Door Is Open
Havana, Florida
It is easy to see there are doors in buildings, but how easy to distinguish the doors in our lives. We all have them, some of us keep them shut others open them freely. Some doors we may selectively seal shut, hoping what is behind never gets out. Yet like houses, the more doors we have open and the freer the access to our true self the greater joys we will experience, the easier it will be to live.
Even the doors that you keep locked up, if you can become friends with the demons behind those doors, the freer your life will be. Every locked door imprisons us as well. Ok, opening those doors is a personal challenge and as such it’s not my right or place to put undue burden upon you to do something you are not willing to tackle.
Let us move on to other doors, the doors to learning and growth.
“Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself. (Chinese Proverb)
The Buddha, as we are told in the Lotus Sutra, appears and teaches for the great purpose to cause all living beings to open the gates to the insight of the Buddha. In a sense the Buddha teaches so that we will become aware that there are hidden insights and mysteries, the insight of the Buddhas.
“The wisdom of the present Buddhas is profound and immeasurable. The gate to it is difficult to understand and difficult to enter.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter II)
By becoming aware that there is more to life we then awaken to the desire to find out what that is and how we might achieve it as well. Because we are made aware of other possibilities we can then nurture a sense of seeking out those things that will provide answers.
“The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to open the gate to the insight of the Buddha, and to cause them to purify themselves.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter II)
Imagine if you will, or rather recall in your mind the story of the stupa which appears above the congregation as the Buddha is teaching the Lotus Sutra. The stupa is closed up, yet there is a loud voice that comes from within. The folks in the congregation ask the Buddha about this, and he explains about Many Treasures Buddha. Then all the people beg the Buddha to let them see this Many Treasures Buddha so the Buddha opens the door to the stupa.
“All the four kinds of devotees stood up, joined their hands together towards him, and looked up at him with all their hearts. Now he opened the door of the stupa of the seven treasures with the fingers of his right hand.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter XI)
In our own homes we recreate this ceremony, even if we do have doors on our altar, we do join our hands together and look with all our hearts.
The teachings of the Buddha, the teachings we study, cause a desire within us to seek to change our lives. For many of us these changes are such that we never even imagined possible. We have opened our doors, the doors to our hearts, souls, and minds, to the possibilities of firmly establishing the truth and beauty of the Lotus Sutra in our lives in order to manifest our inner Buddha potentials. Every day, as you prepare to engage in your personal practice I hope you will do so with the intention of opening as many of your doors as possible to receive the nourishment of the Odaimoku.
