Well, here we are approaching the autumn equinox. Twice a year on our planet we have an equinox, a period of equal light and equal dark. Twice a year we take time during the equinox season to pay particular attention to observing the Six Paramitas.
We find reference to Higan, which means crossing to the other shore, in the first chapter of the Lotus Sutra.
“They had already trained themselves out of their compassion towards others, entered the Way to the wisdom of the Buddha, obtained the great wisdom, and reached the Other Shore so that their fame had already extended over innumerable worlds.” Lotus Sutra, Chapter I
While it is true that every day and every moment are periods of transition. We are constantly in states of transition going from one thing to the next. Most of the time I am guessing we do so mindlessly until at some point we are aware we have done some thing or some period of time has elapsed. We may experience the same thing, especially at this time of year when we are reminded that the year is almost over.
The idea of crossing over to some other shore has some potential interesting images that can be conjured up. Of course one such image is of a ship that leaves one shore, travels across a body of water and finally drops anchor on a different shore. We could say that Buddhism is the ship that can carry us over the ocean of suffering. Early Mahayana Buddhists used the image of a ship or boat because it could transport many people.
Buddhism is like a ship traveling across the ocean of suffering is an easy image to think about. Yet, we would be somewhat lazy if we only thought of Buddhism as some comfortable cruse liner where we are passengers being transported in luxury and ease. In order to get the ship safely from one place to another there needs to be a highly organized crew to sail the ship. The crew needs to follow orders and do things in an orderly way.
The Six Paramitas you could say are like the rules and procedures for sailing a ship, sort of like the operating instructions. As the boat of Buddhism travels carrying people from one shore to another the journey is from ignorance to enlightenment; from dark into light. The equinox is a perfect time to think about the journey from dark to light and the equality of both. An interesting thought about life is there is an equal potential for joy as there is for suffering.
If you consider the realm of humans to be relatively neutral; neither great suffering nor great joy, then there are four realms that are lower and four realms that are higher. We have at any moment of time an equal potential to experience joy or suffering, the thing that will decide matters is our faith and practice. The basic practice guidelines, or instructions for life, are the Six Paramitas, along with chanting the Odaimoku. In the realm of humanity we are in a sense in an equinox equivalent of state of mind. If we abandon our practice and our faith then we will gradually find our condition of life slowly on a downward spiral potentially. Yet if we renew our practice and determination we can slowly improve our life condition. We can, through our practice of Six Paramitas cross over to the other side of enlightenment.
In our lives we continually come up against equinox moments where depending upon the thing we choose the future will be dramatically different. Sometimes they are easy to spot, even if not easy to decide. Other times the transition moment may be not so easy to spot, it could be as simple as choosing to say a word in anger or reframing from responding.
It is as if we are on the boat of Buddhism making our way to a shore, the challenge then becomes which shore we will choose to debark upon. Will we choose to debark on one shore to embark on a new journey with different skills as our tools. Will we use the Six Paramitas, the Lotus Sutra, and Odaimoku to ensure our path is one of joy. Or will we abandon our practice turn around mid-journey and debark from the boat of Buddhism onto the shore we originally started from. Will we in our equinox moments choose a path of change illuminated by Buddhist practice, or will we fall back into unskillful practices and ensure ourselves of a life of repeated sufferings.
During these days of Ohigan around the fall equinox, I hope you will renew your focus on adopting the Six Paramitas as a foundational set of principals on which to live your life.
