Celebrating Vesakh Day
May 9th 2009:

To mother and the late father of mine
with Much Love, Metta and Mudita

"What the Buddha Said
about the Deep Kindness
of Parents
and the Difficulty of
Repaying It"

"If there were a person who carried his father on his left shoulder and his mother on his right shoulder until his bones were ground to powder by their weight as they bore through to the marrow, and if that person were to circumambulate Mount Sumeru for a hundred thousand kalpas until the blood that flowed out from his feet covered his ankles, that person would still not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.

If there were a person who, during the period of a kalpa fraught with famine and starvation, sliced the flesh off his own body to feed his parents and did this as many times as there are dust motes as he passed through hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.

If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, took a sharp knife and cut out his eyes and made an offering of them to the Tathagatas, and continued to do that for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.

If there were a person who, for the sake of his father and mother, used a sharp knife to cut out his heart and liver so that the blood flowed and covered the ground and if he continued in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, never complaining about the pain, that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.

If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, took a hundred thousand swords and stabbed his body with them all at once so that they entered one side and came out the other, and if he continued bin this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.

If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, beat his bones down to the marrow and continued in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.

If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, swallowed molten iron pellets and continued in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents."

(Excerpted from "Filial Piety Sutra")




picture source:

http://www.wpclipart.com/plants/Select_Photos/lotus_flower.png.html

Being needed by others
and having the ability to serve
is what makes our life
truly blessed





(Master Cheng Yen)

Sometimes




the best way
to hold onto something
is to let it go

Like a beautiful brightly colored flower

without fragrance

is the well-spoken word without action.

(The Dhammapada 4)

Just remember





there's a right way and a wrong way
to do everything.

And the wrong way is
to keep trying to make everybody else
do it the right way


(Colonel Potter)

Being Content

What is to be feared

The teachings of Buddhism

The teachings of Buddhism are entirely designed to help us to become happier and more contented people, by reducing those things in our lives, which cause us suffering [or cause suffering to others], by helping us to reflect more deeply upon the consequences of our actions, and by increasing those things that bring us happiness.

There is not really any ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in Buddhism; there are just actions that bring us greater happiness and those that bring us greater pain. To live skilfully, therefore, is to live in harmony with these principles. In general, it means to reduce our selfishness, to give more to others, to increase our happiness and to stop those things that harm self or others - to adopt a life of non-harming. Non-harming to self and all beings.

Peter Morrell

"A BUDDHIST VIEW OF ADDICTION"

Treating others well

is normally easy to do;

to do that under

difficult circumstances

takes true character

~ Master Cheng Yen~

(Sri Lanka)

Do not confuse

your vested interests with ethics.

Do not identify
the enemies of your privilege
with the enemies of humanity


(Max Lerner, "Actions and Passions"
1949)

Should a person do good,
Let him do it again and again;
Let him find pleasure therein,
For, blissful is the accumulation of good.

Dhammapada 118

The Metta Sutta



(Rajgir - India)

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:

Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties, and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
that the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.

Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near or far away,
Those born, and to be born,
May all beings live at ease!

Let none deceive another
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill will
Wish harm upon another.

Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity and vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

It's true
that we don't know
what we've got

until we lose it - - -

Hatred cannot be ceased
by hatred.
Only love and compassion
can end it.



(Po Lin temple - Lantau Island, Hong Kong)

There are too many things
in this world to be learned

and life is too short to learn everything.

So we should complete that which
we have begun rather than
dabbling in many things

(Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey)

Love and Kindness

By the accident of fortune
a man may rule the world for a time,
but by virtue of love and kindness
he may rule the world forever.



Lao Tzu

We often add to our pain
and suffering
by being overly sensitive,
over-reacting,
to minor things
and sometimes
taking things too personally





(HH The Dalai Lama)

Be proper and sincere

Regardless of how others malign us,
it is a chance to improve
our characters even more.

(Still Thoughts)

Conquering oneself