Finding Our Path

I periodically am asked to respond to letters similar to the one that asked the questions below. The inmates I correspond with encounter many obstacles to their practice. But they understand "suffering." And so they persevere.  

Question: I am currently an inmate in a prison. I don't know anyone here who is even remotely interested in Buddhism. I would like to learn and practice on my own but don't know how to. Suggestions? 

Response: It is natural for us to initially read about Buddhism in a general sense and then at some point feel that we want to start to narrow our focus. This next step would seem much more difficult for you since you cannot go into a bookstore and see what looks good or meet with a group.

But regardless of where we are, our conditions were created by ourselves dues to our past thoughts, speech, and actions. Someone may live around a corner from a bookstore with an excellent Buddhist selection or drive by a Buddhist center every day, but if he or she has not planted the right seed they’ll never notice the Buddhist aisle of the bookstore or walk into the center.

If we are fortunate, we will have planted enough seeds in earlier lifetimes to find the right method and teacher for us. If this happens, we will intuitively know what is right for us and we will feel as if we have "come home." We will find the answer through asking which one “feels” best? Which are we drawn to? Which keeps popping up in front of us? Which writer’s or master’s work seems to resonate best with us? Which teachings feel most comfortable?

How Siddhartha Could Leave Yasodhara

Imagine you are in a house with the person you love more than anyone else in the world. Your newborn child is with you. The person you love has an illness that is not yet serious, but which in time will kill him or her. You know that at some time your child will succumb to the same illness.

You are sure there is a cure for the illness, but you are not sure exactly what it is or how to find it. If you stay in the house, you know you will have to watch helplessly as the person you love slowly dies of the illness. You know that your child and everyone else in the house will also die if you remain there.

But if you leave this person and your child with the other people in the house who will lovingly care for them, and you go to find the medicine, you will do even more than end this terrible illness. You will provide them with a way to live without ever being ill again, without ever suffering again.

What would you do?

Stay and watch everyone you love suffer?

Or go find the medicine.

A Parable: Birth and Death

Once the Chinese Emperor Mu Chung of the Tang dynasty, impressed by the level of cultivation of National Master Wu Yeh invited him to come for an audience. To just about any subject, this would have been an overwhelming honor. However, the master kept refusing because he did not want to be disturbed by worldly matters.

So the emperor told his envoy, “If you cannot persuade Master Wu Yeh to come, you will have to forfeit your life.” The envoy sought out the master and tearfully asked for his cooperation. The monk, unable to refuse the request at this point, said, “All right, I will go.”

So he gathered the whole assembly and asked his followers, “Who would like to join me for an audience with the emperor?”

When a disciple raised his hand, the master asked, “How many miles can you travel in one day?” The disciple answered, “Fifty.” The monk said, “That’s not good enough.”

A second disciple was asked the same question and said, “Sixty-five,” to which the monk replied again, “That’s not good enough.”

A third disciple said, “Seventy miles,” and for the third time, the monk said, “That’s not good enough.”

Then a young monk raised his hand and said, “I will go wherever you go, Master.”

So the Master did his ablutions, then went back and sat on his elevated seat, entered Samadhi and expired on the spot, in a seated position.

The young monk, seeing that, said, “Oh, Master, you have gone. Let me go too.” And he expired standing.

This anecdote illustrates that truly accomplished monks are free of mundane preoccupations – beyond the ken of ordinary people, beyond Birth and Death.

~ Seeker’s Glossary of Buddhism, Sutra Translation Committee, Second edition, pg. 552

I Object to Violence

Mahatma Gandhi said "I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary. The evil it does is permanent."

Violence never solves the problem, regardless of how justified it seems to be at the time.

Imagine what the world would be like if the five most prosperous countries had been spending what they have on their military on building schools and hospitals instead.  

Imagine what your city or town would be like if most of your tax dollars went to educating the young and helping the ill.

Imagine what your family would be like if you never again raised your voice in anger but spoke and acted out of love and respect. 

Imagine how you would feel if you never again lost your temper. 

"I object to violence
because when it appears to do good,
the good is only temporary.
The evil it does is permanent."

The thought of "No Thought"

Ignorance is still a form of thought. You still have the thought of “no thought” even though you do not have wandering thoughts. “Free of thoughts” means “no wandering thoughts.” In Mahayana Buddhism, it is referred to as “having correct thought.” But if you still have the discrimination of “correct thought” and are still attached to “correct thought,” then the “correct thought” becomes a wandering thought. This is not easy to understand.

What exactly is no wandering thoughts? What is correct thought? Having no wandering thoughts is being free of all wandering thoughts, all discriminations, and all attachments. Correct thought is a clear and correct understanding of all principles and matters, causes and results, and the noumenon of anything and its phenomenal expressions. Therefore, in correct thought, there is wisdom, and there are virtues and capabilities, and auspicious marks. In correct thought, there are no wandering thoughts, discriminations, and attachments.

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