Every Moment
Every moment of your life is a moment to practice Buddhism.
It is easy to understand that the time we spend at our altar, the time we spend chanting, or the time we spend reciting the sutra are times of practice. That is easy.
What is more difficult and the place where true Buddhism exists is the moments between those sacred practice moments. It is easy to be a Buddhist when we sit, the challenge is to be a Buddhist when we walk about.
To be a Bodhisattva, to practice for others selflessly is hard to do, it is even harder to accomplish when no one is looking. If, however we can maintain our practice, even in the moments when no one is looking or know one knows that is when we can accumulate the greatest merit.
There is a chapter in the Lotus Sutra called World-Voice Perceiver which is also known as Kanzeon or Kannon. This chapter is sometimes taken out of the Lotus Sutra and used as single practice vehicle. Statues of Kannon are famous and prolific.
Kannon is said to hear the cries of those in distress and come to their aide. There is, however, I think a different way to perceive this chapter. We can look at Kanzeon as some deity upon whom we can rely upon in times of crisis. There is another way to consider this chapter as well. That way looks at the ability and the expectation that we too manifest the attributes of World-Voice Perceiver in our lives.
Just as we wish to manifest the qualities of Bodhisattva Never Despise so too should we wish to manifest the qualities of World-Voice Perceiver.
“He takes various shapes, walks about many worlds, and saves the living beings of those worlds. Make offerings to World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva with all your hearts! This World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva-mahasattva gives fearlessness to those who are in fearful emergencies. Therefore, he is called the ‘Giver of Fearlessness’ in this Saha-World.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter XXV)
Every day we can give hope to those who may feel hopeless, we can seek to correct injustice when we see it, we can recognize those who are suffering and offer comfort. There are a myriad number of ways that we can practice these activities in our daily lives.
Our practice is not something that benefits us, it is something that can benefit others. When no one is looking, when no on sees us we can manifest the Bodhisattva. That is the heart of really doing Buddhist practice.
“If anyone keeps, reads and recites this sutra while he walks or stands, I will mount a kingly white elephant with six tusks, go to him together with great Bodhisattvas, show myself to him, make offerings to him, protect him, and comfort him, because I wish to make offerings to the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter XXVIII)
