March 29, 2006
THE BUDDHA�S ENLlGHTENMENT & WF Temple Buddha In Transition
Ilgbro,
Got this and thought of you floating across the snowy heavens in Flag under a full moon�enjoy�
Namaste�
rj
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"However young, the seeker who sets out upon the way
Shines bright over the world.
But day and night the person who is awake
Shines in the radiance of the spirit.
Meditate.
Live purely.
Be quiet.
Do your work, with mastery.
Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds!
Shine!"
Shakyamuni Buddha
Enlightenment for Gautama [the Buddha] felt as though a prison which had confined him for thousands of lifetimes had broken open. Ignorance had been the jailkeeper. Because of ignorance, his mind had been obscured, just like the moon and stars hidden by the storm clouds. Clouded by endless waves of deluded thoughts, the mind had falsely divided reality into subject and object, self and others, existence and non-existence, birth and death, and from these discriminations arose wrong views�the prisons of feelings, craving, grasping, and becoming. The suffering of birth, old age, sickness, and death only made the prison walls thicker. The only thing to do was to seize the jailkeeper and see his true face. The jailkeeper was ignorance. . . . Once the jailkeeper was gone, the jail would disappear and never be rebuilt again.
THICH NHAT HANH
- THE BUDDHA�S ENLlGHTENMENT
***
photos:
The WF Temple H(om)e Buddha during seasonal change symbolize and remind me of the Awakened One's unflappable mental composure regardless of external circumstance. photos by Coach.