Holes
The other day I saw a quote which got me to remembering a book and movie I had read several years ago.
The name of the book and movie is “Holes” by Louis Sachar. The story briefly is about a young boy who is falsely accused of a crime and sent to a youth detention facility. His purpose at the facility is really to fulfill a long standing karmic debt that was generations old. While at the boys camp he does fulfill a promise one of his ancestors made and so completes the cycle. As a result a fortune that belonged to the family ancestors finally materializes.
I am not doing the book or the movie justice, partly because I don’t want to give too much away and also because I am trying to just briefly summarize what is otherwise a very complicated and engaging story. If you have the patience to read or watch the movie I recommend it highly.
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One of the visuals in the story is of digging holes in a barren waste land. The boys in the camp would dig holes all day long, all the while looking for a mythical buried treasure. If after digging a while nothing was found another hole was dug.
“I collected firewood and the fruits of trees and grasses, and offered these things to him respectfully from time to time. I never felt tired in body and mind because I was thinking of the Wonderful Dharma. I sought the Great Dharma strenuously because I wished to save all living beings. I did not wish to benefit myself or to have the pleasures of the five desires.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter XII)
The boys labored day after day hole after hole. In the movie version the landscape is literally covered as far as the eye can see with holes dug.
The hero of the story, suffers a great deal, he takes the blame for a lot of acts he never committed and so he is punished more than the others. Yet in the end, we learn that through his character and his desire to do good and to help others he repays a karmic debt.
“I attained perfect enlightenment and now save all living beings because Devadatta was my teacher.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter XII)
It may seem like we are digging pointless holes in the sweltering hot sun on a desert. It may seem like our burdens are impossible to bear or overcome. Yet even as the Buddha served in a previous existence the person who would plot to kill him, we too are making the proper and most expeditious causes for our own enlightenment.
We have a deep connection, spanning innumerable lifetimes, with the life we are living right now. This life, which may seem lonely and excruciatingly difficult is actually the perfect life we have chosen to manifest the truth of the Buddha Dharma.
This hole we are digging now may not seem like it is the hole with the treasure in it but we can be assured that every hole we dig will reveal some aspect of our enlightened life through the Odaimoku.
