Eye To Eye – Story From the Buddha – Myths and Legends

hoto

 photo from Eve’s flower collection – England 2016

 

The Buddha was visiting a small village in India. Several  people brought a blind man to him and said,

 

“This man is blind and we are his closest friends. Although we try in every way to convince him that there is light, he is not ready to accept such a fact. His arguments are such that we are at a loss. Even though we know that there is light, we have to admit defeat. The man tells us that he wants to touch the light. Now how do we make it possible for him to touch the light? Then the man says, ‘Ok, if it cannot be touched then I want to hear it. I have ears. Make the sound of light so that I can hear it. If this is also not possible then I want to taste it, or if the light has a fragrance I want to smell it.'”

There is no way to convince the man. Light can only be seen if one has eyes – and he has no eyes. He complained to the village people that they were unnecessarily talking about light just to prove that he was blind. He felt that they had invented the story of light just to prove him blind.

So the people asked Buddha if, as he was in the village for a while, perhaps he could make their blind man understand.

Buddha said, “I am not mad enough to try to convince him! Mankind’s problems have been created by people who have tried to explain things to those who cannot see. Preachers are a plague to humanity. They tell people things which they cannot understand.”

So he said, “I won’t make this mistake. I will not explain to this blind man that there is light. You have brought him to the wrong person. There was no need to bring him to me, take him instead to a physician who can treat his eyes. He does not need preaching, he needs treatment. This is not a question of explanations, or of him believing in things you tell him, it is a question of treatment for his eyes. If his eyes get cured then there will be no need for you to explain; he himself will be able to see, he himself will be able to know.”

Buddha was saying that he didn’t consider religion to be just a philosophical teaching – it should be a practical cure. So he recommended that the blind man be taken to a physician.

The villagers liked what Buddha said so they took the blind man to a physician for treatment and fortunately he was cured after a few months. By that time Buddha had gone to another village so the blind man followed him. He bowed to Buddha, touched his feet and said, “I was wrong. There is such a thing as light but I couldn’t see it.”

Buddha answered, “You were certainly wrong, but your eyes got cured because you refused to believe what others told you unless you experienced it for yourself. If you had accepted what your friends had told you then the matter would have ended there and no question of treatment for your eyes would have arisen.”

One should search for one’s own understanding because one cannot attain anything by worshipping the insights of another. In fact, the search for one’s own understanding can only begin when one drops the idea of the other. As long as there is any outer substitute, as long as something is being supplied from the outside, the search cannot begin.

Nobody can reach anywhere in somebody else’s boat. And nobody can see with another’s eye – nobody ever has and nobody ever will. One has to walk on one’s own feet, one has to see with one’s own eyes, one has to live by one’s own heart beat. One has to live by oneself and one has to die by oneself. Nobody can live in another’s place; nobody can die in another’s place. Nobody can take another’s place; neither can one take anybody else’s place. If there is anything totally impossible in this world, it is the fact that no one can take anyone else’s place.

OSHO

The Apprentice Angel and Jean – Myths & Legends

A long time ago story about a young girl near to death. The story is  poignant in as much as it tells of an apprentice angel whose duty it is to accompany Jean to Heaven. Jean doesn’t mind going with the angel as she has strong faith in God. Still, she first wants to see her mother one more time. I wrote this story twenty years ago. Only found it in my files tonight. I am posting due to bad weather that  will keep me awake tonight. Better to sit here and share my memories. Will sleep tomorrow. 🙂

Jean lay desperately ill in a hospital bed. She had suffered a severe
head wound which had left her totally blind and very ill. She had
heard the doctors discussing her fate with her parents, that the
prognosis was not good.

Afterwards, her mother had sat beside her on the bed and squeezed both
of her hands. Jean could feel her trembling as she tried to restrain
her tears, but in the end her mother had completely broken down.

“Mum don’t cry, I am not afraid to die,” she whispered.

Her mother stroked Jean’s face and kissed her cheek. She couldn’t find
any words to comfort her daughter. She continued instead to caress her
lovely child. Jean could smell her perfume, a soft flowery smell of
Orchid essence. The smell comforted her greatly.
Jean was very tired and the medicine made her feel ill and listless.
After her parents had left, she fell asleep.

Everyday, her parents and other relatives visited her, sometimes
staying long hours. The saddest thing for Jean was that she couldn’t
see their faces. Her mother had a lovely face, and she longed to see
it once more before she died. She tried to visualise her features but
this got harder to do as the days went by.

It was late at night and Jean was listening to the nurses talking in
the corridor. But suddenly Jean felt very weary and noticed that the
nurses voices began drifting further and further away. Jean knew her
time had come and she fell into a final slumber.

Suddenly she became aware of a bright golden light filling the room.
She wondered how it was she could see again, when a small angelic
child stood before her.

“Hello Jean. Come, it’s time to go.”

Jean felt warm and peaceful and well. The terrible pains had
disappeared, and she felt lighter than air.

“Go where?” she said sleepily.

“To heaven,” said the little angel, holding out his hand.

Something jerked hard inside of Jean, “No” she said, with a start.

“What?” the angel said in surprise at this unexpected turn of events.
“Did you say no!”

This was the angel’s first important job and the last thing he wanted
was for something to go wrong, and here it was going wrong!

“No! ~ no you don’t understand. Your time is now and you must come with
me. Wonderful things are waiting for you.” He watched to see if his
coaxing had worked.

“No,” said Jean, “I want to see my mother just one more time. I want
to see her face. I can’t remember what she looks like.”

“But you can’t, Jean. You have to come now. I can’t go back without
you. I’m not allowed.”

“I’m not going with you until I’ve seen my mother’s face, and I mean
it!” Jean shouted, as she tried to pull herself back into her heavy
body, but for some reason, she couldn’t.

“I want to go back now!” Jean demanded. “Put me back!”

“I can’t, Jean, it is not up to me. I’m only here to guide you home to
heaven. I don’t know anything about this kind of stuff. They told me
it was a simple job because you were ready.”

Jean felt sorry for the poor angel, because angels do not lie, and
being a Messenger for God was no easy task, especially for a young and
inexperienced angel.

Nevertheless Jean didn’t want to go, before seeing her mother’s face
just one last time. She tried to explain to the angel how beautiful
her mother was and how much she loved her. She knew she had to die,
but, oh, just to see her one last time, just once more, then she would
be happy to go to heaven.

The compassionate angel listened with understanding to Jean’s plea,
but explained  he could not do anything to change the rules. Because
the rules were God’s rules, not his.

..
Jean stood next to her body on the bed. Everything around her was
shadowy and whispery except for the beautiful angel, and from the
deepest part of her being she cried, “Please!”

Never had the angel felt such a word, it came from Jean’s soul,
powerful and urgent. It was born from a love so strong that a thousand
angels voices grew weak by its urgency.

---

Suddenly, from the light came a tall and wondrous figure of a man, one
who knew all things, one who knew what is was to be a child. He spoke
and his voice was like liquid sunshine and he said,

“Your plea will not go unanswered, Jean, for when one looks upon the
love between a child and mother, one is truly in the presence of God.”

He placed his hands upon the child’s eyes and said,

“Sleep my child and lay your burdens upon me this night, for too much
is this for one so young to carry.”

The next morning Jean awoke to  look into the eyes of her mother
and she was even more beautiful than she had remembered. Everyone in
the hospital called it a miracle. She had never felt so happy in all
her life and that night when Jean went to sleep, the little angel came
and took her home…

-Retold by “moi”

Sacred Ashes, Myths And Legends

Temples of India

We all long for miracles, for the sudden inspiration that will fix our lives and the world. We are like  children hoping for an instance cure for our earthly condition.  When will we grow up?  There is no miracle that can replace the work we must do to advance ourselves.. Only the most dedicated and mature effort will bring both ourselves and the world to perfection.

The Midrash,  (Sacred Writings) says that “the world cannot exist without miracles.” For they provide us with inspiration and remind us that the Kingdom we are trying to build is ultimately not our own. However, true growth is never a gift from above, but the result of a long and arduous process of learning and experiencing. In the end, we can achieve the transcendence that we desire, but only by overcoming the most difficult obstacles. The greatest miracle of all is that a person can change.

From The Mahabharata – The Parable Of The Sacred Ashes

Once upon a time, in a holy forest, there lived a sage called Mankanaka, who ate nothing but grass and leaves. For many years, he lived on this pure and austere diet, and his spiritual potency became intense.

One day, as Mankanaka sat in front of his hut weaving a grass mat, he happened to cut himself on a sharp blade of grass. He saw that green sap, not blood, oozed from the cut! His amazement knew no bounds.. “Finally, I have gone beyond the human state, and I have become as sacred and blameless as a plant,” he thought.

A frenzy of joy overtook Mankananka, and he began to laugh and dance. His laughter shook all corners of the world like a cosmic thunder, and the power of is dance drove first the forest and then the whole world to laugh and dance with him. As if enchanted, animals, and trees, stones and rivers, lakes and mountains fell into the rhythms of the sages  wild dance.

The God looked down and saw the danger that the earth was in. Oceans were overflowing and the dust was rising from the earth as smoke rises from a forest fire, darkening the skies. The Gods ran to Shiva and asked him to rescue the Earth from annihilation.

Shiva took the form of a hermit. He went to Mankanaka and stood still beside him. Mankanaka calmed down enough to look at the silent, motionless hermit. He recognized who the hermit really was from the secret signs visible to seers, and he wondered why the Great God, the Lord of Dancers, wasn’t joining in his dance.

“Why are you so happy?” Shiva asked. Mankanaka pointed to his wound, which was still oozing vegetable sap, and said, “O Lord of Gods, don’t you see that I have become so sacred that I have no blood at all? I am superhuman! I am celebrating my miracle!”

Shiva smiled, and then pressed a fingernail into his own thumb. While Mankanaka looked on, ashes, as white as snow and as fine and luminescent as moonlight, flowed out from the thumb of the Great God, Shiva Mahadeva. Their radiance bathed the forest and beyond in a healing mist.

The sight of Shiva’s sacred ashes, purer than green sap and everything else in the world, brought a sobering calmness to Mankanaka.. He prostrated himself at Shiva’s feet, and the whole world came to a standstill..

---

Even when you see a man endowed with miraculous powers, to the point of rising in the air, do not let yourself be deluded, but investigate whether he observes the divine precepts and prohibitions, whether he stays within the limits of religion and whether he accomplishes the duties this imposes upon him.

~Bayazid al-Bistami

Hidden Treasure – Myths And Legends

The basis of the Buddha’s psychological teaching is that our efforts to control what is inherently uncontrollable cannot yield the security, safety or the happiness we seek. By engaging in a delusive quest for happiness, we only bring suffering upon ourselves. In our frantic search for something to quench our thirts, we overlook the water all around us and drive ourselves into exile from our own lives.. Here are two parables that clarifies this point..

….

There was one great master, a Buddhist master, Nagarjuna. A thief came to him. The thief had fallen in love with the master because he had never seen such a beautiful person, such infinite grace. He asked Nagarjuna, “Is there some possibility of my growth also? But one thing I must make clear to you: I am a thief. And another thing: I cannot leave it, so please don’t make it a condition. I will do whatsoever you say, but I cannot stop being a thief. That I have tried many times–it never works, so I have left the whole sport. I have accepted my destiny, that I am going to be a thief and remain a thief, so don’t talk about it. From the very beginning let it be clear.”

Nagarjuna said, “Why are you afraid? Who is going to talk about your being a thief? The thief said, “But whenever I go to a monk, to a religious priest, or to a religious saint, they always say, ‘First stop stealing.'”

Nagarjuna laughed and said, “Then you must have gone to thieves; otherwise, why? Why should they be concerned? I am not concerned!” The thief was very happy. He said, “Then it is okay. It seems that now I can become a disciple. You are the right master.”

Nagarjuna accepted him and said, “Now you can go and do whatsoever you like. Only one condition has to be followed:! be aware Go, break into houses, enter, take things, steal; do whatsoever you like, that is of no concern to me, I am not a thief–but do it with full awareness.”
The thief couldn’t understand that he was falling into the trap. He said, “Then everything is okay. I will try.”

After three weeks he came back and said, “You are tricky–because if I become aware, I cannot steal. If I steal, awareness disappears. I am in a fix.”

Nagarjuna said, “No more talk about your being a thief and stealing. I am not concerned; I am not a thief. Now, you decide! If you want awareness, then you decide. If you don’t want it, then too you decide.”

The man said, “But now it is difficult. I have tasted it a little, and it is so beautiful–I will leave anything, whatsoever you say. Just the other night for the first time I was able to enter the palace of the king. I opened the treasure. I could have become the richest man in the world–but you were following me and I had to be aware. When I became aware, diamonds looked just like stones, ordinary stones. When I lost awareness, the treasure was there. And I waited and did this many times. I would become aware and I became like a buddha, and I could not even touch it because the whole thing looked foolish, stupid–just stones, what am I doing? Losing myself over stones? But then I would lose awareness; they would become again beautiful, the whole illusion. But finally I decided that they were not worth it.”

From Awareness The Key to Living In Balance by Osho.

…

….

A lady had a precious necklace round her neck.  Once in her excitement she forgot it and thought that the necklace was lost.  She became anxious and looked for it in her home but could not find it.  She asked friends and neighbours if they knew anything about the necklace. They did not.  At last a kind friend of hers told her to feel the necklace round her neck.  She found that it had all along been round her neck and she was happy.  When others asked her later if she found the necklace which was lost, she said, ‘Yes, I have found it.’  She still felt that she had recovered a lost jewel.

Now, did she lose it at all? It was all along round her neck.  But judge her feelings.  She was as happy as if she had recovered a lost jewel.  Similarly with us, we imagine that we will realize that Self some time, whereas we are never anything but the Self.

From Be As You Are Teachings from Ramana Maharshi by David Godman.

The Master’s Boon – Myths and Legends

 

 

The Master’s Boon

 

The young devotee, Meher, approached the Master, Maha Ramdas with awe and a great deal of humility. “Will you let me sit at your feet and learn from you, Oh wise one?” he asked.

“Of course,” replied Maha Ramdas . “But you may not like my method of teaching, it might not agree with you.” Meher answered, “Great Master, I want to learn and I am willing to undergo any task to find God.”

 “Yes, I know how you feel,” said the Master. “But you will find my commands and the discipline of this Ashram very difficult to follow – many have come before, and left because of my strict methods.”

Meher, though, was convinced that he would be perfectly obedient to anything the Master commanded. After only a few months of living with the Master, however, he had grown discontent and was no longer sure. The Master, although renowned for his wisdom, was often capricious and even cruel; all the last-minute changes in plans and schedules,the relentless discipline, the uncertainty of how the Master would react to anything, the intense effort to fathom his ways in the hopes of pleasing him, proved too much for Meher and he ran away.

Although he had run away from the great Master, he did not want to give up his search for God. One lonely night he prayed for a new Master, and to his surprise, the next morning he was guided to a great Yogi who was another prominent teacher of the day. He asked the Yogi to be his new teacher and Master.

 “Perhaps I have found my true teacher at last,” he thought to himself. But that night, as Meher was looking at the moon, he saw, to his amazement, the face of Maha Ramdas shining back at him.

Sorrow gripped him as he returned to the Yogi’s house to rest. The next morning he bluntly asked the Yogi: “Are you going to make my life miserable; will you be a hard task master…?” “Never,” said the Yogi – looking at him with a wry smile. Meher  relaxed a little.

“Then you will accept me as your disciple?”

 “First ask me why I won’t be strict with you and make your life miserable,” said the Yogi. This surprised Meher, “Well, tell me why?”

 “Because I would not love you and care for your well-being as Maha Ramdas cared for you. And whether you like it or not, he not I, still commands your heart, so it really is of little use asking to become my disciple. You should return to your Master who is waiting for you.”

Meher knew these wise words were true. He sadly left the Yogi, and returned to the Ashram of Maha Ramdas who accepted him back with much love. Soon he learnt to surrender to the wisdom of Maha Ramdas’s ways, and in time he became a great saint.

– Anon

The Light Princess (Jewish) – Myths and Legends

I love this short story. Actually it’s a parable within the Jewish Faith. I have had it at the back of the blog for sometime now, where it is not seen. Hopefully bringing it to the front page will be a good way of sharing it.. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.. 

There was once a long time ago, a lovely princess who made her home in the Temple In Jerusalem. She was not an ordinary princess, oh no, she was very special for she was made of light.

…

Her father, was the ruler of the world and made his home in a heavenly palace. There he had two thrones, a throne of justice and another throne of mercy. Because he was a good and wise ruler, he used the thrones to make the laws. When he sat on the throne of justice, he was stern and very strict. When he sat on the throne of mercy he was a forgiving and loving ruler. The king had sent his princess into the world to give out blessings and light.

Most of the time the princess was invisible, although people could sense her presence, and once in a while they saw her in visions and sometimes in dreams.

Sometimes she appeared as a princess and sometimes as a lovely bride and at other times she would appear as a saintly person, she could sometimes be seen hovering over the Temple. Then the people would gather together and say to each other, ‘the princess is with us!’ Whenever she appeared they would utter prayers, for they knew that as long as the princess was there, her father the king, was also protecting them.

While the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the princess of light was always happy, her days were full of blessings.

But when the Temple was torn down, the princess was sorrowful. She saw how the people of Jerusalem were forced to leave their homes and decided she would also leave the Temple and go into exile with the people.

When her father learned that she had left the Temple and gone into exile, he called upon all the princes in the world to go and find her and to report back to him with news to where the princess was. He promised the prince who found her that he would wed him to the princess. He foretold that on the day of the marriage, all the people in the world would celebrate their marriage.

Now all the princes wanted to marry the princess whose father was the ruler of the world. Each went his separate way in search of the princess. Some looked to the North, others to the East, a few went to the South, and others to the West. They searched every town and village, in every house and under every bed. But even though they searched everywhere, they could not find her.

At last there was but one prince left who had not searched for the princess. Now it was his chance to go and look and he could not turn down the quest. Before he set out into the world, he went around his castle saying to himself, ‘Where is it that the princess is so well-hidden, yet the same time always with her people?’

This prince sought out a wise rabbi and the rabbi said, ‘There is only one thing in the world that is always with our people, and that thing is the holy book, the Torah.’ ‘Well’ said the prince, ‘you must teach me the words of the holy book.’ The rabbi agreed.

The prince had to study the Torah for many years before he was able to master it, but a day came when he had become such a master of the teachings, that he was able to find out where the princess was hidden.

And as was the case, his search came to an end one day while he was reading the holy book. For all of a sudden he glimpsed the princess hidden in the sacred words of the Torah. The prince as he became filled with wisdom was able to see the shining brightness of the princess in the holy words, and his eyes were filled with luster.

Now the prince knows where the princess is hidden, he is determined to set her free. And when he does, her father the ruler of the world will keep his promise to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, that was once her home and on the day of their wedding the whole world will celebrate.

-retold by moi from the Original.

Two Sathya Sai Experiences – More Sathya Sai Memories

 

During my visit in 2008, I had the good fortune to sit for morning bhajans at the back  door entrance to the bhajan temple. (Swami sits opposite the back entrance in his wheelchair during bhajans. ) Swami came out  that morning to give darshan. It gave us all such joy. After some time he was wheeled into the Temple. We sat there motionless staring at him. He, as usual, appeared to be  in bliss. The bhajans continued for some time. During the bhajan singing, Swami called several students for a short discussion then dismissed them. He sat once more in bliss.. Swami  then  glanced over to where we were sitting and smiled.  Suddenly out of nowhere, a bunch of Jasmin flowers fell from the air into my hand! I don’t know where they came from. There were none around the temple door.  I immediately pinned them in my hair, removing the artificial rose that I had pinned into my hair that morning.  I don’t think Swami likes artificial flowers…..

p.s. During 2009 Swami ceased to sit inside the temple for bhajans. He sits outside on the veranda for all to see .

LEARN¸.•´* ♥ become aware of soul lessons*`•.¸(¯`•.•´¯)¸.•´* ♥ LET
GO¸.•´* ♥MOVE ON¸.•´* ♥ with joy •, LOVE ♥ gratitude•

Divine Intervention by Vibuthi

Influenza once spread like wild fire in the Sri Sathya Higher Secondary School in Prashanti Nilayam. Nearly 200 students were affected. After the evening bhajan concluded, Swami asked Dr Alreja to pay a visit to the School. The doctor found about 200 students suffering from high temperature, cough and vomiting. The infection seemed to be beyond control. It was then 8 pm. As the doctor made his way back to his room, he thought that as Swami’s room would be closed at that hour, he would report to Him next morning. At 8.30 pm, a volunteer came to tell him that Swami was waiting for him. The doctor hurried into Swami’s presence. Baba asked him, “I was waiting for you. Why have you not come to Me immediately? ” The doctor replied, “Swami, by the time I returned, it was 8 pm. I thought that your door would be closed by that hour. About 200 students are suffering there from flu. I find it impossible to arrest its spread. I am afraid, at this stage, no medicine can help. Only You can save them!”Next morning, Baba visited the school and the hospital. He walked through every single veranda and classroom. He went up to the roof also despite the Principal’s protestations that it was not properly cleaned up. Swami then called for a stainless steel bucket filled with water. He materialized vibhuthi in immense quantities and poured it into the water. He asked one of the teachers to carry the bucket around and serve the vibhuthi water to every teacher and every student. The disease spread no further from then on. Within a space of four days, every single patient recovered fully.

A.Anantha Vijaya