When a child is born it is not normal that we say “Oh, the poor thing is going to die”, we don’t say to the parents, “I so sorry for the eventual death of your child.” Instead we naturally celebrate the life and birth of the child, even though those two previous statements are completely accurate and honest.
What I am talking about is balance in all situations in life. A balance between life and death, between optimism and pessimism. The Buddha abandoned his austerity practice and his search for the perfect intellectual teaching and sat under the Bodhi tree and attained an enlightenment of the Middle Way between denial and abundance and intellect only.
I will borrow from a story that can perhaps illustrate this. One time there was a skilled mountain climber who decided one morning before the sun rose to scale the side of a familiar mountain. After about half way up his ascent a piece of the side of the mountain which he had placed his shifting weight upon broke off. Suddenly he began to fall. Fortunately there was a root which he was able to grab hold of. After a few minutes though the root began to peel away fro the mountain side and our climber found himself dangling from this root a thousand feet from the rocks below and as the vine or root swung out he was 15 or 20 feet from the side of the mountain.
As he gripped the root ever more tightly he knew his time to hold on was decreasing due to the strain. As he began to settle his mind into the situation he found that he didn’t need to grip so tightly and could hold on longer. Looking up he noticed a berry, perhaps a strawberry or a grape. It was within his reach and so he grabbed it. With his free hand he popped it into his mouth and savored the juices and the sweetness of the fruit. Wow he thinks to himself this is the sweetest most delicious fruit he had ever tasted. Never before had he eaten a fruit so slowly and took the time to taste it in such a way. The pending fall to the rocks below, the certainty of his death allowed him to notice a richness of the experience heretofore unnoticed.
Just at this moment the sun begins to peak above the surrounding mountains and he declares this to be the most beautiful dramatic sunrise he had ever seen. (story credit from _The Seventh Telling: The Kabbalah of Moeshe Katan_ by Mitchell Chefitz)
Resist the urge at this point to read further. Take a moment to taste the experience with your life. Resist the urge to know what happens.
Death is death, life is life. It is our choice as to how we will experience them both.
Buddhism teaches us the way to master our mind to ward off evil and to strengthen the resources within ourselves to accomplish our indestructible joy, how to become enlightened. By perfecting our minds through our practice of meditation, chanting the Odaimoku, reciting the sutra and study of Buddhist principles we can butters up the fortress of our mind thereby ensuring that the misfortunes that fall upon our body is incapable of shaking our faith.
Chih-I says that even if a huge mountain like obstacle arises if we have perfected our practice and continue to strengthen our faith and practice then you can be able to face even death and sacrifice your remaining breaths to remaining in what he calls the ‘meditation chamber’. He assures that there is no offense or karma that can not be overturned or extinguished. We can find this in the words of the Lotus Sutra, and we can take great comfort in them.
Chih-I’s approach is to view conventional reality as not an illusion to be denied but a positive interpretation of the meaning of emptiness. So in the reality of our life the goal is not to deny what we experience. Rather the objective is to see the reality of the emptiness of those experiences and that reality is the basis of the Middle Path.
We do not deny the pain we may experience, instead we embrace the positive aspect of that pain as an indicator that there is a way between completely succumbing to the inevitability of pain and the denial of pain. The pain in a way is the reality which we can use to experience life and move between surrender and ignorance.
There is a balance that is possible that stabilizes the mind, spirit, and body. Buddhism is the tool to do this most effectively because it does not deny or celebrate but teaches an honest awareness of the true nature of reality. There is birth, there is life, there is sickness, there is disease, there is death.
Perhaps another story? There is an anti-racist tale attributed to the Buddha about a yaksa demon. This particular fellow was ugly with a capital U and he had an evil color. What color would us say that is, what would be an evil color to you? Well needless to say he wasn’t too welcome by everyone. They didn’t like his looks. Folks became angry when he showed up.
The ‘Thirty-Three Devas’ became so agitated that they went to Indra saying the demon must be removed. Indra then with respect and with great politeness approached the demon who then willing agreed to not appear anymore. The Buddha or Indra, depending on how and who tells this used this story to scold the ‘Thirty-Three Devas’ and teach about the danger of harboring anger, hatred, and ill-will and judging (particularly on the basis of color).
When we experience something unpleasant in out lives pain perhaps, we can easily become tense and resentful of the pain. I know I need to constantly remind myself to be gentle on my physical imitations while at the same time avoiding become complacent with these new limits. If I approach my limits with kindness and appreciation for what they can teach me while at the same time not avoiding them, not hating them and not being too nice to them. When I can do this I find that I’m actually able to do a little bit more than perhaps I thought I could. Now that may not be everyone’s experience. Certainly though making an enemy of our pain, usually does not make it go away any faster and may even provide fertile ground for that demon to grow uglier, large, and more colorful.
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