Path of Buddha

2 The Stupid Man Tries To Store Up Milk

Once there was a stupid man who was going to have some guests and decided to store up some milk for them. He thought, “If I milk the cow every day beforehand, there will be too much milk and not enough space to store it. It will probably spoil. It would be better to leave it in the cow. I’ll milk the cow right before the guests arrive.”

Then he separated the cow from its calf and tied them up. A month later, when he actually had the gathering, he tried to milk the cow, but found that the milk had run dry. Some guests scoffed at him and others laughed.

This is like stupid people who want to give alms all at once and say that they will wait until they possess great wealth. Usually, before they can accumulate enough money, it is seized by the government, lost in a fire or flood, or taken by robbers. Or else they may even die before they get around to giving. They are just like that stupid man who tried to store up milk.

My thoughts on this parable:

Start giving to those in need NOW, don't wait until you are rich materially or spiritually to accumulate the merits (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/merit.html) of giving.

 

3 The Pears and The Broken Head

Once there was a bald-headed man. When someone threw several pears at him, injuring his head, he stupidly remained silent and refused to get out of the way. Seeing this, the people said, “Why didn’t you get out of the way and thereby avoid injury to your head?”

The stupid man replied, “That person was just showing off his strength, but he was stupid and had no wisdom. He thought my bald-head was a rock!”

The people said, “You are the stupid one! How can you call him stupid? If you weren’t stupid, how could you have let him injure you and how could you have refused to get out of the way?”

This is like a Bhikshu who, unable to cultivate faith, precepts, learning, or wisdom, merely maintains an awesome appearance to attract support and offerings. Such a Bhikshu is like that stupid man who received blows on his head without running away and then called his attacker stupid.

My thoughts: Don't be a dirty minded, selfish, wisdomless, stupid fool who tries to impress people.

 

4 The Wife Plays Dead

Once there was a stupid man who was very much in love with his beautiful wife. She was unfaithful to him; however, and took a lover. Burning with deviant passion, she instructed an old woman, saying, “After I leave, put a dead woman’s corpse in my room and tell my husband I am dead.” The old woman waited until the husband was not at home and then placed a woman’s corpse inside the house. When he returned, she told him his wife was dead.

The husband saw the corpse and believed it to be his wife. He grieved and wept and prepared much firewood and oil for the cremation. He gathered the remains in a bag and carried them with him day and night.

The wife, meanwhile, grew tired of her lover and returned home, saying to her husband, “I am your wife.”

The husband replied, “My wife died long ago. Why do you falsely claim to be my wife?” He refused to believe her even after her repeated explanations.

This is like those of externalist ways who learn deviant teachings and whose minds give rise to delusion and attachment. They claim that the teachings are true and they refuse to change. Afterwards even when they hear the orthodox teaching, they do not believe, accept, or uphold it.

My thoughts: Stay true in all that you do. Don't put on a mask just to fit in or even worse to deceive others.

 

A neat Koi's Corner video ,

 

21 day offline guerilla warfare mission. My daily parable posts must end. Devaspeed gentlemen and ladies.

 

Mission called off. New objective of embracing love for self and others initiated!

Hmmm, a new approach for my daily accountability posts in this thread, yes. Ponder this matter I must. (No I did not relapse.)

 

Quotes from Dharma Masters I will post on the daily

'There aren't any problems that can't be solved in Buddhism.'

'With this body of yours, you ought to do some work and make a contribution to the world.'

 

'The ancient sages always blamed themselves. Modern people, however, look for faults in others instead of acknowledging their own faults.'

 

'When the Buddha spoke Dharma and taught people according to their needs, he was like a physician dispensing the right medicine to each patient. Therefore, one cannot say of any part of his teachings that they are right or wrong per se.'

 

'What are your treasures? They are your very own Treasury of the Tathagata. If you want to regain your Treasury of the Tathagata, you first have to protect your essence, energy, and spirit.'

 

'Tests

Everything is a test
to see what you will do.
Mistaking what’s before your face,
you’ll have to start anew.

Truly recognize your own faults.
Don’t talk about the faults of others.
Other’s faults are just my own.
Being of the same substance is called great compassion.'

 

"I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution, thousands or even
millions of young Americans wandering around with their rucksacks,
going up the mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men
glad ... Zen lunatics who go about writing poems."

- Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
The Dharma Bums, 1958, p.

 

'The mind of an enlightened human being is flexible and adaptable. The mind of the ignorant person is conditioned and fixed.'

 

"If we should be blessed by some great reward, such as fame or fortune, it's the fruit of a seed planted by us in the past." - Bodhidharma

 

This is from a talk from a Dharma Master with monks as the audience,

"In his quest for perfect wisdom, the Buddha dedicated his life to vigorous cultivation. How can we expect to achieve Buddhahood without exerting any effort at all? Having left the home-life, if we don’t cultivate seriously, how can we face Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and our ancestors? If we are greedy and contentious, pursue fame and profit, and become more and more selfish, how can we face our parents and ancestors? We should be considerate towards others and not just care about ourselves. We must muster our spirits and cultivate. We can’t put it off until tomorrow, for who knows when the ghost of impermanence will arrive? When he comes, we may want to live for a few more days, but it won’t be possible."

 

And you too.

I am tracking 90 days in my new journal before joining up with the Heirs. As illogical as that sounds.

 

"He sat there for forty-nine days, and then saw a star at midnight and awakened to the Way. He suddenly realized the original, pure, wonderfully bright, true mind which knows neither birth nor death, neither defilement nor purity, neither increase nor decrease."

Since Koi is probs the most accessible hombre to get people interested in Buddhism without scaring them off hahaha I will post a video alongside me daily quote

 

Article copied from http://www.cttbusa.org/talks_on_dharma/ultimate_bliss.htm:

The Land of Ultimate Bliss
Is Right Before Our Eyes

We only need persist in our vigor, and we can certainly go home

A talk given on the morning of June 14, 1958

"I am going home! My fields and gardens are choked with weeds. Why should I not return? My mind has been my body’s slave; how sad and lamentable! I realize that the past is gone, but I can certainly rectify what is to come. I have not actually strayed too far from the path. I have awakened to today’s rights and yesterday’s wrongs.”

These sentences were spoken by Mr. Woo (Tao Yuanming). But I don’t know whether at the time he spoke these words he had truly enlightened to their meaning, because, when regarded in the light of the Buddhadharma, these sentences tally with the ultimate principle.

What does “I am going home” mean? We know that the self-nature of the Dharma body comes forth from the constantly tranquil light of the Buddhas of the ten directions. The Sutras say, “All living beings have the Buddha nature.” Our basic nature is not different from, not distinct from, the Buddha. If it were not this way, then it could not be said that “all have the Buddha nature.” Now we are unable to understand and become enlightened to our self-nature because we are defiled and scattered by the five desires and the wearisome dust of the Saha world. We state of no emptiness and join the dust. Therefore we cannot awaken to our own minds and recognize our own basic natures.

But we certainly should not continue to be so submerged and upside-down. We should return to our source: we should turn our backs on the dust and unite with enlightenment. Therefore, the words “going home” remind us to return to our original face, to our original home. Also, perhaps, the words “going home” can mean we rely on the strength of a Buddha or Bodhisattva; by means of the merit of reciting that Buddha’s or Bodhisattva’s name, we can be born in the Pure Land.

After one has awakened to one’s own nature and been born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, one makes great vows to turn the boat of compassion around and come back to the Saha world to rescue living beings. This is what is meant by “coming back again.” In the line, “My fields and gardens are choked with weeds,” what do the “fields and gardens” refer to? “Fields” refer to the field of the mind.

The principle here is very obvious. We often use the phrase “suddenly clear away the underbrush” to refer to the gaining of new insight. If we do not cultivate the mind well, our minds become a thicket of scattered thoughts, just as fields and gardens become overgrown with grass and weeds if not tended. These scattered thoughts choke the good field of the mind. As long as you have not “cleared away the underbrush,” you cannot return to the source or understand your mind and see your nature.

“Why should I not return?” This sentence is a gentle remonstration by the Buddhas and sages of the ten directions. They say, “How pitiful and foolish living beings are! Why don’t they hurry up and turn their heads around to see the other shore?” “My mind has been my body’s slave.” This means that living beings are attached to an environment composed of the six defiling objects—the objects of the senses—and cannot awaken to their own minds. So they are continually being turned by defiling objects; they race about feeding themselves and are intent upon making a profit up to the moment that their bodies give out. We undergo numerous sufferings as we toss and turn in the bitter sea of birth and death. Myriad agonies well up, and the suffering is unspeakable. This is also what is meant by “how sad and lamentable!”

Are we living beings are beyond salvation? Must we wallow in the deep abyss of the turning wheel of the six paths forever? Absolutely not! Although we made mistakes in the past, there is still hope for the future. You should know that you “can certainly rectify what is to come.”

In the future, we absolutely will not turn our backs on enlightenment and join with the dust, as we did in the past. Nor will we let our minds be a slave to our bodies. Everything we did in the past, such as not believing in cause and effect, not cultivating diligently, and creating the karma of killing and other offenses, was wrong. Now today, we are in this session reciting the Bodhisattva’s name. This is what is right. So we should “awaken to today’s rights and yesterday’s wrongs.” We should carefully protect what is good and immediately and firmly reform of what is bad. An ancient author said, “An inch of time is worth an inch of gold.” Actually, in the eyes of a cultivator, an inch of time is worth an inch of life. It is just as if each passing moment shortened our life by an inch.

This day is already done.
Our lives are that much less.
We should be diligent and vigorous,,
As if our own heads were at stake...

If we wish to change our errors and tend towards the good, we should do so quicky! We “have not actually strayed too far from the path;” we can still reform. The Land of Ultimate Bliss is within sight! We only need persist in our vigor, and we can certainly “go home.”