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Discovering Compassion | Karma Karma | Moon Haiku | Zen Koan
Have Someone
Happy belated Valentine's Day! On the subject of love, I remember Dy remarking to me that "It is good to have someone, isn't it?" I know what she means, but that remark disturbed me somewhat. Only now, about a year later, did I realise that the idea of "having someone" is an illusion, in the sense that no one can have anyone, even if one holds another in his or her arms. This is simply because people change all the time, be it for better or for worse. True love is not a thing you can get, but a process of continually understanding another and continually meeting his or her needs for spiritual, and if needed, worldly betterment. If you think you "have" someone and will live happily ever after from this moment onwards, you are wrong. Love is not a prize to gain. Because you can't have anyone, you can only choose to love another person without conditions or attachment, and to learn to let this love grow to encompass more and more. Only then is the love true, spiritual and sacred. -shiqin
14/02/05 05:30 PM
The Question of Knowing
I don't know how he (any other person) knows about it, if he really knows or can know about it at all. What I can only know now is what I know. I also know that I have to be sincere to myself all the time, or I'll end up tricking myself every time. The more honest I am to myself, the more I know myself and the nature of what I really know. The path to the truth requires you to first be truthful to yourself. Only so can you see the truth of that beyond yourself. -stonepeace
14/02/05 02:30 PM
Withering Flowers
Was explaining to a friend that the offering of flowers upon a Buddhist shrine is not to beautify it, but to remind us of impermanence, so as to treasure our life which so fleetingly passes by. He sighed that he prefers not to offer flowers, because it saddens him greatly every time he clears them, since they wither so quickly. This reminded me that my explanation was half-complete - we should treasure our life... but without attachment. Exactly for the same reason - because it passes by so quickly. The Buddha had already made peace with the law of impermanence, and this making peace liberated him from all attachment, giving him ultimate freedom. It is us who have not made peace. Thus indeed are the offerings we make not really for the Buddha, but as reminder lessons of the Buddha for us. It seems that the more my friend rejects withering flowers, the more he probably should offer flowers on a regular basis... perhaps till he accepts them. -zeph
14/02/05 02:09 PM
Killing Flowers
I remember giving a temple tour. We came across the Bodhi Tree, a descendent of the original which the Buddha sat under to attain Enlightenment. I remarked that the Buddha was very ecologically conscious. In His time, He administered precepts to the Sangha not to break branches off trees and of the like. A participant of the tour later came up to me and asked why is it that Buddhists offer flowers so much, and how that seems to violate the Buddha's intention of protecting nature. I could only smile and reply, "You are right. I have never thought of this before." May we always choose to offer flowers for the right reason. May we always choose "not to offer flowers" for the right reason. I tend to be the latter.-zeph
14/02/05 02:06 PM
World at Your Feet
A friend came by my house and exclaimed that the view from the window was simply stupendous. He said that it gave him the feeling that he had conquered the world, that the world was at his feet. I find this interesting because I had the opposite feeling. The view makes me feel aloft from the world and worldliness. It gives me a feeling of detachment and liberation. One wants to own the world while another wants to be free of the world, to be free of wanting anything of the world. This view, is an arbitrary asymmetrical Rorschach test. In fact, everything we encounter in this world with our six senses is an inkblot test. You see what you are thinking and feeling, seldom what you are looking at. -shiqin
14/02/05 01:50 PM
Why "Mother" Sentient Beings?
It is customary in Tibetan Buddhism to address all sentient beings as "Mother sentient beings", since chances are that in the many rounds of rebirths, everyone had at some point been a loving Mother to us. Sometimes fellow Buddhists wonder why the emphasis is on seeing other beings as "Mothers", since chances seem equal too, that they could had been our harmful enemies in our past lives. Well, the reason is simple. Consider these two scenerios - in the first, everyone sees everyone as an "Enemy sentient being", and in the second, everyone sees everyone as a dear "Mother sentient being." What do you think the first scenerio will develop into? Lots of violence and hate probably. The second scenerio however, nurtures the growth of unconditional compassion and universal filial piety beyond one's present relations. Sentient beings are of empty and thus changing nature. They can be seen as of any relationship to us now or in the past. But one who is wise will choose to see them in the light most skillful for the betterment of oneself and the world. There is no other beneficial relationship more easily related to for the nurturing of compassion than that to one's loving Mother. How can you not care for an ant, which is your kind long-lost Mother? -zyrius
15/02/05 12:42 PM
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