Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Farmer and Scholar
Lama Phurbu Tashi told a another story Wednesday night while explaining the mind training slogans on ultimate bodhicitta. And since I like stories, here it is.
Once in India there was a famous Buddhist scholar with more than a thousand students who regarded him as their teacher. One day he was traveling and saw a farmer cultivating his fields with a hoe. He told the farmer that if he cultivated the practice of meditation with the same effort that he put into cultivating his fields, he would soon be enlightened. The farmer asked the scholar how to meditate. The scholar said, while you cultivate your fields, think of the earth as your mind basis and think of the hoe as your mindful awareness of it. And so, the farmer practiced meditation this way while cultivating his fields until after many years he was enlightened. After he became enlightened he used his power of siddhi to find where the scholar was as and travel swiftly to him. He thanked the scholar for his instruction. But the scholar, who was now an old man, did not remember their conversation and asked who he was. The farmer explained how they met and how by following his instruction he was now enlightened. The scholar confessed that he was not yet enlightened, in spite of studying and practicing all his life. So the farmer gave him some instruction in meditation and soon the scholar was enlightened as well.
And, Lama added, if you practice one day you will be teaching me. Which seems unlikely, but really it shouldn't be, and really it's a shame to say so. If Buddhism is not going to degenerate, the student should be greater than the teacher and it's no disrespect to your teacher to aim for this.
My cell phone took an unexpected plung into the toilet Monday. I thought it was dead, but I dried it off as best I could and plugged it into the recharger. Early Wednesday morning it chirped and showed other signs of life. Now it seems completely better, except the battery life seems shorter. I hope that's not so, because replacement batteries are expensive. Not as bad as buying a new phone, but still a chunk of money.
