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This morning, I had a dream. It was like a T.V. commercial in style, like a message from the United Nations. A man and a young boy stood together. The boy's eyes were wide and full of wonder. The man said, as if to a teacher on the first day of school, "Here is my son. Please train him well. Take good care of him in your school and show him how to be a good person."
Following him were four more men, each with his son and they repeated the same message, one in English, one in Chinese, one in Japanese, one in French.
The Master has always stressed the importance of education and making schools into places to provide wholesome training in the basics of growing into good people. This is the path to Buddhahood.
The Bodhisattvas ... have vast, great intent and inclinations which cannot be destroyed. They intensely and diligently cultivate all roots of goodness which become accomplished through seeking learning without satiation ... -- Avatamsaka Sutra
Instilling Virtue School, Dharma Realm Buddhist University, and the middle schools and high schools that will be established at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas are really important to the world. The children we have met on the bowing pilgrimage still have pure light and great trust. If these children can grow into adults with the guidance of True Principles in their education, if they can pass the difficult years of adolescence in a community of people who believe in and practice kindness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith, then the world will naturally turn into a better place. By following the light of Kuan Yin Bodhisattva and cultivating the Dharmas of Great Compassion, we can make education the total transformation of the heart and spirit that it should be.
With the elders happy and praying for peace and with the youngsters excited by their discovery of the world, of great ideas, and of true principles, and with the middle-aged people busy as Bodhisattvas cultivating the Way and transferring the roots of goodness to the Dharma Realm, then every day is a Kuan Yin Session and everywhere is the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas.
This is not just a dream. It's as real as the next thought in our minds. Before many years pass, the world will know the Proper Dharma has found its new home in the West. People like the Iowa farmer we met on the Great Highway near the San Francisco Zoo will no longer say, "Buddhism? I thought that was in Asia. But you're Americans? Ever been through Iowa?"
I wanted to say, "Yes, I have, Pop. I grew up in Ohio. And before long you're going to be proud to tell your neighbors in River City that your sons and granddaughters have taken refuge with the Triple Jewel, or even left the home life to study the Way. Soon your friends will be investigating vegetarianism and Ch'an meditation. You may be reciting Kuan Yin's name yourself before you know it. Just watch how it grows." Conversation We'd Like to Hear: 1984
"Buddhists? Oh, yeah, they're the ones with the big hearts, right? Educators aren't they? They take care of the old folks, I understand. They're the ones who don't fight, right? Yeah, I've heard of them. In fact, I've been thinking of subscribing to that magazine that they put out and looking into it for myself. What's it called? 'Yankee Buddha Sea,' or something like that.
I heard about it on their radio show that comes on every week. Real decent listening, I'll say. I like best the sing-along part when they chant that Homage to the Bodhisattva tune. Yes, I used to think the Buddha was an Oriental God, but Kindness and compassion, happiness and giving, why that's as American as cornflakes, yes, indeed."
The Bodhisattva gives rise to happiness because he is mindful of the ability to benefit living beings. -- Avatamsaka Sutra
Signs We Like to See:
(Posted on the fence outside Pigeon Point Lighthouse)
Notice: NO HUNTING, FISHING, KILLING, TRAPPING, OR DISTURBING OF
ANY CREATURES ALLOWED.
By order of the Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard
* * *
Dear Shih Fu,
I had my mind blown three times today by the Avatamsaka Sutra and by "Vajra Bodhi Sea." Each time I picked one of them up for a quote to add to my writing, I turned to lines that read my mind and mirrored my thoughts exactly! It was just as if the words on the page were speaking to me, using my own thoughts. It felt totally uncanny. We disciples are used to the inconceivable way that a Good Advisor can know our thoughts even before we think them, but when magazines start to mirror our minds it's something else again!
Flower Garland Round Everyone is made from our minds alone. Everything exists within the Dharma Realm. The Dharma Realm is contained within the Flower Garland Sutra. The Sutra came from the mouth of the Buddha. The Buddha lives in the hearts of all beings. All beings live within the Ten Dharma Realms. The Ten Dharma Realms are fathomed in a single thought. Everything is made from our minds alone. (repeat until the mind falls silent) From compassion and kindness and the power of vows Appear and enter the practices of the ground; Gradually there is perfection of the mind. Wisdom's practices are not reflection's realm. -- Avatamsaka Sutra
We have learned that nothing we have thought, or written, or said matters as much as a single, silent, sincere bow. The visions, the insights, the dreams, and the revelations all bear on the actual practice of the Dharma in the same way a match reflects on the sun. It's the doing, the effort, the faith in following instructions, and the giving that tell the story, wordlessly. What a discovery. Reality is totally empty, real and true. But it's also totally the Dharma, the truth of reality like it really is, a gift from the Buddha's great kind heart.
I return and rely in reverence to the Triple Jewel of all time and space. May all beings remember their original home within the Proper Dharma. May all beings return to their roots and go back to the source of original purity.
Disciple Kuo Chen
(Heng Sure)
bows in respect