Spring! Spring- Isdue Today Is a Continuation of Yesterday but - to Attachment to the Past-To Something Time Messages in Reality, Today Is a Totally Newday
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Quarterly Newsletter of tbe Rev. Gyomay M. Kubose Dharma Legaca Vol.2 No. I Splag 1998 The Fresh, Greative Life by Rev. Gyomay M. Kubose Many people talk about being busy. Some get all other things and become com- We are unable to wipe them out, unable people say to me, "Oh, you are so busy pletely involved in whateverwe are do- to fopet. Even if rive rememberto try, it is that I hesitate to tell you or ask you ing. Those minutes and hours are really hard to forget something that has hurt us something." In reality, a person is really beautiful. Even the thought of enjoyment deeply. However, it is a discipline, if you not busy at all. We cannot do two things is totally forgotten. We become "noth- want to call it discipline, wherein one is at the same time. We are always ing." The state of nothing is not empty; it able to transcend angerand quanels, and engaged in only one thing at a time. lf we is full of life. One's whole life is involved to start a new clay. To be able to control can realize and live this truth, then we in what one is doing and the self is for- one's own mind isto be able to live each will knowwhythe Buddha stressed non- gotten. At such times we don't get tired day as a new day. This is what non-at- vattachment. because there is creativity, which is the tachment means. This is the basis for You should not become attached to realization of life ilself. the fresh, creative life. Do not defile your what has happened in the past because We can quickly recoverfrom physical beautiful life. That is the very reason the life is a process, a becoming; every mo- tiredness by resting but mentalfatigue Buddha always referred to the lotus ment is a new life, a new flow Of course, is another matter. Such things as worry, flower. lt grows and blooms in a muddy past experiences can serve as a good jealousy, and hatred are hard to elimi- pond but the lotus is never defiled by its reference when planning what you wish nate; they linger in our minds. Emptying environment, the muddiness. lt always to do tomorrow, or in your lifetime. But our minds provides a rest. We can ac- keeps its own purity. When the sun when you do it, do one thing at a time. complish this by doing things one at a comes, the lotus opens its leaves and Put everything into it and when it is fin- time. Do it one hundred percent so that buds and fully appreciatesthe sunshine. ished, it is finished. Then start a new nothing else takes place. This kind of Let us all live this kind of fresh. creative thing. What I am talking about is how to life is important. life. take care of yourmind. lf yourmind flows The Buddha said, "Allthings are in con- like water you will not experience fatigue. stant change; nothing is permanent.'This Getting tired is usually due more to men- means that life is a process, a continu- Inside: tal fatigue than to physical fatigue. Be- ous becoming. ln a limited, rclative sense, coming angry oremotionally upset $ Happy Spring! Spring- isdue today is a continuation of yesterday but - to attachment to the past-to something time Messages in reality, today is a totally newday. We that happened earlier. lf someone criti- live a new life every moment. Why spoil * "Ocean'Book Review& cizes you, you become upset. 'l didn't this new life? We should make this new Upoming Seminar do that, but he said that I did." is the lt life the best, most beautiful and most attachment to past words, deeds, or meaningful. But most of us spoil this new * Buddha's Birth and Easter thoughts that hinders what you do in the life because of yesteday's unpleasant present. _- + Legacy Dedication - affairs. Something disagreeable that hap \_ Observe children in their play, they are pened last night still bothers us. I know Ceremony -s-,completely absorbed in what they are some couples who do not talk to each * Views of Spring doing, Adults can be the same way. other for two or three days. We are hu- When we do something we enjoy, we for- man, so we have these kinds of feelings. % Ssqge unnan Kubose Happy Springl Here in the Midtryest growing up through a crack in a nobility in ourstruggle to meet life's we especially welcome sPring af- concrete sidewalk, each of us difficulties. ter the winter season. A robin human beings needs to constantlY These views are put into the his- chirping outside my window also re-discover and nurture a spirit of torical context of Buddhist thought, signals spring's arrival. I once (un- courageous living. I believe such a particularly Vasubandhu's contribu- officially) designated the robin as spirit is the birthright that nature has tion and theYogacara Schoolwhich the Buddhist bird. endowed us with. lays the foundation for a Buddhist There is a story of how a robin This same theme of courage psychology. Indeed, modem PsY- fought a forest fire that threatened was evident in the seminar we chology can be one of the main the spiritual its home. The robin flew to a dis- hosted earlier this year, "The Feel- gates to understanding tant pond and filling its beak with ing Buddha" by David and Caroline life. water, flew over the fire dumPing Brazier. They are Dharma teachers Brazier presents the spiritual life the water overthe raging fire. The for the Amida Trust, a non-sectar- notas somehowremoved from the robin did this so often, the heat of ian socially engaged Buddhist hustle and bustle of everydaY liv- the fire turned the robin's breast organization in England. ing but views the word "sPiritual" red. So the red-breasted robin can more in the sense of "being sPir- The seminar Previewed material symbolize courage in the face of ited" or "being full of life." Likewise, from David Brazier's latest book, ovenrhelming odds. lt shows a the meaning of 'righflin tl'reE'rght- ---t "The Feeling Buddha." Brazier pre- spirit of "means over end," of do- fold path is viewed as "whole sents the Buddha as a very human ing something 10070, without anY heartedness." Enlightenment is not whose success laY not so thought of "no use doing it if it figure so much a cognitive change as a perfection as in his coura- won't be successful." much in change in heart. Buddhism is not geous way of using the energY also shows this so much a belief system one holds All of nature generated by the challenges of life. same kind of courage. In a sPring- to but rather a way of life Passion- time spirit of constant renewal, Brazier offers an interPretation ately lived. that is dif- green buds apPearon trees and tinY of the Four Noble Truths All in all, we could doworse than view of shoots stick their heads above the ferent from the traditional to embrace the theme of courage suffer- ground. Nirvana as the elimination of this year. I hearthis message in the ing and craving. Enlightenment is see it in the green We are well into 1998, Year of robin's song and viewed less astranquil serenity but the Tlger, which is another sYmbol buds on the trees. Instead of Pas- of courage. Whether we are more as dynamic living. sively wishing ourselves and others inspired by the ferocious courage There should be no guilt associ- good fortune-may we activelY of a tiger or the Persistent ated with the truth thatwe humans nurture wisdom and comPassion determination of a blade of grass suffer. To the contrary, there is a in our lives. May it be so. efforle,lo, oblain Senaae SaTt The plum blooms on a trce which has shed its leaves and stands naked to the cold, waiting forspring. Such a Dear Readers: tree can bloom in spring only when it has withstood the cold winter. Mankind also can knowthetruth onlywtren I once photograph saw a of plum buds on a snow- they bear up under hardship, then they can discoverthe waythey musl follow. Dear Readers: Remember, the Dharma truth is green; that is, it is ,,budding always fresh and new-always out'in the present moment. We too, must have,,beginner,s mind,, and flowwiththe dynamictruth of this.green" Dharma. theme while visiting at my mother,s home. She is a Let's do some spring planting in your Dharma Chanoyu (Way of Tea) teacher of the Urasenke School, Garden! Here, for your enjoyment, are some seed and in one of her Urasenke Newsletters I saw the planting suggestions: following article: The world of Nature is first to signal the changing 3 rows of tumips turn up with a smile, tum up with seasons. Afterthe severe cold of winter, spring naturally - enthusiasm, turn up with determination to make comes, but it's the plum trees with their fat buds that everything count forsomething good and worthwhile. tell us spring is here. Spring could not come without the 4 rona of peas pmmptness, pradice, severely cold winter, That is neture's law of causality. - p€E@, patience. 5 rows of lettuce let us work In winter, the old plum stands like a dead tree in the - more for environmental @.ncems, let us do gassho daily, let us share ourserenily with our neighbors, let us respect one another, let us be trueto ourselves.