Impermenance & the Four Horses

               In ancient Japan, a thin, wispy trail of smoke rising up from the mountains and leading up into the sky meant one thing -- the dead were being cremated. People would cast their eyes down, remember their deceased loved ones, and hope their families were not amongst the ones burned that day.

               We see this same sight today perhaps from the chimney of a mortuary, but how often do these scenes make us reflect upon our own mortality or even affect us on a deep level?

                Sensitivities to death vary from person to person. So in Pure Land Buddhism there is "The Metaphor of Four Horses" in order to describe the differences. This analogy uses a horses' attitude toward the whip, which represents the animal's greatest fear.

Original Art by LisaGenius available on Flickr.com

The Metaphor of the Four Horses

1.) A Horse that Sees the Whip's Shadow 
People surprised by the idea of their own death 

when they see falling blossoms or smoke from a crematory.

2.) A Horse that Feels the Whip Brush Over Its Mane
People stunned by the idea they too will die one day

when they see a funeral or hearse

3.) A Horse Cut to the Flesh by the Whip
People who are shocked to think they could be next

when they attend the funeral of relatives and neighbors

4.) A Horse Pierced to the Bone by the Whip -
People who are moved by their own impermanence

 when they lose their family

                    Modern society goes to great lengths to shield us from seeing death or even thinking about it, because this unsettled issue of where we go when we die troubles us so deeply. Some people go to extremes and even whisper the word death or get squeamish at just the mention of a terminal illness. Seeing death near us invokes a dreaded realization that one day... even as soon as today or tomorrow... we must leave all we have come to know and love in this life.

                  The starting point of Buddhism is having this sensitivity toward impermanence. We must direct our thinking about the deaths of others and reflect seriously about our own imminent demise. Without this crucial awareness, we can't advance even one step forward in Buddhism. We listen to reach the all-important, end goal of solving the crucial matter of our afterlife.
  
                 Sakyamuni Buddha had great compassion for human beings, even while knowing that we were all falling into the world of suffering without knowing it because of our evil deeds. Every second nearly two people die. Those that pass away from this world are like raindrops in the downpour of a tropical storm.  People we know may leave us, but for some reason we feel we won't be the next to go. We still vainly think that impermanence is something that can be put off until a more convenient time for us while we simply enjoy the moment.
                  
                 "Buddha taught, 'The outgoing breath awaits not the incoming breath, and so life ends.' Death may be but a single breath away. Fail to take in the next breath, and immediately your afterlife begins. Each breath you exhale and inhale brushes shoulders with death. On December 31, one second after [11:59:59 P.M.] it is [12:00:00 A.M.]. At the same instant, the [31st] changes to the [1st], December gives way to January, and one year yields to the next. In the same way, this life transforms into the next life in the space of an instant.
                   If you do not achieve the purpose of life now, when will you? When can you? Now is your only chance, for untold ages to come. Gaze steadily at the shadow of impermanence drawing closer every moment, and have no regrets."

--You Were Born for a Reason

             
                    Each morning we start fresh. We may go for a jog to get our blood flowing, wash our face to feel fresh, and treat ourselves to a warm cup of invigorating coffee. Every evening after we brush our teeth tiredly, we must finally at long last fall over into bed completely exhausted from the day's activities. At 7:00 A.M. we may have a radiant face, but by 11:00 P.M. we can be as white as bones. This is the way we carry on our lives, day in and day out, with the mentality that we will live in this body forever.

                     Say you put Ultimate Fighting Champion (UFC) Cain Velasquez in the ring against a little kid. And during the match no matter how many kicks or punches Velasquez throws, the kid still wins with one knockout punch. "How's that possible you ask?" It's because this kid's fighter name is "Wind of Impermanence." He holds an undefeated title, and one day it'll be a match between you and him.

                     Young and old should face their impermanence equally, since it can occur at any time. We discuss how important planning for retirement is, but not everyone will be alive for retirement. Everyone will face death, and yet in spite of this no emphasis is placed on resolving it anytime soon.

                      "We have squandered our days. We have sought the wrong objectives. Talent, property, and power have earned us the respect of others without affording us either joy or satisfaction. Why have we not rather sought happiness to satisfy the soul? We are left with nothing but sighs of regret. ... This lament can only be the regret of someone taken aback by the blackness of his [or her] prospects after death (darkness of mind)."

--You Were Born for a Reason, p. 69

                      We are simply unable to see through this darkness to know our True Self; we don't even know for sure who we really are or why we're alive. Yet somehow we still feel that we have all the answers even though we're really in the dark. 

                      Any concept or impression of death we might have is merely an emotional reaction or creative speculation. It is nothing like facing death when it actually arrives.

 

                      "Anxiety about what may lie beyond death is inseparable from anxiety in the here and now. It stands to reason, therefore, that efforts to make the present bright without resolving this darkness of mind can only come to nothing."

--You Were Born for a Reason, p. 67

                      This uncertainty toward our death and the afterlife is the very real question that must be faced, and we must listen to Buddhism in order to find the answer clearly. Let's reflect on our own impermanence and obtain true clarity on this issue as quickly as possible.

On Alaya Mind & the Wind of Impermanence

            People are travelers. We travel from yesterday to today. Today to tomorrow. We do this year after year. Japanese poet Ikkyu said that New Year's Day even though on the surface is a cause for celebration is actually just a milestone toward the afterlife. The idea of man as a traveler has been used in songs, poems, and stories for centuries. 

Original Photo by Dru! available on Flickr.com

              Our trip can be sunny, rainy or windy. It can be mountainous or deep into a valley. Or it can be as simple as a walk on a flatland, because so many things can happen on the journey. We have many encounters with various characters throughout our voyage. Misfortune comes our way. Some days are just normal. We say goodbye here and there to many good people we've met. The weather is fine on some days and bad on others.

               The nature of our soul's journey is limitless. It flows in a continual stream from the beginningless past, forward into the eternal future. The journey of this body may be short, 100 years at best. And during this time, not a single person can understand us to the core.

               Sakyamuni Buddha said, "Alone we are born, and alone we die. Alone we come, and alone we depart." Our physical bodies may have company, but our souls are all alone. We have lived our eternal life in complete solitude, and not even family can understand us at the deepest level.

           For example, husbands and wives are separate individuals, even though they are married and may act together as a family. This world may seem like a universal place where we are all sharing a common reality. However, each person is experiencing something different from their own point of view.

           We all have an Alaya Mind (Storehouse Consciousness), and this is also known as our True Self. It represents our eternal life. The Alaya Mind forms its own world from the various deeds of our distant past that are contained within it. The deeds we perform now in the present are stored into our Alaya Mind which then shapes our future.

             So in short, we're all living right now in the world of our Alaya Mind. Putting this into perspective, that means hundreds and thousands, even millions or billions of worlds are existing together in separate Alaya Minds around us. Each one lives in its own unique reality.

             A wife just can't see what life looks like through her husband's eyes, no matter how hard she tries. To understand him completely is simply out of the question. The husband can't even get a real glimpse despite his strongest efforts. A husband and wife can only know their own Alaya Mind. It's not possible to understand another person's world as they see it. It is an exclusive experience to the individual, and that is why it is said that we are born alone and die alone.

             It's also why whether we know it or not, there is a deep, restless loneliness within us. Our soul is yearning for true company. We devise numerous diversions -- joking, singing or dancing -- yet it doesn't wipe away our loneliness. Not for long at least. There still remains a recurring empty solitude, because no one gets us or understands our world completely.

               Children hold secrets from their parents, and parents don't tell everything to their kids. Husbands and wives keep quiet on a lot of issues. That is the nature of our true mind. It is one of complete solitude and hidden darkness. There is no soul that can bare it all, all the time.

              In bustling metropolises like Los Angeles, Tokyo, New Delhi, Berlin, London, or Moscow, we are constantly surrounded by people. How is it that though we are surrounded by millions, we can still feel so alone and desperately lost in the crowd? We just have no true companionship for our soul.

Original Photo by R. Mitra available on Flickr.com

               This doesn't mean we don't need to understand others or shouldn't bother to get very close to people. We must of course try to get to know people and care about them. But it is an oversized ego that believes it can truly get another person completely. It denotes someone who is 100% in the dark about their own self.

                Our Alaya Mind is hurting. There is no way we can figure out how to solve this situation. We long to bare all of our soul and need to be able to understand it. Only by knowing who we really are can we obtain absolute happiness. Listening to Pure Land Buddhism, we come closer to arriving at this life-changing moment. We come to learn our True Self fully, realize the roles of the countless buddhas, as well as fully grasp the role of Amida Buddha and the Pure Land. By listening steadily and knowing these concepts -- not just believing in them blindly -- we can finally celebrate in not being alone for the first time in our eternal life.

                 Until we find the truth, life seems to have a mysterious sadness to it. People will dwell on all sorts of thoughts to distract themselves from it -- yet it returns, again and again. We rely on systems of politics, ethics, morals, laws in an attempt to restore balance to this desperate world. 

                 Every month we have holidays with fireworks and festivals filled with people who want to escape for a while. They want to forget their solitude in the fun, but they can't seem to leave that emptiness behind when it's time to pick up trash after the party. Fireworks don't last, but it's also what makes them wonderful to look at. At best, could they go on for an hour straight, a whole day, or a full month like that? Would it even remain as exciting at that point? The thrill comes from the rareness of the experience.

Original Photo by bayasaa available on Flickr.com

               The various fireworks of our lives flicker quickly, in and out, here and there throughout the years, and a lifetime of even 100 years can disappear quietly into the smoky dark without notice. In the end, the greater the fireworks display, the greater the sorrow.

               Life is the same way. Once it's over, we're left to the hell of our own bitter solitude at death, and the fact that our soul has no accompaniment. Right now, we're billions of lonesome travelers waiting for death while fighting for survival. We hang in this critical balance day to day. 

               Our fate can change drastically just by the choices and actions we make in a single moment. Life-or-death events happen to us and our loved ones all the time, but soon even they just fade away becoming the farthest thing from our mind. We move on to the next challenge. "That's life," we say. But how long can we keep that up for?

"When at last I came to the peak that I had thought would surely be the last,

I turned my eyes to the way beyond -- mountain piled on mountain."

--Anonymous

                The Wind of Impermanence is always blowing along our journey whether we feel it beating down on our backs or not. Nothing lasts; everything changes. The Wind of Impermanence can be compared to a ghastly tiger stalking its unsuspecting prey.

               There is a tiger behind you right now, even as you read this blog. If there is a room with 100 people, there are 100 tigers lurking behind those people. This tiger waits and waits and waits. It creeps up on all of us with the utmost stealth and suddenly attacks when we least expect it. One day -- BAM! -- it has you in its jaws, clenched in its teeth. It's a huge, hungry, and vicious tiger, and it doesn't wait for you, anyone, or anything. You could be washing your face or right in the middle of a sentence.

               A professor of religion at the University of Tokyo, Hideo Kishimoto, battled with a very serious case of cancer. Kishimoto likened the idea of death to "sudden, unprovoked violence" and left a detailed account of his personal struggle with the disease:

"Death always comes suddenly. 

No matter when it appears, the one visited by Death 

looks on its arrival as a sudden intrusion. 

For the mind filled with a sense of security 

is totally unprepared for death. ...

Death comes when by rights it has no business coming.

It goes coolly where by rights it has no business going, 

like a desperado striding with dirty boots into a freshly-cleaned parlor. 

Death's behavior is outrageous. You may ask it to wait a while, but in vain. 

Death is a monster beyond human power to budge or to hold in check."

              The fearsome tiger has no compassion hunts all of us down without a shred of mercy. Its terrifying size and insatiable hunger calmly waits for the perfect opportunity to strike us. When the tiger comes closer, we may try to escape by going to the doctor and taking various medicines in order to prolong our life. But the moment will come when the tiger appears for his final lethal bite. Once we're bitten, our time here as a traveler will be over.  

Original Photo by fpat available on Flickr.com

               All of us must face the Wind of Impermanence.

               This is why we must seek the truth for who we really are and obtain absolute happiness in the here and now. Without sensing that our life is fleeting, we do not feel inclined to move into action. We must seek to know what the afterlife holds in store for us as soon as possible, before it is too late. Listening to Buddhism brings us toward the real solution to these problems. Let us listen to the teachings with sincerity and reflect deeply on the crucial matter of our afterlife.

Buddhism & the Universe

                Christianity teaches that God is the Creator. He created all beings and everything on this world in six days and rested on the seventh day. He also made the soil, and from it, he created the human being. God made the human being in the image of himself. Then the human race was put as ruler over nature and the creatures of Earth.

               But you could ask the question -- "Then who made God?"

Original Photo by Lauro Roger McAllister - www.lrmck.com available on Flickr.com

???

God - The Creator

Human

 Animals / Nature

               Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, and historian, wrote about this in his article called Why I Am Not a Christian. Below is an excerpt:

The First-cause Argument

               Perhaps the simplest and easiest to understand is the argument of the First Cause. (It is maintained that everything we see in this world has a cause, and as you go back in the chain of causes further and further you must come to a First Cause, and to that First Cause you give the name of God.) ... I may say that when I was a young man and was debating these questions very seriously in my mind, I for a long time accepted the argument of the First Cause, until one day, at the age of eighteen, I read John Stuart Mill's autobiography, and I found there this sentence: "My father taught me that the question 'Who made me?' cannot be answered, since it immediately suggests the further question 'Who made god?" That very simple sentence showed me, as I still think, the fallacy in the argument of the First Cause. If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so there cannot be any validity in that argument. ... There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all. The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our imagination. Therefore, perhaps, I need not waste any more time upon the argument about the First Cause.

***

               

              Buddhism teaches that the way the universe exists on a grand scale -- is like a circle. In a circle, there is no beginning or ending point. It just continues endlessly. 

               Continuing this idea, Buddhism identifies the four major phases of material energy in the universe. The first stage is called Jo in Japanese. It means to form. This is when a cause and its condition come together to make an effect. The second phase is Ju, or to stay. Here the effect is in a state of being. The third phase is called E, or to separate. The cause and condition breakdown and fall apart. The fourth phase is known as Ku, or emptiness. Now the broken-down cause and condition turn into a fading energy. (Note: Even though these phases have been numbered here one through four, there is no set determined order as this process is continual and ever-changing.)

               Let's take for example a set of prayer beads. Each individual bead is combined onto a thread in order to form the prayer beads. It stays for a while and is used for joining the hands together. If the string separates, the beads scatter because they lose the condition which makes them united. Finally, when the materials begin to decompose or dissolve, they approach a state of emptiness. But even when the material loses its form, it doesn't mean it disappears in this world. Its invisible substance remains as energy.

               This invisible energy can be further explained with Einstein's famous equation E=MC2. Einstein proved that all the materials which have the most mass contain energy and because of the law of conservation of energy, their energy remains even as they lose form. 

                The Big Bang Theory states that the universe began from a black hole of nothing and has expanded from that point outward to form the universe these past 12.5 billion years. Many Christians believe that God created this phenomenon, but many scholars have come to refute this assertion. Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist and cosmologist, is just one of them.

Original Photo by { pranav } available on Flickr.com 

 

                Hawking stated it clearly in these three quotes from an interview:

               "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing." 

               "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."

               "It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

               Scholars also pose that although the universe is expanding it will eventually shrink. This is just an assumption until further evidence can be found. From the Buddhist perspective, it is nothing special because this last state is actually just the dissolution stage of Ku preparing for the next formation stage, Jo.

              These four stages represent the Buddhist perspective of the world on an epic scale. 

               Buddhism explains that all other phenomena that occur within the universe operate within the Law of Cause and Effect. This universal principle, also known as the Law of Karma, is actually what determines our fates. We should study the Law of Karma frequently, as it is the foundation for Buddhist thought.

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Source Material: Bertrand Russell -- http://www.users.drew.edu/~jlenz/whynot.html 

Stephen Hawking -- http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/02/stephen-hawking-big-bang-creator

Relative Happiness & Absolute Happiness

   So everybody wants to know...

Why do we all live?

Original Photo by abbybatchelder at Flickr.com

What is the purpose of life?

Original Photo by chimothy27 available on Flickr.com

   We study, get jobs, save money, have hobbies, spend time with family, or go out with friends...

...because we're all seeking happiness.
 

Original Photo by www.audio-luci-store.it available on Flickr.com

Original Photo by photon_de available on Flickr.com

Original Photo by Bev Goodwin available on Flickr.com

We also have politics, economics, science, medicine, and the arts...

...which try to make our lives better and make us happier.

Original Photo by Becker1999 available on Flickr.com

Original Photo by Norman Lear Center available on Flickr.com

Original Photo by anyjazz65 available on Flickr.com

But are we really getting any happier?

Original Word Art by purpleslog available on Flickr.com

The sad reality is that in the United States:

• More than 36,909 people took their own lives in 2009.
• Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death.
• There are 8 to 25 attempted suicides for each actual suicide death.

                 It's scary to think that if each person who attempted suicide actually succeeded, suicide could contend for the leading cause of death in the U.S. It's definitely a very real cry out there for serious help and attention.

                 Looking at more recent news around the country, Obama and Romney are neck and neck at 47% a piece in the polls, a whopping 60% no longer believe in mainstream media, unemployment is still holding at about eight percent, it's the third time gas prices have risen to near $3.87 a gallon within the past year and a half, a majority of workers in their 60s say they don't have enough to retire on, climate change heats up again as ice in the Arctic may be reaching a "point of no return," health care costs are expected to rise 7.5% in 2013 according to one firm, and the chilling massacre during the film Dark Knight Rises has now embroiled into a new lawsuit against movie theater security. And there's a lot more than that going on out there in the world.

                At the end of the day, we wind up full of worry and feel anxious about our lives and our future. Everyone is just searching for happiness and peace of mind that will last. But can anyone truly be happy... all the time? Is this even possible?

Original Photo by renaissancechambara available on Flickr.com

   Buddhism has a definitive answer to these questions 

by recognizing that there are two different kinds of joy in life:

                          Relative Happiness & Absolute Happiness                          

So what is relative happiness?

Original Photo Art by Eneas available on Flickr.com

• Owning a mansion with a helipad
• Graduating from UC Berkeley with honors
• Playing pro ball for the Lakers
• Driving a Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster
• Winning $100 million dollars
• Sleeping in all day, every day
• Sparking an exciting romance with Jessica Alba
• Starting a family with someone you love
• Becoming the CEO of a Fortune 500 company
• Having a private chef that looks like Brad Pitt
• Being on the cover of Rolling Stone

It's all the worldly happiness imaginable!

The problem with relative happiness is that...

1.) It doesn't last or is always changing.

Since it's going up and down, we're always anxious.

Health --> allergies, back pain, or gray hair

Family --> arguments, separations, or deaths

Relationships --> fights, breakups, or making up again

Career --> stress, layoffs, firings, retirement

They give us bliss for only a short while or require constant efforts...

...but they just don't seem to truly last.

2.) There is no completion or ending point.

There's no finish line so we're never satisfied.

Once we get what we want, we want something new, or we just want MORE! 

We study for a degree, then later get a job, but after that we struggle for a promotion.

Sometimes we struggle just to keep working! 

In this way, each of our goals becomes lost to the next one, 

and the next one,

and the next one.

But in the end...

3.) Death sweeps it all away.

 Once we die, we have to leave all relative happiness behind.

Each day we inch closer and closer toward death.

It is 100% certain that we will die in the future.

When we confront the idea of our own death, all relative happiness fades away like a dream.

                Despite this grim reality, we only seem to pass the time going after worldly pleasures. We chase after them day in, day out hoping that they will be the answer to our troubles. But no amount of relative happiness can ever make us feel the real, abundant joy behind being born as a human being.

                We can't depend on relative happiness to be there for us all the time, because life is so unpredictable. At any given moment, all the happiness we've come to know can crumble. This is exactly why our suffering never seems to cease throughout our lives no matter how great our lives become.

  Absolute happiness is the goal of Pure Land Buddhism. 

                This kind of happiness, available to all people without exception, never collapses through old age, sickness, or even in the face of death. Bottom line, it never fades under any circumstances.

Yes!

There's a way to live happily ever after 

within this lifetime.

 

    Once you feel this way, you can't help but live out each new day 

overflowing with gratitude.  

                 In order to reach this state of absolute happiness, all we have to do is listen to the teachings from a true Buddhist master. The current living master of Pure Land Buddhism is Kentetsu Takamori. By listening steadily with an open mind, we can finally know in a split-second that our having achieved absolute happiness is truth.

                The next post explores the life story of the Buddha (known as Sakyamuni Buddha in Japan) and how he learned of the difference between relative happiness and absolute happiness 2,600 years ago.

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Sources:

Suicide statistics

http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewpage&page_id=050fea9f-b064-4092-b1135c3a70de1fda

Election figures

http://www.examiner.com/article/us-election-polls-gallup-has-obama-47-and-romney-47

Media distrust poll

http://www.gallup.com/poll/157589/distrust-media-hits-new-high.aspx

Unemployment figures

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate 

Gas prices (Click on 8-year to see the trend)

http://gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx?time=3

Retirement data

http://www.transamericacenter.org/resources/TCRS%2013th%20Annual%20Thematic%20Report%20Final%205-14-12.pdf

Climate change

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/climate-change/sea-ice-reduction-at-tipping-point-20120922-26dm6.html

Health care projection

http://www.pwc.com/us/en/health-industries/behind-the-numbers/key-findings.jhtml

The Reality of Mankind -- The Parable

         When learning Buddhism, the most important thing to know is the purpose of listening to its teachings.

           First of all, Buddhism is of course the teachings of the Buddha who lived 2500 years ago. Buddha is also known by the name Sakyamuni Buddha.

           Sakyamuni explained for us why we listen to Buddhism with a famous parable that shocked even the renowned Russian writer of War and Peace.

"I have never heard any parables which reveal human reality 

as genuine as this Eastern fable."

--Leo Tolstoy

           It was during the time of Sakyamuni, a king by the name of Shoko, came to a Buddhist lecture. Sakyamuni was pleased at his attendance since it tended to be difficult for people in power to listen due to their vanity and high position.

          Because of this rare visit, Sakyamuni decided to preach about the purpose of listening to Buddhism in a famous parable called:

“The Reality of Mankind”

Billions of years ago, a traveler was trudging all alone across a vast wilderness. It was a lonely evening in the fall, and the cold wintry wind swept across the bitter plain. 

Original Photo by Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore available on Flickr.com

              The traveler was hastening his pace toward home when suddenly, he spotted some white objects scattered along the roadside. He picked one up, wondering what it could be and to his horror discovered it was a human bone.

Original Photo by Dallas Krentzel available on Flickr.com

“Now why would there be human bones scattered around here?” the traveler wondered as he felt an eerie feeling come over him.

 He cast his eyes around but saw neither a graveyard nor a funeral home nearby. Seized with a very chilling feeling, the traveler couldn’t even take a single step forward.

 As he kept staring at the white bones, he heard a weird growl and the sound of ominous footsteps coming at him.

               “What's that noise ahead?” the traveler wondered.

               To his terror, it was a huge tiger, fierce from starvation.

Original Photo by gsloan available on Flickr.com

     In an instant, he realized the meaning of the bones all around him. Travelers who had journeyed here like himself had become the tiger’s prey, and these bones were the remains of their dead bodies. The tiger lunged at him.

      Realizing his life was in danger, he ran back down the road he had come from with all his might.

                   However, no matter how desperately or quickly he could run, a human being is no match for a tiger at full speed. There was just no way he could outrun this fierce predator.

                   And so the distance between them drew closer and closer. He could even hear the tiger’s violent snorts trailing behind him.

      Somewhere in his haste, the traveler made a wrong turn leading him toward a steep cliff. “Oh no!” he cried. “I’ve taken the wrong road!” But it was much too late to turn back now.

Original Photo by eggrole available on Flickr.com

        Now there was a large pine tree that grew near the edge of the cliff in front of him, but he knew well it was useless to climb it for safety, because tigers are expert tree climbers.

Original Photo by DrBartje available on Flickr.com

            The frantic traveler while running around in circles  – not knowing what else to do – managed to find a lifesaver. It was a wisteria vine hanging from the base of the pine tree leading down the precipice.

Original Photo by Erza S F available on Flickr.com

             “At last! This will do the trick!” The traveler quickly lowered himself down the vine just in time, narrowly escaping the hungry tiger's jaws. It growled with intensity and clawed at him from atop the cliff.

                             “Thanks to this vine, I’m safe for now,” he thought with a sigh of relief.

               Thinking he was soon to be out of danger, the traveler looked down coolly, only to gasp out of surprise and terror.

                What he saw was a vast, bottomless ocean with swift currents dangerously forming a whirlpool.

Original Photo by NASA Earth Observatory available on Flickr.com

                           But not only that... amidst the whirlpool were three dragons – a blue dragon, a red dragon, and a black dragon – waiting for him to fall. Their mouths were wide open ready to devour him.

                           Seeing how dreadful each dragon was, the traveler tightened his grip on his thin vine.

                  He felt that he was now in the worst situation imaginable.

                  Even so, after hanging around for a while, he began to feel hungry. The traveler looked around for something edible.

                  Upon gazing upward, he discovered what horrified him the most. It was more frightening than either the menacing tiger or the three deadly dragons below him. He involuntarily cried out from the sheer terror.

                  Two mice, a white mouse and a black mouse, had appeared above him and were now taking turns gnawing at the vine, his only lifeline. The traveler’s face turned pale and his body was shaking in fear. He shook the vine rigorously to shoo the mice away, but to no avail.

                               Each mouse just kept taking turns chewing on his wisteria vine.

Original Photo by USFWS Mountain Prairie available on Flickr.com

                   But a strange phenomenon started occurring as he shook the vine. With each shake, something had come dripping down.

                   The traveler caught some of it with his hand and to his utter astonishment discovered it was a delicious-looking drop of honey. Instinctively, he licked it and found it to be the most delicious honey that he had ever tasted in his life.

                    He wondered, “Why would honey be dripping down from above?” And as he looked up again he saw a beehive on the branch from which the vine hung.

Original Photo by minicooper93402 available on Flickr.com

                    Hoping to taste it once more, he shook the vine again and as he hoped, more honey came dripping down.

                     “Once more. Just once more.”

                     The traveler kept on licking the honey intoxicated with delight, and forgetting all the dangers he was in from the tiger, the three dragons, and even the dreadful black and white mice. All he had in mind now was how to obtain more honey.

Original Photo by Siona Karen available on Flickr.com

                      When Sakyamuni Buddha’s sermon reached this point, someone in the audience shouted.

                                  “Noble Sakya! Please stop!” It was King Shoko. “I am too frightened to hear this story anymore. How can this traveler be so foolish? How could he ever forget he was in such danger, simply being distracted by little drops of honey?”

                        “Please listen more carefully, King,” Sakyamuni Buddha replied. “This traveler refers to you. He represents not only you but the whole human race.”

                                    At these words, a clamor arose among the entire audience and everyone took to their feet from the shock of Sakyamuni's bold statement.

                                    The Buddha went on to describe in detail how the traveler in this story represents the reality all human beings even to this day.

                                     Find out what each symbol means in the next Reality of Mankind series right here on this blog.