Open your mind numbskull. What are you doing to help the people that had all your suffering? Do you give your time at that kids home that helped you when you were a kid? Or does Grace with all her extra time and money not have time for them - screw em right - if they are worth saving they will pull themselves up eh? The suffering will make them better people - all kids need a dad that tries to kill them to build character right - you are damaged.
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Monday, April 11, 2005
Once Upon a Time
Let me tell you a story about a great man who lived 2,500 or so years ago. He was born to a loving mother and father in a family that held considerable power and wealth. His mother passed away soon after his birth, but his step-mother/aunt continued to care for him as if he was her own son. He grew up with all his needs taken care of. People fed him, clothed him, stimulated his mind, encouraged him to seek righteousness and truth (as they understood it, of course), and gave him lots of love. Eventually, a marriage was arranged for him to a beautiful and loving woman, and she bore him a son. As a member of the royal family, he existed literally on the work and generosity and love of the entire nation. Everything he had and was, he received from others.
As an adult, he wished to understand life beyond the simple fulfillment of his own desires. Venturing forth, he learned from the life of commoners the truths of old age, sickness, and death, and from a wandering mendicant he learned of the age-old path of spiritual pursuit. His mind was opened to the suffering of other people, and suddenly all he could think of was how to end this suffering, for himself and all others. He left the palace, and was borne away by his faithful steed and horseman, till he crossed a river and left the world behind.
For six years he wandered from place to place, learning from others. He learned how to fast, how to meditate, how to mortify the flesh. He strove mightily to achieve his own enlightenment for himself, to understand the Self (atman), which was the highest spiritual pursuit in ancient India and believed to be the path to release. Finally, as his body wasted away to nothing and his efforts proved fruitless, he gave up his attachment to ascetism and self-power.
Siddhartha went down to the stream and bathed. Its flowing waters cleansed and supported him, and as he bathed, a young untouchable girl gave him a meal. The food nourished and restored him, and with a mind of gratitude he walked through the forest. A young untouchable boy appeared and offered him fresh grass for a meditation seat, and sitting down beneath the sheltering branches of a Bo tree, he relaxed back into an easy and natural meditation. Now that he had stopped trying to win enlightenment through extreme effort, his mind was clear and he began to see into the nature of all things. He saw how in innumerable past existences he had traveled toward this moment, supported by the work and kindness of others, and learning to perfect the paramitas by helping them in turn. He saw into the emptiness of all things, their interdependent co-arising, and saw that there was in fact no self after all. A rainstorm arose, and the Naga King spread his hood to protect the seated figure. Mara appeared to challenge Siddhartha, and the meditator bent and touched the earth. Mother Earth trembled and sprang up, wringing out her hair and washing Mara away. The BUDDHA sat serenely, his eye on the rising morning star.
The BUDDHA became the BUDDHA because of his father and mother, because of his courtiers and the peasants in the fields, because of the horse that he rode to the forest, the sages who encouraged his pursuits, the ascetics who showed him that mortification isn't the answer, the stream that bathed him, the girl who fed him and the food, the boy and the grass, the tree, the SNAKE, and the earth, because of the star that rose and shone just-as-it-is, because of the air that Siddhartha breathed as he sat there, the moon which exerted a gravitational pull on the oceans and thereby churned up the first particles that became life in the first place, because of the sun that provided him heat and nourished the plants he ate, everything everywhere came together to produce the BUDDHA. And most of all, the BUDDHA became the BUDDHA because he was already one with enlightenment to begin with, as are all things--he only discovered what had been the true state of himself and all things all along: vast emptiness, nothing holy.
The BUDDHA did not discover something special about himself. He did not become something different from other things or people. He awakened to the true nature of all things (himself included) as liberated suchness. This awakening came after he had been supported in innummerable ways by countless beings and conditions, and after he had ceased to strive after enlightenment and relaxed back into his natural state. "To study the BUDDHA way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the 'self.' To forget the 'self' is to be enlightened by the 10,000 things." (Dogen)
I'm not saying that he put out no effort. But effort is empty and arises interdependently from the contingency of all things. He could only put out "his" effort after and while being supported by the entire universe. Likewise, today our own efforts toward awakening can only take place within an infinite matrix of supportive actions by others. How lucky we are to live in such an open-ended universe, where we can receive what we need from others and contribute toward the happiness and awakening of one another. |
