Buddhist Belief Blog

Over the past week or so I’ve been fighting a virus I picked up somewhere which has settled in my lungs. As many of you are aware, my lungs are already weakened because of a lung disease so this has hit me rather hard. Coming up with something for this Buddhist Belief blog today is proving to be a bit of a challenge. So, to get my “muse” started it will probably be best if I just write about an old Buddhist story I heard many years ago. I’ve always liked this story. I don’t recall exactly where I heard it for the first time, but when I begin to think about it I seem to get a mental picture of one of the monks I knew in Vermont so many years ago when I was first starting out with my studies. Perhaps that is where I first heard this. I hope you get as much out of it as I did. If any of you already know the story and my paraphrasing falls a bit short of complete accuracy, please try to overlook. Sometimes, memory fails me a bit at this age.

Early one morning ages ago, in a small village in the Far East, hundreds of men, women and children were gathering along the sides of a narrow dirt road which led through their town. The villagers were carrying baskets of flowers, a variety of fresh fruits, baskets full of rice and many other types of offerings. They carried drums and makeshift horns. As the sun began to rise in the East, all the villagers turned toward the sun and kept looking up the road hoping to either hear footsteps approaching or to catch sight of the expected visitor. You see, they all knew the Enlightened One was due to arrive in their village that same morning.

It wasn’t long before the sun began to lift from the horizon into a beautiful cloudless sky when they caught the first glimpse of the wandering monk. Once they all saw him, the villagers began to make a great noise by banging on their drums and blowing their horns. The children were jumping up and down and dancing with great energy. The parents and other adults were all cheering and weeping for joy.

There was a young man who lived in the village who was not at all spiritual or religious and thought all the carrying on for a wandering monk was rather silly and even looked upon it with great humor. That same morning, he decided to go down to the road where the villagers were joyfully celebrating the arrival of the visiting Enlightened One. He had trouble pushing through the crowds of adults and children so he could get to a place where he could see the monk approach. He did finally find a place close to the side of the road where he could see. As the monk came closer he could see he looked like any other simple monk, although it was difficult to see the monk’s robes and sandals as they were nearly obscured by all the fruit, rice and flower petals the villagers were tossing into the sky ahead of the monk’s path.

As the young man watched the monk approach he began to have some strange feelings happening within him. He no longer felt the humor he felt in the past about this event. He no long felt all this carrying on by the villagers was just a lot of silly nonsense. He began to feel very emotional – almost to the point of tears. He couldn’t imagine what was causing him to feel this way, but it was something he couldn’t seem to control.

He noticed a little girl standing near him holding a small bouquet of wildflowers. He dug into all his pockets to find whatever coins he had with him and offered them all to the girl in exchange for her bouquet of wildflowers. She gave the young man a rather strange look, but as she looked into his eyes she smiled broadly and gave him her bouquet. She ran back to her parents laughing and jumping up and down without taking any of the young man’s money.

The young man, overcome with a feeling he could not understand, ran into the road directly in front of the Enlightened traveler and threw the bouquet of flowers at his feet. However, like a miracle, the flowers never hit the ground, but rather just floated in the air in front of the monk. The wandering monk looked up as if from a trance and gazed piercingly into the eyes of the young man.

It is said that this was the moment the young man became a Buddha – the first time in his life he stepped upon the spiritual path. It was at this moment when he first recognized what Enlightenment truly meant and when the Enlightened wandering monk looked into his eyes, he knew it was time to begin his own evolution to Buddhahood.

This story holds a great truth for all spiritual seekers. There will come a time in some lifetime of ours when we will decide to seek enlightenment. Then, in some later lifetime, the moment will come when we will attain it. It could be in this lifetime. We will be learning how we can become like the young man spontaneously tossing a bouquet of flowers in front of the Enlightened Teacher and who can then learn how to also become the teacher where flowers tossed in your path will never touch the ground.

What is it we need to learn to cause us to give up on all our attachments, to learn to be in control of our ego-mind and to find our way to the light? How will you know if this is that lifetime for you?

One thing to learn is that it has nothing to do with knowing – it is about deciding! Once you have decided – This Will Be the Lifetime for Me to become Free – you will find the way and you will follow that way with every part of your mind, body and soul until freedom is yours.

One of the hurdles many of us face with this is we don’t get around to it until we’re getting to be too old to find the time to learn all the things we need in order to reach our goal. When we’re young, we’re too entertained by worldly pursuits and pleasures to get interested enough. Buddha has always taught that any of us can achieve our freedom in any lifetime.

Why not make this lifetime, now, the one lifetime when, after thousands of years of seeking, you finally become free? It is possible to find peace and serenity, but not be free. However, once you are free, peace and serenity are also achieved. Freedom requires an intensity, passion and sense of urgency that most spiritual seekers do not learn to cultivate—although anyone interested enough can.

Are you interested?

Metta ….May I be well and happy. My I live in safety. May I be healthy and strong. May I live with ease. May all beings be well and happy. May all beings live in safety. May all beings be healthy and strong. May all beings live with ease.

Namaste — Be in Peace.

Ron Rink

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Just click the links that are sort of Grey in color to take you to where you can learn more about each book and how you can purchase a copy for your own library.

Stephanie Kaza — Hooked!: Buddhist Writings on Greed, Desire, and the Urge to Consume

Stephanie Kaza, an amazing writer and Buddhist teacher I knew from my 36 years living in Vermont, gathers key Buddhist thinkers to reflect upon aspects of consumerism, greed and economics. Certainly, many other authors have examined consumerism from the lens of their religious traditions, but this book’s Buddhist perspective is unusual, and its pairing of consumerist critiques with core Buddhist concepts is generally fruitful. Check this one out! Hooked!

Stephanie Kaza — Mindfully Green: A Personal and Spiritual Guide to Whole Earth Thinking

Another one from my Vermont friend — Stephanie Kaza, a biologist and professor of Environmental Studies at University of Vermont, combines Zen Buddhist practices and teachings with her 40 years as an environmentalist for this guide to enlightened environmentalism, proposing a belief in the interdependence of people and nature as the genuine way to “go green”: “When we come to see ourselves as part of the green web of life… we are naturally drawn to respond with compassion.” A good read for Buddhists or anyone from any religion. Mindfully Green

Anam Thubten — No Self – No Problem

No Self – No Problem
shows how to realize the ultimate meaning of life in each moment by dissolving all notions of ego-identity. It asks that spiritual seekers wake up to their true nature, which is already enlightened. Based on Buddhist wisdom traditions, this easy-to-read book discusses in simple, but profound and inspiring language, how we can live a life full of love, satisfaction, and happiness. No Self – No Problem

Sharon Salzberg — The Kindness Handbook

“It takes boldness, even audacity, to step out of our habitual patterns and experiment with a quality like kindness–to work with it and see just how it might shift and open up our lives. This book is an invitation to do just that. — From The Kindness Handbook