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Heng Sure
March 19,1978
BIG JOB
"You are beginning in the smallest of places to do the greatest of work." -- Master Hua to bowing monks
We often hear from the windows of passing cars,"get a job!
Praying for peace is a job, an important work, little understood in the speedy, greedy, modern age. Hearst castle crowns the cliffs above us, the flat, blue pacific winks and glistens to our left. Between these two extremes of ultimate, greedy existence, and ultimate, impersonal emptiness, what in the world really matters?
"Do no evil. Offer up all good conduct. Purify your mind. This is what all Buddhas teach." -- Dharmapada
Cultivators world at stilling their minds, reducing greed and anger. They contemplate according to the proper views of ancient wisdom. It's a full-time job. We cultivate because people should cultivate. It's our basic share, our responsibility. We dwell in th world for only a few decades of productive years. It's a chance to create merit and benefit others or make offenses and increase suffering.
When the bowing gets dreary, we remember the atomic-bomber patrols thundering into the sky every morning from Pt. Mugu airbase. We remember shadowy fleets of missile-subs that trace the coast by night and day. We remember the millions of men in uniforms reluctantly trained to kill, to destroy peace and make widows and orphans. We remember the cruelty of modern weapons technology, making smart bombs and death-rays, and because we remember, we return to the bowing with renewed vigor.