Where is Mara?

Today, at the church, the House of Hope (HOH), came to the church (Memorial Presbyterian Church, or MPC) told Valley immigrants’ stories.

After the service, we had a potluck, and I sat with Greg, a member working at House of Hope and had interesting conversation.

Greg was a retired Catholic Prists, now working at HOH for social justice.  Then he mentioned that he had visited different religion sites including mosques, synagogues, Sikh temple, etc.

“Have you visited Zendo, or any Buddhist temple?”

“Yes, there is one on Spencer Street?”

“Is Buddhism a religion?”

“Not exactly”.

“Tell me more.  I am intrigued”.

“There are a lot of similarities between Christ and Buddha teaching.  For example, in the Bible, Matthew 1:1-11, Jesus was temped by the devil for 40 days in the wilderness.  In Sanskrit Sutra, Buddha meditated under the Bodhi tree was tempted by demon (Mara).”

“Isn’t that amazing?”  Greg said.

“Yes.  But there is major difference between Christianity and Buddhism.  In Christianity, devil is something external to our body.  But in Buddhism, the demon is inside of us.

According to Buddhism, Mara or demon is our shadow.  Each one of us has seeds of Christ, or Buddha, but also has seeds of demon.  Which seed will manifest depends on which seeds we water.  Thus, each one of us has the potential to become Christ, but also has the potential to become a demon.

Buddhist major practice is to become aware of ourselves, or to be awakening which is the first step to become Christ or Buddha, but not the devil.”

“So, true”.  Greg nodded his head.

I am amazed the retired Catholic priest is quite open-minded.

** Zen Master, Thich Naht Hanh put this thought beautifully in his most famous poem, Calling Me My True Names.  Here are the lines:

I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond. And I am the grass-snake that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks. And I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate.

And I am also the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands. And I am the man who has to pay his “debt of blood” to my people dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth. My pain is like a river of tears, so vast it fills the four oceans.

Imperfection could be a good thing

A young monk regretted that he did not have a good master in the monestery.  Comparing with the master of his friend, his master was hot tempered, speaking too many jokes, some of them are even inappropriate.

Ten years later,  this monk met his friend and had small conversation with his friend.

“How is your master?”

“I have distanced myself with my master?”

“What had happened?”

“My ‘perfect’ master is so critical of everybody, and we can no longer tolerate his daily criticism”.

The young monk finally realized that his imperfect master might not too bad.  Although he had hot temper, he did not hold the grudge.  He was not so critical of us.  When he spoke of bad jokes, he even gave us pocket money.

After all, imperfection is not that bad.  Learning how to love imperfection is a great Zen teaching.

May I have one more week to live?

The Death Angel was knocking on the door to tell a person his time is up.  The Angel comes to claims his life.

“Dear Angel Death, May I have one more week ? I have so many things to take care of.” The man begins to bargain with the Angel.

“Didn’t I give you 52 weeks last year, and many more weeks before that.” The Angel says.

No one is a better teacher than Death.  Death teaches us to live fully at each moment.  Death teaches us possessions are useless; and all beings ( gender, racial, etc.) are equal.  If we know Death is the ultimate reality, we will not waste our life in thought and clinging but live our life in full experience.

Catch a big fish

A fishman was fishing on a river bank.  From time to time, he kept small fish but let go big fish.

“Why do you do that?”

“Because I have only small container to keep small fish.”

“Why din’t You bring a big container for big fish?”

Thus if our mindset is small, we can only attract small abundance.  We can always change our mindset to attract big abundance.

Double Vision

First day of the year, we have snow.

While I was shoveling the snow this morning, suddenly I saw everything 'double vision'.  Alerted, I took out my eye glasses trying to do some massage with my eyes and realizing one of the lenses fell off the frame. The lenses must be on the pile of the snow.

So, I had no 'double vision' issue; but lost one of the lenses in the snow which will made me handicapped at least a while because I simply cannot work without eye glasses.

Few years ago, I lost keys in the pile of the snow.  The keys were finally recovered by our neighbor after 3 months.  During this time, I even used a metal detector trying to locate my keys.

Now, a metal detector will not work because a lenses is not a metal.

The only way to find the lost lenses was to trace back the steps and be very mindful in watching every 'suspicious'  clue to identify the object.

Well, I found it.  This must be the luckiest thing of the New Year.

Who would be my neighbor?

Mr. Takusa is talking to a wiseman.

“I am about to move in and settle in your town.  What kind of neighbor do I expect?”

“What kind of neighbor do you have now in your current place?”

“Oh, they are nasty, selfish and not very friendly.”

“Well, you would have the same kind of neighbor in your new place.”

Few days later, Mr. Suzuki is talking to the same wiseman.

Mr. Takusa is talking to a wiseman.

“I am about to move in and settle in your town.  What kind of neighbor do I expect?”

“What kind of neighbor do you have now in your current place?”

“Oh, they are most kind, compassionate, and friendly persons”

“Well, you would have the same kind of neighbor in your new place.”

The moral of the story, “All relations are the mirrors of our conscious.”