Day 307 – Hanging out under the tree of englightenment.
Zencast 304 – The Awakened Heart
Jack Kornfield told what I found to be a very inspiring story in today’s podcast. It was the story of the folk Buddha statue made of clay, which was made 700 – 800 years ago.
Over the years many people went to perform Puja at the popular clay Buddha. As the seasons changed the clay cracked and had to be repaired in order for the statue to withstand the test of time. However, one day when a young monk was repairing the clay he noticed a flash of gold where a crack had appeared. Upon further investigation it was revealed that the largest Buddha made of gold was in fact underneath and had been hidden under the clay for all of those years. It was understood that the statue had been covered in clay as a means of protecting the gold Buddha from regime and ideological changes, which could have endangered it. The clay was of course removed and this statue remains a popular attraction today for Buddhists and travelers alike. (I think Jack said it is in Thailand.)
This story and Jack got me thinking: just as the layers of clay were removed to reveal the gold Buddha underneath, don’t we, as meditators and practitioners, strip away layers of our own clay of human delusion as we sit in meditation in order to reveal the gold, the Buddha, that lies hidden beneath?
Of course, these layers of delusion that we live with everyday are centuries old. As Thich Naht Hanh reminded me in his book ‘No Death, No Fear‘, we have inherited/ borrowed our bodies from our ancestors. Doesn’t that mean that we have also inherited their clay layers of delusion? Couldn’t this be said to be especially true when practitioners of Buddhism, such as myself, are fighting against cultural and/ or familial norms by following the path of the Buddha? Is this not why it can be so difficult to sit and peel away our outer shell in meditation practice because it too has been resealed and re-finished over hundred and hundreds of years by our ancestors as they followed their own paths (in my case, non Buddhist paths) and lived their own lives?
When I think of myself in relationship to practice in this way I start to realize why sitting down to meditate for even 1 minute can be so excruciating and impossible sometimes. I’m not only fighting against my own mind, but against the minds of my ancestors and all the years of delusion they bestowed upon me.
However, I do not look upon my inheritance of my body and mind to be such a negative thing. In fact, I find it rather inspiring. For example, can I not also use this ancestral body that now houses me as a means of seeing my own inter-being and non-self? As I have been taught, there is no real ‘me’, I am simply a continuation of my ancestors, just as my children and their children will continue on the physical legacy of their ancestors and me.
In addition, if we are the inheritors of our ancestors’ bodies and minds, can we also not simply look at ourselves in order to look and see back as far as our ancestors when they were simply the matter that makes up the cosmos? I like to do this whenever I can. I like to look down at my body and feel the star matter in my skin and bones. If I am open enough, and release my thoughts enough, sometimes I feel I can almost reach out into the universe around me and touch the ancestral parts of me that make me who I am today.
For that I thank my ancestors, the universe and the star matter, for their generosity in lending me the body that houses me today. Hopefully, if I work hard and practice well enough I too can pass on that inheritance to future generations, but with fewer layers of clay delusion to peel back. Hopefully, with the right effort I put into my practice from this day forth, my future generations will be able to reach that golden Buddha that all of us hold within. And, if and when my future generations manage to reach that golden Buddha, will they not have come full circle from our ancestors of the past in returning to the source of the cosmos – the Buddha, the universe of one, the universe of you?
Namaste
P.S. I really hope this makes some sort of sense. It sounded so good in my head and then I tried to write it… 
—–
Related articles
- Sharon Salzberg: A True Refuge (the2012scenario.com)
Like this:
Comments
5 Responses to “Day 307 – Hanging out under the tree of englightenment.”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying...-
[...] Day 307 – Hanging out under the tree of englightenment. (ayearoflivingwisely.wordpress.com) [...]
I love that story. And I think I’ve heard that Jack Kornfield podcast. What a great, thoughtful post. And yes, it made perfect sense!
Thank you Ollin! I appreciate the feedback from such a stellar writer as yourself and am glad it made sense
Thank you for taking the time to read my work!
Blessings, Ange
I can’t remember it exactly, but the story of the gold Buddha covered in clay reminds me of the story of the beggar that suffers his whole life, and when he dies, a pile of gold or jewels is discovered buried in the exact spot he sat and suffered. I also read a book about a house of sand that a man toiled to keep from shifting, which also turned out to be burying a pile of gold that if he’d only let nature be, would have been revealed. There’s another about a starving dog and a bone that seems to have a similar message–that we so often are confused about reality, about the gift of this precious human birth, that if we stopped struggling and relaxed into reality as it is, we’d find it workable.
P.S. I really hope this makes some sort of sense. It sounded so good in my head and then I tried to write it…
Hehe. Those stories make perfect sense
Those are all wonderful stories and so true of human nature. It’s true, that we do all love to toil and struggle often to simply realize we were making life way more difficult than it has to be. Thank you for those other reminders to have more of a sense of humor 