"Buddhist Nun!"

One day, when I was living in Singapore, I received a phone call saying my mother was having problems after some minor surgery. I went to my teacher, Ven. Master Chin Kung, and told him of this. He replied that I should quickly return to Dallas to look after her. In just a few days, I was back in Dallas with a box of chocolate as a gift from Teacher to my mother. I remained with her until she was fully recovered.

One day we went to La Madeleine, a wonderful restaurant we used to go to before I became a nun. As we were leaving, I noticed a woman looking at me, but only smiled as I walked past. My mother (much more talkative than I ;-)) was following me and I heard her say "Buddhist Nun!" Mom told me afterward the woman replied, "I thought so!" Mom and I used to joke that I should put a sign on my back: "Buddhist nun."

I remembered this incident while answering a letter from a gentleman who has just moved his elderly mother into his home so he can care for her. He is a Pure Land Buddhist. His mother is a Catholic. He wrote that she is reading some books on Buddhism and he was very happy with that. He added that with her Catholic upbringing and hearing problem, there would be some difficulties.

I wrote back saying the best way to teach his mother about Buddhism was to show her how it has made him a better and happier person. Her loss of hearing wouldn't keep her from seeing this. His being happier and more patient and caring will do more than a hundred books would do.

In other words, to introduce Buddhism to others, we first have to show how it has benefited us. If someone has themself not improved, it will be difficult to convince others that Buddhism makes people happier and less selfish. It was the changes in me that sold my mother on Buddhism. (Anything that made her younger daughter more patient had to be good. ;-))

In addition to telling people "Buddhist nun" when they looked at me quizzically, my mother could work "Buddhism is a teaching not a religion" into a conversation faster than anyone else I know. The incongruity of this statement coming from a spry eighty-plus year old white-haired lady with a New York accent always made people listen. My mother would then say a few more things about Buddhism, firmly planting a seed for the future, and move on to other topics.

As I have said: "A good teacher."

Weeding our Garden

Cultivate peace first

in the garden of your heart

by removing the weeds of

selfishness and jealousy,

greed and anger,

pride and ego.

Then all will benefit from your

peace and harmony.

In the Nick of Time

During this month's retreat at the Amitabha Buddhist Retreat Centre in Nanango, we were discussing how Buddhas and bodhisattvas come to this world to help us. They may come as ordinary beings to teach us through their behavior. They may come to help us by stopping us from making mistakes. They may come to show us what kindness really is. As ordinary beings they might be our neighbor, co-worker, family member, friend, or a stranger.

It is their basic goodness and their quality of seeming quite ordinary that helps us learn from them. It is their kindness and compassion that touches us. They may be high-level bodhisttvas well-advanced in their practice or they may be lower-level bodhisattvas working diligently on their practice.

I had ended by saying that not knowing whether the person we are regarding is a bodhisattva or simply an ordinary being like us, it behooves us to treat everyone as a bodhisattva.

I thought of this a few minutes ago in the kitchen of our dormitory. After several days of summerlike weather, Sunday brought a sudden return of cold weather with both rain and fog. Not having my winter clothing here, I wasn't that inclined to go out to the dining hall for dinner. Instead, I went to our kitchen to see if I could find something simple to heat up.

This is actually a risky undertaking because virtually all the food in our dorm comes from Taiwan or China. This is not the produced in China food that we see in the West with all the labeling written in English. The writing on these packages of food is all in Chinese. I was focusing on the pictures on the packages and looking for something that looked familiar.

I had pulled out one possible bag and was looking intently at it (apparently thinking that my concentration would enable me to miraculously read Chinese) when one of the nuns came into the kitchen. Seeing the bag in my hand, she laughed softly and said "No, that's from China." I immediately realized that what she graciously meant was that it was something from China that I would not like. I laughed with her and put the bag back, grateful once again that my brothers all know what I can and cannot eat.

My thoughtful brother then carefully examined the cabinet and pointed out two bags, one with an almond powder mixture and another with black bean powder, and while still softly laughing said I would enjoy those two together. I mixed them and of course, she was absolutely right, they were delicious.

As I said the other day, we just never know when a bodhisattva will come to help.

More Stubborn than the Proverbial Mule

As humans, we are so stubborn!

We put off doing something even though we know we always feel good doing it. Then, when we find ourselves having to do that something, having to do what we know is right, we again feel good. Just like we had remembered from before! While doing what was right, we felt like this was exactly where we were supposed to be, and we were doing exactly what we were supposed to be doing.

While engrossed in our activity, and for some time afterwards, we feel so happy for we did was truly important.

But what happens the next time we are supposed to do that activity? We hesitate! We look for excuses. We procrastinate until it is too late and the day is over.

As I said, we humans are very stubborn.

We find it so difficult to break our bad habits because it is so much easier not to do so. But break them we must.

Simple, But Not Easy

We do not need to wait for the big challenges in life to to work on developing our virtue. We can work at increasing virtue in small, everyday ways. We can practice moderation in eating just what we need to be healthy and in sleeping just enough to be rested. We can work on our patience while waiting in line at the post office and on our impartiality when two children are each telling us their version of how the glass was broken.

Gradually, we will become more adept at our practice and as we encounter life's more difficult challenges, we will be better skilled at reacting wisely and calmly.

I realize this sounds very simple and obvious, but unfortunately, even small acts of virtue require much effort on our part to accomplish them perfectly. So while this may sound simplistic and repetitive, the question we need to ask ourselves is "Am I doing this one-hundred percent of my time with one-hundred percent of my effort?"

If not, we still have room for improvement.