Gate Twenty Eight
Read the following, place it in your heart and sleep on it. Then, tomorrow, live it until evening when you can leave a brief comment on what you may have received during the process.
Recognition of kindness is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we do not throw away good roots.
A “Dharma Gate” is a teaching or practice we can study to gain insights into the deepening our practice. It's a way to integrate our understanding of approaching reality.
Koan:
"There was an old woman in China who had supported a monk for over twenty years. She had built a little hut for him and fed him while he was meditating. Finally she wondered just what progress he had made in all this time. To find out, she obtained the help of a girl rich in desire. “Go and embrace him,” she told her, “and then ask him suddenly: ‘What now?'”
The girl called upon the monk and without much ado caressed him, asking him what he was going to do about it.
“An old tree grows on a cold rock in winter,” replied the monk somewhat poetically. “Nowhere is there any warmth.”
The girl returned and related what he had said.
“To think I fed that fellow for twenty years!” exclaimed the old woman in anger. “He showed no consideration for your needs, no disposition to explain your condition. He need not have responded to passion, but at least he should have evidenced some compassion.”
She at once went to the hut of the monk and burned it down."
I like this idea that kindness having good roots. Like a plant that is allowed to flourish.
A single act of kindness is a two-way street. Certainly we must spread kindness ourselves, but it is equally important to embrace the kind acts of others as that acceptance helps to nourish their ongoing kindness and generosity.
合掌 js/stlah
Read the following, place it in your heart and sleep on it. Then, tomorrow, live it until evening when you can leave a brief comment on what you may have received during the process.
Recognition of kindness is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we do not throw away good roots.
A “Dharma Gate” is a teaching or practice we can study to gain insights into the deepening our practice. It's a way to integrate our understanding of approaching reality.
Koan:
"There was an old woman in China who had supported a monk for over twenty years. She had built a little hut for him and fed him while he was meditating. Finally she wondered just what progress he had made in all this time. To find out, she obtained the help of a girl rich in desire. “Go and embrace him,” she told her, “and then ask him suddenly: ‘What now?'”
The girl called upon the monk and without much ado caressed him, asking him what he was going to do about it.
“An old tree grows on a cold rock in winter,” replied the monk somewhat poetically. “Nowhere is there any warmth.”
The girl returned and related what he had said.
“To think I fed that fellow for twenty years!” exclaimed the old woman in anger. “He showed no consideration for your needs, no disposition to explain your condition. He need not have responded to passion, but at least he should have evidenced some compassion.”
She at once went to the hut of the monk and burned it down."
- The parable of non-loving kindness.
Most note worthy replies :I like this idea that kindness having good roots. Like a plant that is allowed to flourish.
A single act of kindness is a two-way street. Certainly we must spread kindness ourselves, but it is equally important to embrace the kind acts of others as that acceptance helps to nourish their ongoing kindness and generosity.
Embrace the kindness
Of others
So they may grow too
Of others
So they may grow too
合掌 js/stlah
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