Walking a Fine Line

I was talking with someone yesterday about trying to walk the line between sincerely meeting our responsibilities and going overboard and losing our perspective. Since I had just caught myself tripping over that line, I found the discussion especially timely.

I am working on a new website for the center I live at. My teacher designed an emblem many years ago that is a wonderful teaching in itself. It has many design elements including both English and Chinese words, initials, a lotus, and some more elements. As a larger emblem it works very well and we have it under our association's name at the front entrance. I was requested to try to use the emblem/sign as a logo on the website.

My current task was to change the coloring of the emblem so it would work in the website's dark blue banner. I was working with a screen-sized file and after easily changing the larger sections was meticulously dropping tiny bits of color into the file pixels. To do this, you use your mouse cursor and try to aim the cross hairs at the right spot. (Suffice it to say, I'd never have made it as an army gunner!) 

I wanted to do a very good job and was concentrating (i.e. glasses were put aside and I was peering into the screen). After some time, I thought, wait a minute. I need to check this in the banner. This was to be a little logo after all, not a sign.

As you can imagine, when I inserted the logo onto the banner, I realized I had already stepped over the responsible work/going overboard line. I had lost my perspective. No one would ever see the color imperfections in the logo.

So where exactly was that line and how could I have found it a few minutes sooner?

Concentration is great for getting things done, but we need to periodically stand (or sit in my case) back and look at the whole picture. We need to separate ourselves from the work and view it objectively. We need to ask if we have gotten so involved in the work that we have become attached to the outcome, thinking "I" have to do this so well  that no one will criticize "my" work. "I" want to do this perfectly, then everyone will like it. After all, this is "my" job, it is "my" responsibility and "I" know the best way to do it.

It's a tricky line with all the "I"s and "me"s. Little wonder we get tripped up by it and fail to notice we've landed on the other side.

I'm Not Arrogant, I'm Right!

This occurred to me the other day when I was thinking of a particular situation. (No, the person I was thinking of doesn't read this blog, so it's not any of you.:-))

Another individual had called the person in the situation arrogant. I could see how they thought so. Then I deliberately thought of another situation, this one involving myself. That's when the title of this entry popped into my mind.

It raises some interesting questions for us to ask ourselves.

When have I worked on something enough or learned enough to know that I clearly am right. Or when am I giving myself more credit than I deserve. And how good am I at discerning the difference.

For those of us trying to change our behavior, the discernment is crucial. It requires more than being honest with ourselves, which is difficult enough. It requires that we really know ourselves. It also requires us to know what we are doing and to honestly assess any given situation.

And perhaps all these come down to the question: how hard am I willing to work at this.

Someone is Watching

If our parents do something wrong,

we should urge them to change.

We should do so with a kind expression and caring voice.

Should our parents not accept our advice,

try again when they are in a better mood.

If they still do not listen,

our sincere tears will show them how deeply we care.

Should they get angry with us, do not hold it against them.

 

Once, in the not so distant past, a man decided to take some apples from his neighbor. He thought, “I’ll only take a few. My neighbor will never miss them and besides he can’t possibly use all those apples.” He waited until it was dark. To be sure he wasn’t caught; he took Natasha, his youngest daughter, with him so she could keep watch and warn him if anyone approached.

Walking quietly, father and daughter went to the neighbor’s orchard where there were many apple trees. The father reached up to the first tree and picked a few apples. He was about to put them into the basket he had brought along when his daughter said softly, “Father, someone’s watching.” Her father immediately looked around but saw no one.

He then went to another tree and picked a few more apples. His daughter tugged at his pants and a little louder this time said, “Father, someone’s watching!” Again, he looked around nervously, but saw no one.

He picked up his basket and moved down the row of trees and reached up to pick a few more apples. He was just putting them into his basket, when his daughter called out “Father, someone is watching!”

He was frustrated at looking around and seeing no one. But just to be safe he moved deeper into the orchard where he was further away from the road. Even here, his daughter cried out to him “Father, someone is watching you!” Again he looked all around but saw no one. Exasperated, he turned to his daughter and said, “Why do you keep saying someone’s watching? No one’s here!”

His daughter looked up at him, her eyes glistening with rising tears, and said, “I’m here.”

Moved by her concern, her father suddenly realized he had been setting a very bad example and that his daughter had only been trying to help him realize that taking the apples was wrong. After all, he had always taught her that stealing was wrong, and here he was doing it! He hugged her to let her know that she was right and what a good daughter she was.

They walked home together hand in hand. Along the way they carefully put all the apples back under the trees.

Moral

To help others see their mistakes, we need to speak politely,

at the right time, and away from others.

Intoxicated by Desire

Those who give in to desire

are often intoxicated

by sensory indulgence,

not yet realizing

that what pleases today

all too often disappoints tomorrow.

Four Lands in the Pure Land

In Rebirth in the Pure Land a comment of “quite a caste system” was made. It was a very helpful comment since to those new to Pure Land Buddhism, it might well seem like there is a separation of beings in the Pure Land. With further study, we will better understand the nine levels and four lands.

Think of the levels and lands not as physical places but rather as mental states. This mental state is the land we dwell in.

The awakening beings in the Pure Land all practice and learn together even as they dwell in different lands, different mental states.

In a similar way, we also live in different lands in our world. Some people live in what might be called the "Land of Ceaseless Craving" or the "Land of Recurring Anger." But others standing next to them could be living in the "Land of Compassion" or the "Land of Patience."

The land we live in, our mental state, is entirely up to us for it depends on our thoughts.

One day, a student asked the Buddha about the land he dwelled in. The Buddha touched the ground with his foot. When he did so, the student saw the land the Buddha dwelled in, a land very different from the student's. But although the two lands were different, the Buddha and the student were together in the same place and talking with one another.

It is our practice and subsequent level of meditative concentration that determine the "land" we are reborn into and dwell in, not the determination of someone else or of a societal system. As our meditative concentration becomes higher, our mental state becomes higher. And since our environment is a reflection of our thoughts (why the Buddha saw things differently from the student) as our thoughts attain higher levels, our land will change to reflect our thoughts.

Once we are in the Western Pure Land, regardless of our mental state, our land, we will continue to practice and to interact with and learn from Amitabha Buddha and all the bodhisattvas who also dwell in the Pure Land.

“[O]nce reborn there, living in an auspicious and peaceful environment, always in the company of Buddha Amitabha and the Bodhisattvas, the practitioner will swiftly achieve success in whatever Dharma method he chooses. He is like a log rolling down a high mountain, which just keeps going and never stops, even for a moment.

“In summary, Buddha Recitation is easy for three reasons: easy practice, easy achievement of rebirth in the Pure Land, easy attainment of Buddhahood. Therefore, the results achieved through Buddha Recitation from time immemorial can be compared to the clear and limpid sound of precious stones striking against genuine gold, or the sight of “smiling lotus blossoms with their fresh and fragrant grades of rebirth.” Within these levels and grades, the path from sentient being to Buddhahood contains many ranks, yet is also without rank.

“This is because, once reborn in the Pure Land, the practitioner has transcended Birth and Death—and to recite the Buddha’s name is to become Buddha. This is like the silkworm, the chrysalis and the butterfly, which are inseparable; there is very little difference between saying that a butterfly is originally a worm or that the worm is the butterfly.” (Seeker’s Glossary, p 618)