Dharma Talk - 2/1/04

Presented by: 
Bonell McLeish

What beautiful sunshine
The super thing about it
Is that it is always there
The sun does not decide not to shine; nonetheless,
Even with all its warmth, it is detached
It is a part of the universe
It is its nature to shine
It always has that essence
What a great
And comforting
It is always there. 

When we cannot see it
It is because it is obscured by clouds, pollution
Or other necessary kinds of weather.
But insofar as we can trust and perceive it
We know it is there.
Our "Human Condition" has its own sort of weather report.
And winter can
take a front row seat! 

In thinking about this, I came up with the following:

"Have-to" Buddha experiences:
We have to experience separateness,
when we become frozen out of special relationships.
We have to experience Icy fingers of fear,
when we see our world and others in danger
We have to experience discomfort,
when  storm clouds of anger cover our hearts.
We have to experience grief, pain, and loss,
when a lightening bolt of death strikes
We have to experience the chill of worry and doubt,
when our confidence and trust are fogged over.
How do we live with all of this?
How do we find some peace?

We have to remember that
"All sentient beings possess buddha nature."  ("Ocean", Kenneth K. Tanaka)
We have to know that
"True freedom comes when we follow our Buddha nature; the natural goodness of our heart."  ("Buddha's Little Instruction Book"  Jack Kornfield)
2.          Have-to Buddha Experiences
We have to believe that:
"To open our own heart like a Buddha, we must embrace the ten thousand joys and the ten thousand sorrows."  ("Buddha's Lttle Instruction Book," Jack Kornfield)
We have to imagine this:
("Buddha's Lttle Instruction Book," Jack Kornfield)
We have to understand that:
"All have the Buddha nature, but it cannot be seen when covered by the passions." 
In a story from the "Bits of Rubble" book: A king asks his teacher about the light by which man is guided.  The teacher says, "When the sun has set, and the moon has set, and the fire has gone out and speech has stopped, what light does a person have?  "The self (atman), indeed, is his light," said he, "For with the self, indeed, as the light, one sits, moves about, does one's work and returns.'" (Bits of Rubble Turn Into gold", Taitetsu Unno)
In reality,  "life has its own principle of operation, and there is really just so much we can do within our power.  Japanese people say "Makasu" which means to let the principle work itself. (Everyday Suchness", Gyomay M. Kubose) 
It is my belief that that principle is the brilliance of that light that is already within everyone.
We have to perceive our own inner essence
And to trust the "Sunshine" of
Our deepest, innermost self.
What a great and comforting thought,
It is always there
It is our nature
We, too, are a part of the universe.

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