The Best Learning Environment

Because we have cultivated good roots and formed Dharma relationships in past lifetimes, we are able to encounter Buddhism, especially Mahayana Buddhism, and to learn together in this lifetime. We need to practice according to the teachings. The most important thing in doing this is to put aside one’s own personal opinions.

I often teach people to put aside their views about life and the universe, and their thoughts, speech, and behavior toward all beings. Why? Because these are all wrong. If we do not put aside these mistakes, we will fail in our attempt to emulate Buddhas and bodhisattvas. If we put aside all these mistakes, we will succeed in emulating them.

Today we have afflictions and residual habits within us. We all admit this fact. Indeed, we have many karmic obstacles. The power of temptations is very strong. In Buddhism, temptation is called mara, or more specifically, deva-mara. Deva-mara refers to the temptations of all worldly pleasures, prestige, and wealth. It is hard to succeed in cultivation today. If for one moment we are not careful, we will forget our aspirations. This is the reason why there are many Buddhist practitioners but few succeed in their cultivation.

Because of this reason, the Buddha introduced to us a place that provides the best learning environment—the Land of Ultimate Bliss. When we are in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, it does not matter that we have many afflictions and residual habits within us because the external environment will not cause those afflictions and residual habits to arise. In that world, we “can be together with all these Beings of Superior Goodness.”

In this world, it is hard to hear and learn the Dharma. In the Land of Ultimate Bliss, Amitabha Buddha and great bodhisattvas lecture on the Dharma continuously, so that we will be able to study and practice continuously. Whichever Dharma door we want to learn, there will always be bodhisattvas to teach us. The learning environment is truly wonderful there.

But in this world, it is hard to find a good teacher and a good learning environment. In addition, there are many unexpected obstacles blocking us from learning and making progress. Therefore, the Buddha urged us to go to another learning environment—the Land of Ultimate Bliss. Is it difficult to attain rebirth there? It is not difficult, but it is not easy either. We must have three requisites: good roots, good fortune, and favorable conditions.

Having good roots means that we have firm belief and firm vows. We have firm belief when we do not have the slightest doubt about the Pure Land teachings. We have firm vows when our one and only wish is to attain rebirth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, and we let go of everything in this world except this wish. We must have these two conditions to be considered as having good roots.

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

Oops! That's Not What I Meant!

The other day, I wrote about being mindful of what we think. Today it's what we say.

Last night, one of my brothers (we call our fellow nuns, not just monks, brothers) and I went on a last minute errand to the office supply store. We needed to get something for the office here at the Pure Land Learning College in Toowoomba. This is a dangerous place for both Venerable Wu Chin and I because while nuns don't do much "shopping," both my brother and I are unusually fond of pens and pads. It must be the colors. (What can I say—it's hard to eradicate ALL of one’s attachments!)

Since we were there, and knowing I don't like to go shopping, my brother thoughtfully suggested I look around to see if there was anything I needed. I quickly got some pads and pens (honestly, I'm hopeless) and a few other things and we went to check out.

The checker asked if I wanted a bag. I don't like to use plastic bags and while I carry a fold up shopping bag in the regular bag I carry when going out, I felt it wasn't necessary. I replied that I didn't need a plastic shopping bag and concluded with "I'm used to putting things in my bag."

Oops.

Realizing that hadn't come out quite as I had intended. I quickly added "After I pay for them!"

Sigh...

We really do need to be careful of what we say...

Shoot Me First

I've been doing a lot of editing in the last few days and am now working on Teacher's address that he gave at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in October 2006. He was talking about Chinese education and the importance the Chinese placed on "benevolence and justice, love, and supreme harmony." When I came to that line, I remembered something that happened in the US almost at the same time Teacher was giving his talk.

It began with one of those senseless acts, when a person is in so much pain that the suffering overwhelms him and he lashes out at the most innocent beings he can find.

In a Lancaster County schoolhouse in Pennsylvania, a man entered an Amish school and bound several girls. One of the girls, thirteen-year-old Marian Fisher, realizing what the gunman was going to do and trying to save the younger girls in the room said "Shoot me first."

Then Barbie, her eleven-year-old sister, said, "Shoot me second."

Barbie survived. As did four other girls.

Five girls died: Naomi Rose Ebersole, 7; sisters Mary Liz Miller, 8, and Lena Miller, 7; and Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12.

And Marian Fisher.

Benevolence and love and supreme harmony. They are possible in our world. But to such a degree, I'd say they are rare. And yet they existed, surely in pure perfection, in two young Amish girls. To have such love for another human being to be able to quietly say:

"Shoot me first."

"Shoot me second."

But How can We Tell?

Question: How can we know if we are practicing properly?

Response: We know if our behavior begins to improve even just a bit. How? We might find ourselves reacting more calmly. Instead of becoming frustrated with the person at work who always gives us a hard time, we might find ourselves wondering why he does so. And wondering if he’s unhappy about something. Or worried. Or afraid.

When something occurs that previously would have had us angrily voicing our frustration, we might find ourselves wondering if we could have contributed to the situation. Did we do something that frustrated the other person in the past? Perhaps instead of quietly pointing out something they had done wrong, we blurted it out and embarrassed them in front of other people.

It's not uncommon to feel that we may not be making any progress. But others notice a difference and comment on it. They may say that we're more patient and less irritable. That we seem more considerate, less hurried when we do things.

We know we are practicing properly if we just feel happy when chanting. We look at the Buddha or bodhisattva image and just feel good. We feel that this chanting is the most important thing to be doing, that this is one time we don't need to worry about doing anything else.

And we smile.

You Just Never Know

Sometimes, okay often, it feels that as individuals we don't have the power to make a difference. We try to do what is right, and that feels good, but is it really helping? Really changing a negative situation for the better?

On September 17th in New York City on a busy street with much traffic, a black Mercedes suddenly veered to the left. The problem was that there was a bicyclist directly to the left of the car. The bicyclist quickly tried to avoid being crushed by tapping on the car's window to let the driver know he was there. The driver rolled down his window not to see what was wrong, but to swear at the bicyclist and to tell him to stop touching the car.

There ensued a conversation between the driver and bicyclist, then the car pulled away. However the car had special plates indicating the car belonged to a New York State Senator. The bicyclist caught up with the car at the next stoplight and tapped on the window—more tentatively this time—and asked the driver his name. The driver replied he was Senator Jeff Klein.

Now it might have ended there except for one thing: the bicyclist is a well-known blogger and something of a local celebrity. Colin Beavan is known to many of us as "No Impact Man." He and his family have reshaped their lives to lessen their impact on our planet, and Colin writes about their year-long experiment in simple living and related issues. He is an articulate writer and a concerned citizen. And his blog is read by many people.

Colin, a board member of Transportation Alternatives, wrote a letter to the senator requesting a meeting to discuss how to make roads safer for bicyclists and the environment better for all New York City citizens. It was a polite letter, not an angry one. But to try to encourage the senator to meet with him, Colin asked his readers to please contact the senator by phone or email to express the wish that the meeting would be held.

That afternoon Colin received a phone call from the senator's office to set up the meeting and to ask if the phone calls and emails could be stopped. It seems many of us wrote and called, and the senator's staff was a bit overwhelmed.

Lesson One: Well the obvious one is that if you have vanity plates on your car, you need to drive more thoughtfully. Especially when you're a public servant, like a state senator. 

Lesson Two: Think twice before being rude to others, if for no other reason than you don't know what you could be getting yourself into. That innocuous-looking guy riding a bicycle and wearing a purple helmet might be someone important. And with influence of his own.

Lesson Two-and-a-half: Think twice before being rude to others because everyone is important!

Lesson Three: Think before you act. Period.

It's so easy to live in own little world, unaware of what is happening around us, unaware of the harm we are about to do. We get caught up in our perceived self-importance and forget the other person is just as important as we are.

Lesson Four: Caring to help another do what is right has the potential to make a difference. The opportunity to help presented itself, and many people accorded by responding. One person acting alone would probably not have gotten an appointment. Many people coming together to support that one person made a difference.