Good morning!
This morning I saw the big brilliant beautiful sun, and the golden leaves on the trees and over the ground. If we stay in our houses, we can’t see such beautiful things.
The golden leaves spread over the ground reminded me of the golden coins laid down by Anâtapindika, food-giver for the have-nots, who wanted to donate land to the Buddha.
Prince Jeta didn’t want to part with it even for the number of gold coins covering it. A judge ruled that he should sell the land for this price. Anâtapindika began to lay down the coins.
Prince Jeta found him serious, so he donated the grove (Jeta-vana) to him, for the Buddha, instead of selling it. The famous beginning of the Tale of Heike reads,
The bell sound of Gion (Jeta-vana) Monastery sounds:
“all formations are impermanent.”
The famous district named Gion in Kyoto is now one of amusement and entertainment.
Yâjñavalkya, the most distinguished philosopher in the Vedas, told his wife Maitreyi, on her question concerning inheritance, that “Even gold that fills the world cannot buy immortality.”
The sun gives light to the moon, the globe, and gold. There is a brilliant light which gives light to everything: that is the limitless light of limitless life, liberation, and love.
This limitless light, liberation, love, and life comes only from limitless learning. So, let us learn limitlessly with ever-growing light, liberation, love, and life.
Some one said that the moon is more useful than the sun, which comes out in the bright daytime. Don’t say that the small secular sight is more useful than the limitless life light.
11/6/11
