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Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: alan w who wrote (34738)	3/28/2003 1:36:57 AM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 39621

U2.... OMG , it's the weekend already ?LOL... time flys ... ;-)

To: alan w who wrote (34738)	3/28/2003 3:23:41 AM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 39621

A good teacher is better than the most sacred books. Books contain words, and grace cannot be transmitted by mere words. I suppose you will think, "Well, if this old man says that words are useless why does he talk so much?" Religion has many mysteries and why teachers say that words can never suffice and then talk and talk until their students' ears turn to stone is perhaps the greatest mystery of them all. ;) The Buddha's Flower Sermon The Buddha stood beside a lake on Mount Grdhakuta and prepared to give a sermon to his disciples who were gathering there to hear him speak. As the Holy One waited for his students to settle down, he noticed a golden lotus blooming in the muddy water nearby. He pulled the plant out of the water- flower, long stem, and root. Then he held it up high for all his students to see. For a long time he stood there, saying nothing, just holding up the lotus and looking into the blank faces of his audience. Suddenly his disciple, Mahakashyapa, smiled. He understood! What did Mahakashyapa understand? Everybody wants to know. For centuries everybody's been asking, "What message did the Buddha give to his disciple Mahakashyapa?" Some people say that the root, stem, and flower represented the Three Worlds: underworld, earth, and sky, and that the Buddha was saying that he could hold all existence in the palm of his hand. Maybe. Some people say he was reversing the Great Mantra, "Mani Padme hum" The Jewel is in the Lotus. When the Buddha held the flower in his hand, the Lotus was in the Jewel. Hmmm. Some people say that the root, stem, and flower stood for the base, spine, and thousand-petaled lotus crown of the Chakra Yoga system and that by raising the plant he was advocating that discipline. Other people say it could just as easily indicate a result of that discipline, the Trinitarian fulfillment: as the Buddha was Father and Mother, he was also Son- the Lotus Born and Lotus Holding Maitreya, Future Buddha, the Julai. That's certainly something to think about! In Chan we're not sure of too many things. We only really know one: Enlightenment doesn t come with a dictionary! The bridge to Nirvana is not composed of phrases. As old Master Lao Zi wrote, "The righteous path that we can talk about is not the path we mean." So the Buddha spoke in silence, but what did he say. Perhaps he was saying, "From out of the muck of Samsara (illusory intransient world) the Lotus rises pure and undefiled. Transcend ego-consciousness! Become as the perfection , as is the flower !" ** There! The Buddha gave a lecture and nobody had to take any notes. And 500yrs later this same quotation remarkably comes out of the lips of Jesus "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; They toil not, neither do they spin; And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. " * just another small coincidence of The Buddha setting an example and teaching that miraculously comes up 500yrs later in the Gospels of Jesus ...and like the miracle of walking on the water . Funny isn't it ?