Good morning!
On the way here I listened to NPR. The announcer was talking about the sunflower oil in potato chips, often the second ingredient of it. He said sunflower oil might have come from Russia, which was grown in Russia for Lent in place of butter. Potatoes and sunflowers originated here. They have now spread all over the world and have saved millions or billions of people’s lives.
The sunflowers are tall, big, and beautiful giving us life and light. We see the beautiful white flowers beside the Buddhas here, blooming beautifully and giving us beatitude. There is a song singing “Have the sun in your heart; have the songs on your lips.” If we could have the sun in our hearts and songs on our lips, we have beautiful days and lives. The Buddha sang his song:
Better than those who would conquer
Thousands upon thousands in the battlefield
Are those who would conquer one-self.
That one is the true conqueror.
If we intend to conquer, immediately we are already darkened and defeated. If we have the three poisons of attachment, aversion, and delusion in our hearts, we must suffer. If, instead, we intend to share and save limitless life, light, liberation, and love, we become true conquerors of our selves and others, and of life and death, tasting amrita, ambrosia of immortality.
1/5/12
