Once upon a time, the Buddha was born as a crow. He grew up, and became king of eighty thousand crows. He had a chief mate, crowned as crow queen and also had a chief captain crow. One day he and his mate in search of food passed over the king’s kitchen.
There was a village close by a great river and great lake. When water was abundant, river and lake were one. When water was scarce, they were apart. Instinctively, the fish and tortoises seemed to know when the season would be rainy or when there would be a drought. Once they knew that a drought was forth coming, when the river and lake were one they swam out from the lake to the river. However, one tortoise refused to follow along, proclaiming: “here I was born and grown up; here’s my ancestral home; leave it I shall not!” This anecdote was brought up during last week’s Earth Store sutra lecture. Unfortunately, the whole lecture was not recorded because he experienced some technical difficulties. It’s about a story of the life of the Buddha which generated a lot of controversy. We thought the lesson was important enough to reiterate here.
The topic of gratitude came up in one of our sutra class discussions. As an immigrant, I too greatly benefitted from the kindness of this great country. The generosity ranges from free ESL classes to subsidized job training, rental allowances to transportation subsidies, etc …
During the past six years of teaching Chan and Pure Land, I’ve noticed that there are four kinds of people that come to us:
The Tibetans have a pretty good understanding on how to deal with death. I would like to offer a brief talk on the Mahayana perspective on death.
What Is Death? In Buddhism, death occurs when the life force is cut off. Life force (Chinese: mìng gen 命根; Vietnamese: mệnh căn) has three components:
Confucius, the great Chinese sage said: “Great men, 1) when rich, do not indulge in sex; 2) when poor, do not move; 3) when threatened, do not submit.”
Guan Yin Bodhisattva is the enlightened being who symbolizes Great Compassion. She uses her spiritual powers to rescue living beings of the ten directions. She uses her Heavenly Ear to listen to requests for help and then her spiritual penetrations to go everywhere in the Dharma Realm to respond those supplicants.
To be in a state of happiness you must learn to be happy with yourself and live so that others are also happy with you. Seekers of happiness should therefore live their life according to the six worthy ways:
What is a Good Knowing Advisor? Why is the ability to recognize GKAs important? How Does One Recognize a GKA? The term, good knowing advisor (GKA) comes from the Chinese 善知識 (shàn zhi shì). When I first started teaching, I abbreviated it to wise advisor but later reverted back to GKA because it is more appropriate. Manjushri, the wisest of all the Bodhisattvas, advocated practicing the Pure Land Dharma and vowed to be reborn to the Western Bliss Pure Land: “I vow at the end of my life, to extinguish all my afflictions, see Amitabha [come greet me], and be reborn to the Pure Land.”
Illness is part of life. From the Buddhist perspective, our bodies are impermanent.
From the perspective of cause and effect, illnesses are retributions for prior offenses. Illnesses are a form of debt settlement... Long ago, a young prince, who was in his twenties, succeeded his father to the throne of the empire. The new emperor highly valued wisdom. He understood the importance of using wisdom to rule his people. Therefore he instructed his faithful teacher to travel the world over to bring back the best of all the other cultures’ teachings.
Newcomers to our lectures invariably ask: “What is the difference between Hinayana (Small Vehicle) and Mahayana (Big Vehicle) Buddhism?”
Buddhism in general is about developing wisdom through lifestyle choices. The Hinayana practitioner awakens to one’s OWN suffering and chooses to end it by developing the Sage’s wisdom (called Fourth Stage Arhat). This month is the month of Thanksgiving in the United States of America. It is the time when most of its residents, whose ancestors were immigrants, get together to celebrate and express gratitude for the many gifts bestowed upon them.
There are three overlapping aspects of healing:
The Asian culture has innumerable stories of responses from reciting the Buddha’s name. Below is such a story.
Most Asian Buddhist practitioners are quite familiar with the Buddha’s name recitation method. Many already recite the (Amitabha) Buddha’s name. The Asian culture has innumerable stories of responses from reciting the Buddha’s name. Below is such a story. Until we are reborn to the Pure Lands, how do we address our current life’s problems, like sicknesses, disasters, seeking a son or daughter, seeking wealth and good health, etc.?
The Other Often Neglected Buddha Who else? That’s Akshobya Buddha or more commonly known as Medicine Master Buddha of the Eastern Vaidurya Pure Land. |
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