Thinning Carrots

You had to have a garden. You had no alternative. I can remember crawling on my hands and kness down the line to thin out the carrots. That was a hard chore, but I had a good time doing it. You sure would be happy when you got through.

~Jean Dinsmore, born 1918

The Buddha and the Sick Monk

Now a certain monk was once sick with dysentery, and he lay fouled in his own urine and excrement. As the Blessed One was going the round of the lodgings with the venerable Ananda as his attendant monk, he came to that monk's dwelling. When he saw him lying where he was, he went up to him and said, "What is your sickness, monk?"

"It is dysentery, Blessed One."

"But, monk, have you no attendant?"

"No, Blessed One."

"Why do the monks not look after you, monk?"

"I am of no use to the monks, Lord; that is why they do not look after me."

Then the Blessed One said to the venerable Ananda, "Ananda, go and fetch some water. Let us wash this monk."

"Even so, Lord," the venerable Ananda replied, and he brought some water.

The Blessed One poured out the water and the venerable Ananda washed the monk. Then the Blessed One took him by the head and the venerable Ananda took him by the feet, and they raised him up and put him on a bed.

With this as the occasion and this as the reason, the Blessed One summoned the monks and asked them, "Monks, is there a monk sick in a certain dwelling?"

"There is, Blessed One."

"What is that monk's illness?"

"He has dysentery, Lord."

Has he anyone to look after him?"

"No, Blessed One."

"Why do the monks not look after him?"

"Lord. that monk is of no use to the monks; that is why they do not look after him."

"Monks, you have neither mother nor father to look after you. If you do not look after each other, who will look after you? Let him who would look after me look after one who is sick. If he has a preceptor, his preceptor should as long as he lives look after him until his recovery. His teacher, if he has one, should do likewise. Or his co-resident, or his pupil, or one who has the same preceptor, or one who has the same teacher. If he has none of these, the Sangha should look after him. Not to do so is an offence of wrongdoing.

"When a sick man has five qualities, he is hard to look after: he does what is unsuitable; he does not know the measure of what is suitable; he does not take medicine; he does not disclose his illness to his sick-nurse who seeks his welfare, or tell him that he is better when it is so, or worse when it is so, or the same when it is so; he is of a type unable to endure arisen bodily feelings that are painful, harsh, racking, piercing, disagreeable, unwelcome and menacing to life. When a sick man has the five opposite qualities, he is easy to look after.

~The Buddha, in The Mahavagga

The Five Trainings

One of my students, Zachary John, recently received the gift of the Five Moral Precepts at the Grand Rapids Buddhist Temple. He posted his thoughts of his FaceBook page. With his permission, I am sharing his wise words.

Earlier this week, I accepted the Five Precepts at the Grand Rapids Buddhist Temple and was given the name Xíngdòng Su which means "unadorned (Su) action (Xíngdòng)". For about 6 months I have been meeting weekly with others to study the Five Precepts at the GR Buddhist Temple under the guidance of ordained monks, other preceptors, and the Sangha as a whole. I wanted to share some information about this.

The Five Precepts are as follows (and for a lengthier explanation please read Thich Nhat Hanh's expansion on these "5 Mindfulness Trainings" as he calls them):

1. To protect and respect life.
2. To protect and respect the property of others.
3. To protect and respect the truth.
4. To protect and respect sexual/personal boundaries.
5. To protect and respect oneself.

The Five Precepts are not commandments, they are guidelines, as a means to live a more peaceful life. A life more in-tune with the peaceful and compassionate nature of humans and this universe as a whole. They are not meant to be followed blindly or seen as black-white rules, but as a way to utilize compassion and wisdom to guide your actions, thoughts, and interactions with yourself and the world.

Taking the Five Precepts is not a requirement to practice Buddhism, heck, identifying as a Buddhist is not a requirement to practice Buddhism. I believe there are countless beings who live lives of compassion and wisdom who have never heard of the Buddha. I think of Jesus, Ghandi, St. Francis, Mother Theresa, and so many other less known teachers and practitioners of compassion and wisdom.

Taking the Five Precepts and taking a Dharma Name is to me a way to publicly state my goal of helping and caring for others, myself, and this universe. I will surely flounder often, but I am appreciative of all the challenges I face and hope I learn from the mistakes I make.

The intention of this post is to explain the inclusion of my Dharma Name in my public profile, and as well to further publicize my commitment to practicing the way of compassion and wisdom. I ask that as my friends and family you question and challenge me in my endeavors to help me along this way, I will surely need it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post.

Hugs + smiles,
Xíngdòng Su

Beautiful Friends

You should recollect beautiful friends like this: "It is indeed a gain for me. Indeed, it is good for me that I have beautiful friends, compassionate, desiring my welfare, and who mentor and teach me."

~The Buddha, in the Anguttara Nikaya

Family

I don't understand why people get disgusted with same sex relationships. At the end of the day this is all we want, is that so "disgusting?"

Family

The Buddha confirmed and emphasized family relationship, exhorting all persons who decided to remain in the worldly life to maintain family ties together with the honor and dignity of the family as a social unit.

~Hammalawa Saddhatissa, in Buddhist Ethics

Ananda the Fully Human

Unlike Sariputta, who, as a liberated arahant, is never shown displaying a hint of emotion, Ananda gives free rein to his feelings. It is this capacity—which, from the point of view of orthodoxy, is a sign of unenlightened weakness—that renders him fully human and sympathetic. In some ways, Ananda prefigures the later Mahayana ideal of the bodhisatta, one who rejects the transcendent peace of nirvana in order to respond to the suffering of myriad others in the world.

~Stephen Batchelor, in after buddhism

A More Enlightened World

It is enlightened to abolish slavery. It is enlightened to attend to the welfare of animals. It is enlightened to create the conditions for world peace. It is enlightened to help others in myriad everyday ways. It is enlightened to recognize others as brothers and sisters. It is enlightened to view yourself objectively and not collude with superstition. Basically, it is enlightened to be kind and to stand up against cruelty. Every enlightened action contributes to the emergence of a more enlightened world.

~David Brazier

Freedom from Politics and Religion

The world can never be made significantly better through political maneuvering. 

The world can never be made significantly better by religious sectarianism.

True progress comes when both politics and religion are allowed to fade away.

That's where the Buddha-Dharma, the Middle Way, comes into play.

In the Practice of the Middle Way, the Teachings given by Gotama Buddha before people got hold of them and made a religion out of them, the nonsense of religious rules and regulations is allowed to fade away. The nonsense of political expediency and cronyism is allowed to fade away.

In the Middle Way we accept justice, fairness, equality, democracy as they were always meant to be; not the "Animal Farm" approach that religion and politics seems unable to escape.

Within the Practice of the Middle Way, it's not the end of the journey that counts, it's the journey itself.

One trains by being what ones wants to be, what one wants society to be. 

For a peaceful person, a peaceful society, the way there is to be peaceful.

For a just person, a just society, the way there is to be just.

For a person guided by equality, a society guided by equality, the way there is to be guided by equality.

And on, and on, and on. This isn't rocket science. Be nice. Treat everything like you want to be treated. 

Don't be a jerk to anything.

Love, Compassion, and Wisdom

Life

There is enough in the world for everyone's need; there is not enough for everyone's greed.

---Gandhi---

Friendship

Small is Beautiful

I think the world is going to be saved by millions of small things.

                        ---Pete Seeger---

True Reaching

The hands that help are better far than lips that pray.

                                                             ---Robert G. Ingersoll---

Family

When people outside of the gay community see gay ... and lesbian families, they see we are exactly the same - we go to the same school, we go to the meetings after school, we take our kids to sports or play dates. 

---Brian Rosenberg---

Preparing a Meal

Love is not only the most important ingredient: it is the only ingredient which really matters.

---From a Cookbook by a British Chef---

The Universal Vision

The universal vision cannot be apprehended by one who sees the self as fundamentally at war with others, "looking out for number one" at the expense of others who must be bested. Only when we see that we are all in it together, and invigorate our intention to live constructively in that light, can we see each one as truly integral to the whole.

---Taigen Dan Keighton, in Faces of Compassion---

We Have No Time

I think the world today is upside-down and is suffering so much because there is so very little love in the homes and in family life. We have no time for our children, we have no time for each other; there is no time to enjoy each other.

                                                                                                   ---Mother Teresa of Calcutta---