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Tuesday, May 24
Dear Shih Fu,
We are just about to pass through Beverly Hills - making slow but steady progress. When the traffic is fast and the people are dense it is easy to speed up your bowing without noticing. So we have made a conscious effort to slow down our bowing to a mindful rhythm and the result is we have become invisible to many people. Los Angeles moves so fast that we look like trees, rocks, or parking meters to the majority who breeze by in their cars; those who see us roll down their windows and scold us, swear at us, honk their horns, scream, laugh, some even slow down to give advice ("get up," "go home," "get off the street").
Sometimes we get praise from people. Some think we are Moslems or Hare Krishnas or Moonies, and every so often someone recognizes us as Buddhists. The children are open to us, fascinated and pure.
Although we could not be with the Master on Buddha's birthday, Heng Ch'au and I wish to bow nine times to the Master on this occasion. We are ever mindful of our good fortune to have met the proper Dharma here in the West.
The Master's great compassion and vow-power have made it possible to bring good medicine to living beings; our lives have a useful purpose and a positive direction to travel. Cultivating the Way is a priceless treasure!
When we are sincere, the results are immediately visible - anger disappears from faces - the tension dissolves from street-corner groups that gather to stare at us, and even the heat in the air seems to cool slightly. If we are false-thinking or have anger or fear in our own minds, then nothing happens as we bow into a crowded area; or worse, the tension builds up and people get hot or uptight as we pass and we reap the results in increased cursing, anger, and fear from the crowd. The pressure makes a rare chance to cultivate.
The Dharma Protectors make it possible and the pressure makes it real, good, hard work. There is a lot of magic on this trip and the Master's presence is always close by.
* * *
Wednesday, May 25
This experience is rich in learning, tests, and exposure to all kinds of people and situations. Heng Ch'au and I talk about the states we encounter and apply the principles we have learned to solve our problems. Each time we trace a problem back to a flaw in our own perception of reality, to a hang-up, an affliction, or an attachment, we know we have found the source of the problem and then the state almost immediately resolves itself.
The mindfulness of a cultivator is not easy to maintain all the time - especially these three: patience with all states, compassion for all beings, even the demons who come to provoke us, and also a sense of shame -- keeping my faults and shortcomings in front of me at all times, in all places.
When these three dharmas are ever before my mind, a kind of vajra resolve takes over, people seem to look right past me and see the Avatamsaka instead. Thes is what I'm working for, I have to make my conduct clean and pure all the time. The job now is to learn how to behave properly as a Bhikshu. This work will not be wasted !