| |
|
Home
 Zen Mind Beginners Mind
contributed
by Alice
Just when you think you're the hottest dude/dudette in town OR the best consultant on the block OR you're totally all alone OR there's no one who really understands OR you the man - Mr.Megabucks OR the walls are folding in on you and you can't get out the door OR you wish your mother or your boss would make a quick exit from this incarnation OR you are the last great Mahasiddha and everyone is following you around to get YOUR magnificent energy OR your whole entire world seems to be falling apart........And even then you might ask yourself, "What am I doing here?" This is not YOUR beautiful wife or YOUR beautiful car. Zen Mind is the same as Beginner's Mind.
I've been getting the feeling that two or maybe three of my friends out there could use a good night out at the local Buddhist Center. Well at least if you haven't considered it maybe you should. True some of you may be more "Yogi" and some of you more "Christian" but most of you that I know have that very strong Buddhist background in this life or in your past lives. And with all that monastic/occult background have this tendency to isolate yourself even when your around other people.
I'm no different than you and even when I teach sometimes I find myself going to other spiritual centers not just to check out the competition, but I find that it can be an amazing reality check. And I even get to check out whether my ego structure has approached the height of the World Trade Center or whether I just could use some modifications in the coding. After all the right Buddha may not be the Buddha that you were thinking of and it seems these days there actually are enough of them out there that you might find the just right one for you today.
Just this very last week I found myself on the edge of a strange precipice. I jumped right in my car and headed to the Best Western Hotel where a local Tibetan Llama gives talks on the basic Intro to Buddhism. But the usual bright and friendly Llama wasn't there, surprisingly. He sent one of his newer students to give the series of talks. The man's name was "Ace" , he was tall with white hair, no robes, all he had with him was a small framed picture of the Buddha and some flowers at his side. He was assisted by to two loyal affluent yuppie Buddhist practitioners who did all the set up, admin, promotion and hauling of books, tea and cookies. The speaker had only been practicing for two or three years yet I was impressed by his humble, sincere approach and his impeccable presentation of information on karma and right action. It was time to do the meditation and I felt of course I had to do my part and meditate as best I could. I noticed the that the room was filled with lots of colored light and behind the speaker appeared a huge white Buddha. After the mediation I wasn't sure what to say.
The speaker asked for questions and so I asked what he would do in this particular situation a close friend of mine was in. The friend's mother had her second stroke and they weren't sure how long she would last. She was somewhat of a nit-picking, crabby old lady especially after her first stroke. All her children had hoped she would change but it was probably too late for that. She was wealthy, as a child had gone to awful boarding schools and didn't really know her own parents, was very intellectual, she won her Ph.D. in English at the age of 21 and became a professor of English. Now she was humiliated by old age, she couldn't speak quite as eloquently and just threw out one-liners where she intended paragraphs. The once extremely beautiful, attractive women didn't feel very well at all. I wondered how he could make the passing such that she might have a better next incarnation, she was a Catholic not a Buddhist.
Ace thought it was a wonderful opportunity for my friend to be with his mother when she died, something few people had these days. That he had the opportunity to thank his mother not for what she didn't do right but for the things that she did do right. Apparently it was a topic everyone in the room could relate to and mysteriously they all thanked me for asking the question.
For some reason I felt very proud of Ace that he had taken on the challenge to speak and teach. There were about six people in the audience. The newest person had just come back from a vacation in Thailand and was very excited to practice. He had purchased a large golden Buddha and when he saw the flyer came to his first class.
Everyone was very bright and happy after the class, the carrot cake went fast and I was happy to sit with Ace and hear the dharma.
Alice
PS: It's amazing what a simple mantra can do for you, your neighbors and those-stuck-inbetween. An all around good karmic progression.
More
Writings
|
|
|
