't worry. I'm okay. I just mean that I'm not crazy about spiders. Or at least not Australian spiders. I'm fine with Daddy Longlegs. We had them in New York where I grew up. And I loved the movie Daddy Longlegs with Fred Astaire. But I'm talking about serious spiders. Big spiders. Lots of big spiders. I mean, I'm a Buddhist—I like everything in moderation. And that goes for spiders, too. Especially big ones.

So if I don't like spiders, why my preoccupation with them? I'm glad you asked.

As I said there are lots of spiders in Australia and I'm currently in Australia. To my great good fortune, Celine, the woman I am staying with, likes spiders. (No, don't start worrying again. She has a healthy, compassionate fearless view of spiders and admires their web-building genius. I do share her admiration on this.) So for the first week or so, I would call out "Celine—spider!" and she'd quickly come with a cloth to catch the spider and gently escort it out of the house.

Today as I was working and gazing out the window (strictly for therapeutic reasons to rest my eyes—honest), I noticed a bunch of white dots all clumped together next to a large white spider that had been fighting with another spider a few days ago in the same spot. (Apparently, I rest my eyes a lot here.) I got up and looked more closely. It looked like there were about a hundred little white dots. Oops.

I went to Celine and asked her about the wisdom of spider eggs on the outside of the window (with the screen that our cat Kahleen likes to climb to gaze in at me at eye level. This unfortunately has left many tears in the screen that are just the right size for playful baby spiders to use to come in to scare the Buddhist nun). Celine smiled comfortingly and said, yes, it was best not to have a hundred spiders hatching outside my room. (She was probably also concerned for the thunderous effect my "Celine—spider!" would have on baby spider ears. If spiders have ears. Trust me, I have NOT gotten close enough to see if they do.)

Anyway, Celine cleverly found a large leaf and scooped up Mama and her babies and walked out on to the grass. Celine then commented that she didn't want to put them down on the grass because the ants would eat them (Honestly, it's like a nature reserve here!). So the spider family was gently relocated to a safer location where the new babies would not be eaten by ants or deafened by the unusually loud vocalizations of Buddhist nuns...

Repaying Debts or Being Taken Advantage of?

Question: In adverse circumstances, I contrarily find it difficult to believe that I had “owed” these nasty people debts and that now all that had happened was simply a repayment.

I find it hard to believe that it was a past that is back to haunt me; a past that I can't see.

How can I see more clearly that the law of cause and effect really exists from life to life? I know that we can see the law of cause and effect in many aspects of life but surely we cannot extrapolate a universal principle thus, because of this? Could you advise?

Response: During the night of the Buddha’s enlightenment, he saw causality occurring. The boundaries of past, present, and future had dropped away and he saw the past and future as clearly as we see the present. He did not extrapolate the Dharma with it’s principles like cause and effect, he experienced them. He then encouraged us to experience them as a way to build our confidence.

As we begin to experience cause and effect in this lifetime (for example, when I am angry, I feel agitated and unsettled), we will begin to see that it also explains the consequences we are unable to link back to causes in previous lifetimes.

Initially, it is not necessary to believe in rebirth to benefit form the teaching. In fact, in the Kalama Sutra, we read how the Buddha postulated a scenario contrary to his experience—one where there is no rebirth and no karmic retribution. He did this so that those who were doubtful could still benefit from his teachings. He showed that even within such a scenario, one who remains free of greed, anger, and their resultant suffering will be truly happy!

As the Buddha showed, they do not have to accept rebirth in order to reap the benefits. Those who are free of greed, anger, and their ensuing suffering have a mind of loving-kindness, compassion, appreciation, and equanimity in this lifetime. They no longer experience greed, no longer crave the emotional high from acquiring that which is new—they simply appreciate what they already have. Craving and its shadow, disappointment, are eliminated as people become contented with their situation. 

A person who feels no anger will not feel angry or unsettled but will, instead, always feel calm and peaceful. Such a person will always be happy and at ease, and thus always be welcomed wherever he or she goes. Without craving and without anger there will be no suffering—just happiness, a lifetime of happiness. And all this can happen here and now, because even if one does not believe in rebirth, one will still benefit if one lives a life free of craving, animosity, and unhappiness.

And gradually, as one experiences the results of living in accordance with the Buddha’s teachings, one will have experienced enough to believe in what cannot yet be proven through direct experience.

Organ Donation

Periodically someone will ask me about organ donation.

As Buddhists, we practice the six paramitas, or perfections, the first of which is giving. Wouldn't donating one's organs be a gift of great generosity?

First, let me give some background information. It takes many hours for the Alaya consciousness (the most subtle consciousness, which passes from one lifetime to another and that contains all our past karmas) to withdraw from our body. It takes so long because we are very attached to our bodies, viewing them as our "self."

While the consciousness is pulling out of the body, the body/consciousness is extremely sensitive to the lightest touch or even the gentlest breeze. This is why for a minimum of eight hours after a person has stopped breathing, we do not touch the body or even the bed on which the body is resting. Why? This is a time of great pain and difficulty, "like a turtle being skinned alive." If someone disturbs the body at this time, the consciousness will perceive it as an intense shock and very likely become angry. Since a person's final thoughts are what lead one to the next lifetime, we most certainly do not want to become angry during this time.

So in our decision to donate our organs, we need to ask "Have I attained the level of concentration at which my mind will remain perfectly calm while someone is cutting into my body and removing my heart, corneas, and so on?" If I can maintain this level of concentration, I can donate my organs. If I cannot, I have a very important decision to make for the wrong decision could cause me much suffering in my next life as the consequence of anger as one is withdrawing from one's body is rebirth into the hell realms.

As in everything we do, we need to temper our compassion with wisdom.
 

Possessor or Possessed?

Genuine love and kindness is desperately needed in this world. It comes from appreciating the object, and rejoicing in the object, wanting the object to be happy and well, but holding it lightly, not tightly. And this goes for possessions too. You are in an extremely materialistic society in which the possession of more and better is held up as the total criteria for being happy. Then people get confused, because they come to the Buddhadharma and it teaches giving up, renunciation. People say, “Does that mean I have to give up my Mercedes or my beautiful condominium?” But the question is—do we possess the possessions, or do the possessions possess us?”

…What we own is not the problem. It’s our attitude toward our possessions. If we have something and we enjoy it, that’s fine. If we lose it, then that’s OK. But if we lose it and we are very attached to it in our heart, then that’s not fine. It doesn’t matter what the object is, because it’s not the object which is the problem. The problem is our own inner grasping mind that keeps us bound to the wheel, and keeps us suffering. If our mind was open and could just let things flow naturally, there would be no pain.

~ Venerable Tenzin Palmo