A friend once asked me
to never forget her,
to remember to ‘save’ her,
to lead her to Pure Land,
should I reach there first.
I didn’t promise her
because me being mindful of her
cannot bring her to Pure Land,
while it is her mindfulness of Amituofo [Amitabha Buddha]
that can lead her to Pure Land.
Amituofo is already her best friend,
instead of me,
whether she knows this or not.
He already made unshakable vows to help all.
Who am I, an unenlightened fool to compare?
I might not reach there faster.
Please don’t place any ‘bets’ on me.
I won’t place ‘bets’ on her either.
Let us all just be mindful of Amituofo,
And he will do the rest!
(pic: http://cafepress.com/+amituofo_ringer_t,16932044)
Thank you for your update, Nowanden.
It is a little surprising to learn that Person B procrastinated ‘for no good reason’. We still don’t know what those reasons were.
But I’m happy to learn she has made up her mind. I hope she will benefit from group practice and not change from a person who craves for promises to another who craves for encouragement.
All the best, shiqin’s friend and Person B as named by nowanden. ^_^
PersonB had procrastinated for ‘no good reason’ because her reasons are bad ones as mentioned above:
A) ‘thinking needlessly in circles’
B) ‘complacence and laziness’
Let’s not make similar mistakes. With good enough practice, she will make it to Pure Land – just like all of us, if we practise well with right faith and aspiration too. May all begin to learn and practise well now. Na Mo A Mi Tuo Fo.
What were the deeper reasons and causes leading to her
A) ‘thinking needlessly in circles’
B) ‘complacence and laziness’
Again this is not posing a question to you. This is sharing a thought.
From PersonB: “I was thinking needlessly in circles because I was complacent and lazy. I was complacent and lazy because I was… whatever. I don’t care. Maybe I’m too ignorant to know why I was ignorant. We all are, or we would not be still unenlightened.
I remember the story by the Buddha of the man shot with an arrow, who insisted on knowing everything about the arrow before the arrow is removed. He would have died before all the answers came. The Dharma for removing the arrow of suffering is already here. Just use it. Life is short.
Thank you for all the concern but please don’t waste time like I did. Please don’t keep asking about me and discussing about me. I takes away readers’ precious time and life too. I find the attention uncomfortable because it’s in the wrong direction. Please put your attention on practising mindfulness of Amitabha Buddha instead, like I am doing. Life is too short for more nonsense about me. Please don’t think needlessly in circles about why I thought needlessly in circles. What matters is I broke free and so can you, if you are similar. If you have similar problems, please approach practice groups for advice. I can’t advise much.
Please don’t make the same mistakes as I did and do focus on diligent practice. I respectfully request that this thread of discussion be ended. Thank you.”
May all begin to learn and practise well NOW. Na Mo A Mi Tuo Fo.
Dear Person B,
This discussion should have ended long ago when I had asked the moderators to delete my comments very much early into the discussion. However, nothing happened and nowanden kept on commenting on my views with vigour.
Seriously this wasn’t about you per se. It was about the issue of craving for promise from others to deliver oneself to Pureland.
Nowanden should not have contacted the writer nor you, as it would naturally made the both of you feel uncomfortable.
Unfortunately there isn’t any private message for this blog or we could have communicated on a private basis than publish this for all to see.
I leave it to the moderators to decide about what to do with this thread.
Why write stuff that has to be deleted in the first place? This is not the first time, from observation. I would imagine moderators letting the discussion go on in case some read stuff that needed more clarifications. If ‘this discussion should have ended long ago’, why keep commenting on replies with greater vigour and length, which ask more questions that needed more replies? It takes at least two to keep a conversation going. The original post has always been about PersonB. Any digression is as it is, a digression. The people involved were contacted to avoid groundless, pointless and unfair speculation about them. Seeing this discussion helped PersonB to decide to join group practice though, and there was careful consideration before informing her. Private communication with PersonB is out of the question as she never wished for discussion on this though she appreciates the concern. Her only request is that readers focus on cultivation as individuals or in groups too. Her only fear is that anyone further digresses from the need for personal practice NOW. Na Mo A Mi Tuo Fo.
I leave it to the moderators to decide about what to do with this thread too.
This discussion thread is hereby closed as per PersonB’s final request.