Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Bodhisattva

I have been wearing a Bodhisattva pendant lately, to remind me to try to be like this:

The nature of the Bodhisattva is apparent from a teaching story in which three people are walking through a desert. Parched and thirsty, they spy a high wall ahead. They approach and circumnavigate it, but it has no entrance or doorway. One climbs upon the shoulders of the others, looks inside, yells "Eureka" and jumps inside. The second then climbs up and repeats the actions of the first. The third laboriously climbs the wall without assistance and sees a lush garden inside the wall. It has cooling water, trees, fruit, etc. But, instead of jumping into the garden, the third person jumps back out into the desert and seeks out desert wanderers to tell them about the garden and how to find it. The third person is the Bodhisattva.

Pollock, Neal (2005). Practices Supporting Dzogchen: The Great Perfection of Tibetan Buddhism. Source

2 comments:

  1. Bodhisattva
    Would you take me by the hand
    Can you show me
    The shine of your Japan
    The sparkle of your china
    Can you show me

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  2. You got it. Steely Dan was one of the best concerts I've ever seen . . . hours of free-form funky jazz. I'd love to see them again.

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