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

Happy Father’s Day - June 16, 2024

 

Picture from Country Living Magazine

The words in the poster say….

Happy Father’s Day to all Dads, the not yet Dads, the stepdads, the Moms who are Dad, the adoptive Dads, the granddads, and the dads who are no longer with us.

       -Unknown

I think the poster covers all the blessings for Dads.

Judy

Badger Away!

 

This is post is a copy of what I wrote in my journal after a trip into the mountains in Kananaskis Country several years ago.  

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As we drove home from the mountains Thursday, we saw a wide variety of animals and birds.  I was surprised to see a big badger run away from us, and across the road and into the grass. 

Badgers are typically dawn and dusk beings as they are very much a loner type animal.  This badger, however, was on a mission, and ran across a busy two lane highway.  The irony of me writing this story is that one of the characteristics of badger in all the legends is that Badger is the Keeper of Stories.  Before the written word was so prominent, all traditions handed down their history by story telling.  In each family was one member who could recite the family lineage right back to the oldest memories.  We lost our tradition of story telling in the 1700’s with the growth of the Industrial Revolution and its need for written instructions to keep the spread of machines growing.

Back to Badger!  Badger is an underground dweller.  It reminds us to stay grounded.  She also reminds us to dig deeper into the issues that are occurring in our lives because the surface problem is not at the root – the root is generally always hidden beneath the layers – of dirt, or of stories, or of self deception.

Badger likes to be by herself because she is very strong and self confident.  Her questions are:

• Are you lacking confidence in something?
• Are you seeing only the surface of a story?  Do you need to dig deeper?
• Are you using your stories to cause harm?  Are someone else’s stories causing you harm?
• Do you need to tell a story to teach something?
• Does your story need to be told so that you can let go of it?

May Badger come to you in your dreams and give you a way to get to your roots!

Many blessings,

Judy