It is hard to be born into this world
and even harder to live the life of a human.
Yet it is harder still to hear of the path,
and even harder than this to awaken,
to rise and to follow the sacred way.
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Yet the teachings of the Awakend are simple:
"Cease to do evil, learn to do good, and purify your mind."
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Practice patience,
harm no one,
so say the Awakened Ones.
Profund liberation is the supreme goal.
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Offend no one
either by word, action or deed.
Eat with moderation,
live in your heart
and seek to know your mind.
Buddha, translated by Karma Yonten Senge
Commentary:
The teaching does seem quite simple. Especially the 'do good, not evil' part. The purifying of the mind is the real challenge, but if we can attain a pure mind, then everything else will be easy.
So how to achieve a pure mind? Practice, practice, practice. We must always be aware of the thoughts in our heads, and purge the negative ones. Purging the mind of thoughts all together, and achieving a blank/zero mind is the ultimate goal. This is hard to do without performing sitting meditation, but not impossible. When doing the dishes or picking up all 100 toy blocks (again and again), I try not to think about the drudgery of repeating the same mundane tasks over and over, when there are probably more 'meaningful' ways I could be spending my time. I just do it without thought. Life is meaningful now, because I am living it. No matter what actions I might currently be performing.
2 comments:
I like this one a lot. Thank you.
thanks - I like this one a lot too. Zen Buddhism has a tradition of koans which are riddles without logic, meant to make you think outside the normal constructs of the mind. But as I read more and more of them I am wondering if they don't just convolute Buddha's teachings. His own words are so simple and eloquent and easy to follow.
I may start posting a few of the koans next week. Let me know what you think of them.
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