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.

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.

The Unfaltering Vow

It is appropriate to cherish and protect this world for it is both our home

and of those yet to come.

A world so immense, yet so easily destroyed by selfishness and fear.

May all beings savor the nectar of contentment

to overcome desiring more than is needed

and bring forth the resolve to live gently and simply.

It is right for us to respect every being for they are one with us,

different aspects of a single entity.

We may feel we are dissimilar or superior,

but we share universal values and all seek to live and be happy.

May the perfection of our true selves blossom within us

as we let go of discrimination and contention

and bring forth forgiveness and generosity.

It is time to heal the wounds born of grasping and violence,

for if left untended, they will fester and cause irreparable damage.

For as we sow, we will reap.

May all our hearts and minds draw together

to forge the unfaltering vow to bring our world lasting peace.

~ Prayer to be given at One Humanity, Many Faiths Interfaith Summit ~

A Joy and a Haven

Since late last year, I've been very busy (!) helping prepare for the Pure Land Learning College Association's Interfaith Summit that will be on February 18-21. Today, I did some work on religious quotes and found that someone else had a fondness for the beautiful quote below. They only had space for part of it, but I have more space than time to fill it right now, so I have the pleasure of sharing the full quote with you.

"Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer of the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge. Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech. Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men. Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts. Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, a tower of strength for the fugitive. Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring. Be an ornament to the countenance of truth, a crown to the brow of fidelity, a pillar of the temple of righteousness, a breath of life to the body of mankind, an ensign of the hosts of justice, a luminary above the horizon of virtue, a dew to the soil of the human heart, an ark on the ocean of knowledge, a sun in the heaven of bounty, a gem on the diadem of wisdom, a shining light in the firmament of thy generation, a fruit upon the tree of humility."

~ Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh

A Prayer

For those who have lost so much due to the bushfires here in Australia,

we are so terribly sorry, and unable to truly express how we feel.

No one can know another's suffering.

We can only remember our own and how much it hurt

and wish that the suffering of others would end.

Forever.

We honor your courage, both now and in the future.

your helping your neighbors, your helping strangers.

And all we can say is that with all our hearts,

we hope your's will some day find

that the pain has eased,

some happiness returned.

May you benefit from the loving thoughts of we strangers,

as we hold all of you in our hearts.