Mind at Ease - A Lesson in Buddhism

As I study Buddhism in its several faces, I am constantly in wonder at how simple the concepts are and how difficult it is to embrace the concept and put it to full practice in one’s life.

This simple story will explain what I mean.  It is called “Mind At Ease”, and talks about how we can put our heart at ease.  Does this seem contrary to the title?  Well, Buddhism is a series of koans.  A koan is a paradoxical anecdote or a riddle that has no solution; used in Zen Buddhism to show the inadequacy of logical reasoning.  This definition comes from wordnetweb.princeton.edu. So, here is the story!

                                                   

Sometimes, trying to understand a koan is like trying to catch the Sun! Picture from Microsoft Clip Art

 

 

 

Mind At Ease

It was a dark, snowy and windy night. Hui Ko, the Second Patriarch of Zen Sect in China, went to see Master Bodhidharma. 

Hui Ko asked, "Could you please teach me the supreme Buddhist Dharma?" 

The Master said, "You can't learn the Dharma from others." 

Hui Ko said, "I have trying to search for Dharma myself, but in vain. My heart is unsettled. My mind is ill-at-ease. Master, please pacify my heart for me." 

The Master replied, "Give me your heart and I'll try to calm it down for you." 

After pondering for a long time, Hui Ko said, "I have been searching for my heart, but I cannot find it." 

Bodhidharma said instantly, "Now, I have comforted your heart already." 

Hui Ko was enlightened all of a sudden. It is impossible to show the heart as its existence is only an illusion. The whole process of the creation and cessation of the heart, or the mind, is also an illusion. 

When we are void of the illusion, the 'heart' is not there at all. Without any attachment, the pure Buddha's nature is revealed. The mind is finally at ease. 

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What do you learn from this story?  Is is something that you can share with all of us?

Many blessings,

Judy

Right Eating

A surprisingly large portion of the Vinaya [monastic code]’s two hundred and fifty rules advocate a proper way to eat. “A lot of things are based on this idea of eating food properly,” the Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche taught his American students, “which is how to behave as a basically decent person.”  –Sandra Garson, "Food for Enlightenment" A Buddhist book often used for teaching.

The idea of right eating has been around for a long time.  However, for me, over the last several weeks, the need to eat the best food in the healthiest manner, has been pushing at me.  I want green, clean food.  I want food that is home made. And, I want food that boosts my immune system.  It feels that a strong immune system will be very important towards the end of 2011.

When I say I crave green – I am not saying that I will not eat meat.  I was reading a teaching about meat eating in Buddhism.  I’d like to share part of it with you.

In the days of the Buddha, the Buddhist monks wandered from village to village carrying minimum necessities, which included a begging bowl. They ate whatever food that was given to them, without preference and choice as a part of their effort to control greed and desires. Since choice meant desire, they shunned all preferences and choices in matters of living and practicing the Buddhist Dharma. The tolerated harsh conditions of life and accepted them as opportunities to practice the Eightfold Path. They observed the same discipline in matters of eating food. When they passed through a village and if someone offered them meat, they ate it dispassionately, without craving or contempt. 

The essential practice of Buddhism, which was based on the Four Noble Truth and The Eightfold Path precluded any possibility of seeking and desiring on the part of the monks. The teachings of the Buddha encouraged them to overcome their desires and live unconditionally with an ethical bent of mind. Thus there were no restrictions on meat eating in the early days of Buddhism. This practice continues till today in many schools of Buddhism. For the followers of the Buddha, right resolve or right intention is more important than the superficial display of morality, which is defined as "resolved on renunciation, on freedom from ill-will and on harmlessness.  

- from a teaching by Jayarm V

Everyone gets to make up their own mind about what they eat and how they eat it.  I believe that decision should come from the heart, not because someone says so.

May you choose what is right for you and may you allow others the same right.

Many blessings,

Judy