“This merit and virtue arises from their selfless thoughts and actions, and sometimes it’s inherited from their ancestors. Your ancestors also accumulated a great deal of virtue and merit, but it was all gone by your generation. People just kept taking and taking, without putting anything back.
“You could have lived longer, but died young because you ran out of merit. Although you lived a good life without causing harm to others, you didn’t do much for them, either. You didn’t accumulate any extra merit and virtue, nor was any left of what your ancestors created. However, you led an honest life, and that’s not an easy thing when one is so poor.
“Nine generations ago, I did much to relieve the suffering of others, and much to help brighten their minds. Because of this I became the guardian of this place, and because of our connection you were able to come here. So, there may be a way I can help you.”
The old man pointed to a very tall candle nearby, and explained:
“This man still has many, many more years of life left. He also has quite a bit of merit and good fortune stored up, but eight years must pass before he is allowed to use it. So, I’ll lend you his merit and good fortune until then.
“Go back to the living world and help many others while leading a good life. Then, when the time comes, there will be enough accumulated merit to pay him back, with plenty left over for you. You seem to be someone who would use his blessings to help others, so let’s give this a try. Remember, in eight years all debts will have to be settled.”
With this last reminder, the old man sent him back to this world.
Back at his home, people had gathered for the poor man’s funeral and were paying their last respects when his spirit suddenly returned to his body. It was probably due to his newly borrowed merit that his return wasn’t the cause of an additional funeral or two!
The poor man never forgot what his ancestor had told him, and for eight years he worked in all kinds of ways to relieve people’s suffering and help them live brighter lives. In this way, the merit and virtue of his actions paid back that which he had borrowed. Meanwhile, every business venture he undertook was hugely successful, to the point where eventually he became one of the richest men in the province.
Finally, one day there appeared at his gate a very poor, bedraggled man. In return for food and a dry place to sleep, he offered to work as a servant, saying that he was willing to do all of the hardest and dirtiest jobs.
As soon as the rich man saw his face, he knew that this was the person whose merit and fortune he had borrowed, and that the time to finish paying off all debts had arrived. He invited the poor man into his home and proceeded to give him the house and half of everything else he owned.
Having repaid his debt, the man continued to prosper and do good works up until the very end. The example he set inspired his children and grandchildren, and for generation after generation his descendants were a bright light of wisdom and compassion to all around them.
∴
If you’re curious about your past, look at how you’re living right now. It’s the same if you want to know about your future: look at how you’re living right now.
Hardships occur in exact proportion to the debts we’ve incurred. If we act without realizing what we are doing, then when the results of those actions and thoughts return to us, we won’t understand why we’re experiencing those things.
On the other hand, if we understand what we are doing when we do it, then we’ll understand when the results of those actions return to us. Look at how you are living now, and you can know what your future will be.
Everybody knows how to save money for the future, so why don’t people think more about these invisible savings that will affect us life after life?
8
The General’s Strange Dream
One night, the general in charge of Korea’s northern armies, Sung-gye Yi, was having a very strange dream.
Crows were cawing loudly above the palace, as a large glass mirror shattered into a thousand pieces at his feet. Meanwhile, outside his window, flowers bloomed but then immediately withered away, and high on his gate, hanging by its neck, a scarecrow was swinging in the wind.
Sung-gye Yi awoke with an ominous feeling. His dream was so dark and weird that it bothered him for many days. He was one of the Goryeo Dynasty’s top generals, and he had fought in countless battles both large and small. He always fought at the front of his army, and was known for his fearlessness. He’d faced death time after time and seen many gruesome things, yet this dream, with its strange omens, gnawed at him.
Finally, he decided to go and ask his teacher about it. This was a pretty good idea, because his teacher was the great Buddhist monk Muhak, who was wise beyond imagining. The general humbly explained his dream to Muhak and asked what he should do.
The great monk was silent, and for several long moments the general felt as if Muhak were staring into his very soul. At last, Muhak slowly smiled. “The dream means you’re going to be king.”
He began to explain the omens: “Crows always caw when someone new comes into the area, and in your dream they’re cawing because a new master is coming to the royal palace. The sound of the breaking mirror is the voices of a great multitude asking you to be their leader. The withered flowers mean that your diligence is about to bear fruit, while the dangling scarecrow high over the gate means that you will be someone that everybody looks up to.”
As he listened, General Yi was both relieved and surprised by what Muhak told him.
Just as the great monk predicted, he went on to become the first king of the Joseon Dynasty, which lasted for over five hundred years.
∴
The great master Muhak didn’t interpret the dream based upon rigid ideas of some signs being good and others being bad.
He just returned everything to his foundation and relayed the thoughts that arose from there. Even if you see terrifying ghosts or disasters in your dreams, don’t be disturbed by those images. Instead, just return them to your foundation and raise good thoughts.
Don’t be deceived—everything is the manifestation of your foundation, what is called Juingong.5 Juingong means the true doer, which is without any fixed shape. Everyone is endowed with this, and it is the foundation through which we are connected to everything else. It is the beginning and end of everything, but it is always changing and manifesting, without a fixed form or shape. So take even the things that arise in a dream and return them to your foundation.
If you practice like this in both your dreams and your waking life, you’ll live with confidence and equanimity, undaunted by good or bad events.
9
The Fox that Fell in a Hole
Once there was a fox who was being chased by a tiger. He ran this way and that, but the tiger was always right behind him.
As the fox glanced over his shoulder at his pursuer, he suddenly stumbled and fell into a deep, narrow hole.
The tiger reached down, trying to catch the fox with his claws, but the hole was too deep. Pacing back and forth around the hole, the tiger finally gave up and returned to the forest.
Now, try as he might, the fox couldn’t climb out of that hole. He jumped and he scratched, but each time he slid back down. Stuck there with no food and only dew for water, he began to fill with fear: What if he could never escape?
However, as one day and then another went by, something strange occurred: the fox’s thoughts began to settle down, and eventually he entered a state of deep contemplation. Suddenly, for just an instant, the fox’s true nature shone through.
Indra, who rules the heavenly realms, knew at that moment what had happened. He came down to the forest and bowed deeply to the fox, saying, “Even though you have the body of a fox, you have achieved the stage of seeing your own nature. How wonderful!”
The fox had no idea what Indra was talking about; he just wanted to get out of the hole. In a strangled voice, he cried out, “What good is bowing?! If you want to help, get me out of h
ere!”
Indra smiled and freed the fox in an instant. Then, he did something very strange: he gave the fox a beautiful set of embroidered silk clothes.
Again, the fox stared at Indra in amazement. “Look at my body! What possible use could I have for clothes?!”
With this, the fox turned and leapt back into the forest, without even a word of thanks.
∴
You may have realized that the fox represents human beings, the tiger is truth, and Indra is enlightenment.
The fox was chased by the tiger into a place from which there was no escape, until at last, after confronting many difficult things, the fox perceived his inherent nature. Whether we know it or not, we, too, are in the same situation.
In giving the fox such beautiful clothes, Indra was trying to show the fox his inherent potential and encourage him to become a much higher being.
Unfortunately, the fox didn’t understand this, because although he had been freed from one hole, he was still not free from the pit of his own habits and fixed ideas.
If the fox had been able to throw away his habits and views centered on his physical body, he would have realized that he, the tiger, and Indra were all one. Then the fox would have been able to put on the silk clothing without being blocked by his preconceived ideas.
No matter how many sutras you’ve read, or how much hard training you’ve undergone, no matter that you may have even glimpsed your inherent nature, unless you apply yourself further and deeply awaken, it will be hard to avoid becoming a fox who is still trapped by his own habits and fixed ways of thinking.
10
The Man who Became a Cow
On a remote farm in the mountains of Gangwon Province, there lived an old man, together with his son and daughter-in-law and their many children.
The old man had worked hard at spiritual cultivation for many decades, and he took everything that arose in life as something to be used for spiritual practice. So, although he was quite poor, he never felt a sense of lack, and his bright laughter and wisdom spread to everyone around him. All in all, theirs was a happy family.
Sadly, one day his son suddenly died. Not long after this, the old man began to sense that he, too, didn’t have much time left. The old man’s greatest concern was his daughter-in-law. He knew all too well how hard it would be for her to work the farm by herself while raising five young children.
After much meditation, he knew what he would do: he would be reborn as a cow in order to help his family.
Thus, several months after his death, the family’s elderly cow gave birth to a strong, bright-eyed calf. As the calf grew, it seemed to know what work needed to be done on the farm even before the woman.
For example, when it was time to plow the fields, the cow would stand next to the plow and moo loudly until the daughter-in-law understood.
The cow helped the woman in many other ways, too. One day while working in the fields, she was bitten by a snake. Her ankle swelled up and became infected, and within a few days she couldn’t move; she could only lie in her room, moaning from the pain.
Her children were too young to help her, but the cow came up to the house and kept hitting its tail on the porch. Finally, she crawled out to see what was going on.
The cow nudged her up on its back and carried her to a spring far in the mountains. It stunk of rotten eggs, but the cow gently set her down so that her leg lay soaking in the spring. Within a few hours, the swelling began to go down and her fever broke. Without the cow’s help, it’s likely she would have died.
In this way, twenty years flew by. One by one, her children grew up and left home, until only she and the cow were left. One evening, she fell asleep early and had a strange dream.
Her father-in-law, whom she hadn’t thought of in years, appeared and spoke to her: “I knew how difficult your life was going to be, trying to raise the children and run a farm by yourself. So, to help ease your way, I was reborn as your cow. I’m leaving now, but another aspect of myself is living in a small hermitage on the other side of this mountain range. If you would like to practice together, go to that temple.”
The daughter-in-law awoke with a start and ran barefoot out to the cow, but it had already died. She knelt there and cried, awed by the love of her father-in-law, who was willing to be reborn as even a cow in order to help her.
When the sun came up, she left for the temple her father-in-law had told her about. After traveling for several days, she found the hermitage, and saw that a young sunim was living there alone. He was about twenty years old, and looked exactly like her father-in-law—his face even had a mole in the same place.
Amazingly, her father-in-law had been reborn as both the cow and the sunim.
∴
The ability and functioning of our fundamental mind is so profound that most people can’t begin to imagine it.
Look at a single cup of water—it can’t do much, can it? Yet if you add that cup of water to the ocean, its combined strength becomes unimaginable. This is the strength of our fundamental Buddha-essence.
But how will we know this when we spend each day lost in a thousand different kinds of discriminations? When we just stop chasing these, and instead return them all to our fundamental nature, then the energy of our fundamental mind and the energy of everything we encounter will be able to function together as one.
The energy of this combined functioning is beyond anything you can imagine. It dwarfs even that of the oceans and skies, for it is the energy of every single thing in the universe, connected and working as one.
If you truly want to help someone, let go of all your discriminations. Let go unconditionally of all of your ideas about high and low, worthy and unworthy, human or animal.
When you keep entrusting everything to your fundamental essence in this way, something deep within you will stir. This vast energy responds to whatever is needed and takes any form. It leaves no trace of its passage, yet it’s more powerful than the heavens and earth.
It is true compassion, and can take any shape—even that of a cow.
11
Ananda and the Keyhole
Not long after the Buddha entered Nirvana, a great council of the Buddha’s disciples was formed.
Five hundred of his greatest disciples gathered together and chose Kassapa to head the council. Their purpose was to collect all of the different teachings of the Buddha. Much to everyone’s surprise, Kassapa refused to allow the Buddha’s attendant Ananda to join them.
Kassapa explained, “The Buddha taught us that everything in this world is the non-dual functioning and interaction of the material realm and the nonmaterial realm. Thus, we must be able to take care of things while combining both realms, without neglecting either side.
“However, because Ananda is still stuck in the mind of discriminations, he has not combined with his foundation and so is unable to harmoniously use both sides.
“Thus, even though he perfectly remembers every word of the Buddha, without knowing this foundation, how can he understand the true meaning of what the Buddha said? How then could he correctly transmit the Buddha’s intention? I cannot allow him to attend.”
Among the ten great disciples of the Buddha, it was Ananda who had heard the most talks by the Buddha, and it was Ananda whose memory was nearly perfect. So you can imagine how shocked and embarrassed he was at being excluded from the council.
Kassapa’s words were hard to hear and hard to accept for Ananda, but he knew that Kassapa’s enlightenment and practice were acknowledged by all of the great disciples, even by the Buddha himself.
Thus, Ananda made up his mind to awaken. He stayed in his room without eating or sleeping, never allowing his attention to be diverted outwardly. Instead, he focused all of his attention inward, forgetting about even life and death.
He took every single thing that arose and entrusted it to his inherent nature, the true doer. He let go of every kind of thought of “me” and “you,” “I” and “mine.” Entrusting ever
ything, his only desire was to become one with his true self.
One night, everything became clear. In a great moment, he realized what Kassapa had meant when he described combining with the foundation and harmoniously using both sides. Ananda was so happy that he ran all the way to where the council was gathered and started banging on the outer gate.
From inside, Kassapa asked, “Who’s there?”
“It’s me, Ananda!”
“What do you want at this time of night?”
“Oh, Kassapa!! I’ve done it! I’ve done it! Now I understand why I couldn’t be allowed to attend the council!” shouted Ananda.
Kassapa was delighted to hear that at last Ananda, too, had awakened. “Well done! If you want to join us, just come in through the keyhole.”
As soon as Ananda heard Kassapa, he rushed in through the keyhole and bowed to the assembly. Then the two disciples hugged each other and cried for joy.
∴
This is the story of how Ananda came to join the council, but you must see more than the words alone.
When you awaken to your true nature, you will be able to see and hear everything through your mind’s eye. You’ll realize that every single thing is inherently connected and functions as one. As soon as Ananda had awakened, he could perceive Kassapa’s mind, and he knew that Kassapa was not separate from himself.
Ananda entering through the keyhole means that Ananda’s mind went back and forth freely, because from the very beginning all beings are connected as one through our fundamental mind.
My Heart is a Golden Buddha Page 3
