Chapter I: Part 4 – Conclusion

Submissions by practitioners for “Lotus of Your Life”: I’ll present items shared with me by others on the page linked. In the future this link will appear at the end of the each post. February has almost ended and in the month of March, we will be looking at Chapter II, Expedient Means. While I won’t be posting on Chapter I, Introductory, it doesn’t mean it is finished. In fact, I have several other areas of consideration, and I will share them with you in this wrap-up post. This post will also sum up what’s been covered so far, as a way of refreshing your memory and hopefully inspiring you to begin your telling of the Lotus Sutra of your life. The first item was my proposal for this project and an outline of how the study would be laid out. Keep in mind this is indeed a legitimate way to study. This process is in some ways much like Lectio Divina, where you place yourself in the story or teaching. Lectio Divina has many different ways of insertion into the scriptures. There is taking on the character of someone, either the teacher or another character. Sometimes repeating this process with each character is recommended. Another approach is repeatedly meditating on the story listening to why you are there. This is an exploration into what about a particular teaching has caught your attention. Were you given a specific teaching by someone to study, and if so, exploring what might have been reasons for the gift? There are many different ways for us to live deeply and learn teaching which may seem distant because of space or time. The scripture, the Lotus Sutra, is not a historical document for us to examine with the eye of a scientist. This teaching of the Buddha is a living, modern, and contemporary instruction. It comes to life through our actions in faith. As Captain Picard of the Enterprise would say: “Make it so.” To begin our discovery of how the Lotus Sutra applies and manifest in our lives, we started with what was going on in your life before ‘first-contact’. In other words, where were you both in space and time and emotionally? What was going on in your life? Looking back at that point, what can you uncover in yourself that may have perhaps made it possible for you to consider this practice, either Buddhism or the Lotus Sutra. Was there something there you wanted to change, learn, explore, uncover, or any number of other motivators? Knowing this can provide you with a measure of whether you accomplished your goal. Or, perhaps you modified your goal or reasons. Are you aware of yourself enough to know the answer to these and other questions? Where did you begin? Who were you when you began? Next up I offered for your consideration the exploration of your environment. Where were you? Who was around you? Who were the people in your life at the time? Has there been any change in those people? If so, in what way? For people recovering from addiction to drugs or alcohol one of the strongly suggested strategies is to change the people you hang out with. The reason is they are probably not good influences on your health. You may have had some toxic people in your environment. Or you may have had some valuable resources surrounding you. What has changed, and why do you suspect it did? Have the changes, when looking back, been beneficial? Last week I asked about whether you can identify any event or phenomena or feeling which you may closely associate with your decision to try this practice. There may not have been though you will never know if you do not ask the question. There may be a series of successive events which when looking back come into focus. So perhaps there was an initial trend in your life. In either case, where are you today? Are the phenomena continuing? I can say for myself the excitement I felt that first night still exists. Perhaps it isn’t as dramatic, yet when I think about all that has happened and consider all that may happen I do find it pretty darn exciting. Today I offer another area or question to consider. Even though I may not do anything creative with it at the moment, I may in the future. Hopefully, this is how you will approach this study activity. Perhaps nothing is happening right now; that is alright. Perhaps something may pop up in the future. I ask you to remain open to yourself. Who is the person you turned to initially for the answers to your questions? In the first chapter, Maitreya seeks out information from Manjusiri as to the meaning of the various phenomena which have just occurred. In the case of the Lotus Sutra, Maitreya has good reasons for asking Manjusiri. As we read in the Sutra, Manjusiri had already met many, innumerable, Buddhas. He had practiced with them and made offerings to them. Thinking of your story, what qualifications to you have for choosing the teachers of your life? In particular, what were the qualifications for your first teacher in Buddhism? Perhaps it was merely by chance; that was the situation in my case. Also true in my case, there were no other choices. Even still, there required on your part a willingness to participate as a student. What is there for you discover in examining this relationship, both then and now? In my book on the Parable of the Magic City, I explored the idea of a guide or teacher. What criteria do you have for your choices when selecting someone to teach you anything? Are you aware of those criteria? Have you thought about how the criteria may change or be different depending upon the subject or goal? Have you thought about your process of moving beyond one teacher and seeking out another? As I wrote the book, I thought about the examples we see in literature. Two of those examples were the relationship between Harry and Dumbledore, and the relationship between Frodo and Bilbo with Gandalf. I find it interesting in both of those examples that the teacher did not always reveal the truth or whole story. We see this same thing in the Lotus Sutra and the teachings of the Buddha. Have you given any thought to this and your circumstances? There are other possible areas in Chapter I you may be curious about when you begin to look for the Lotus Sutra and its manifestation in your life. The manifestation in your life is not a theoretical approach; it is about realizing the many truths of the Lotus Sutra which have been revealed through living. I’ll conclude this post with an attempt to dissuade some resistance at making a visual representation of your experience living the Lotus Sutra. Consider for a moment that the creation of a visual expression is a celebration of that thing. Of course, it could be a warning as well, hopefully though in your life it is about joy. Throughout the history of religious art, Buddhism certainly fits in, initially artistic expression was free. You might say it was from the heart without being bound by conventions of others. In contemporary art study, it would be classified as ‘folk art’. Generally, folk-art is art done by someone without any formalized education in art. Things such as medium techniques, preservation, subject study, compositions, even basic drawing skills. Also, folk-art is frequently looked down upon by the art establishment. Frequently it happens that the folk-art is in retrospect viewed more favorably and is highly sought out as collectible. In the art world, we are truly in the folk art category. Ok, I can live with that, and it does not affect my desire to share my joy of my faith. Going way back in time all religious and other art was folk art. There was a time in Buddhism before conventions of representation were established. Originally there were no prescribed proportional standards of placement of eyes on the face. There were no standards for where the ears are supposed to be in relation to the mouth. Nobody had yet prescribed the proportional dimensions of face to body, or hands to arms. People found delight in Buddhism, and they drew. Even in the Lotus Sutra praise is given to boys drawing with a stick in the dirt. Not only was that folk-art, but it was also impermanent, and it was an expression of pure joy. It was also important enough the Buddha spoke of it. What I’m inviting you to do is express your joy, express your emotional experience of your faith. This is the art the Buddha encourages us to create, and the art which has lived on for over 2000 years in the Lotus Sutra. Consider the first images identified with the Buddhist teachings were the wheel and the footprint. In the history of Japanese Buddhist art there are examples from hundreds of years ago of people carving stamps and then repetitively stamping these images on pieces of paper. The images frequently were depictions of the Buddha or of a quote from a sutra. The carved stamps, usually made from wood were not professionally done, and they were not mass produced. These stamped images, done by lay practitioners, sometimes numbering in the thousands of impressions, were then presented to local temples for inclusion into the hollow body of statues. The Japanese name for this practice of stamping images is nikkan imbutsu, which literally means a daily routine of stamping Buddhas. You do not need to be an artist to make art. Let me change that. If you make art, you are an artist. What you do not need is anyone’s permission or approval. There is no requirement for any training other than the training you have received by the joy of your practice. Oh, you also need to know about the joy in your life. Submissions by other for Lotus of Your Life