The Dharma

Realisation: What Got In Your Way?

A short koan-like story for you ...
On a road in the temple, two cars were closely parked by the curb, allowing only a narrow gap for pedestrians to walk through to a flight of stairs on the other side. The old lady who was walking in front of me stopped before the gap, and began gesticulating wildly, yelling madly in dialect at the drivers within, of their inconsideration in inconveniencing others. As I came closer, I shifted my body to get around her, to go through the gap. Some distance away, I hear her ranting on. End of story...................

What is the moral of this story?
While indeed the cars were generally too close for comfort, I started asking myself, "How much space do we need others to give, for our body, or rather ego, to get by without feeling unfair?" The incident reminded me of Venerable Sheng Yen's saying, "Our wants are too many; Our needs are actually few." Though not very thoughtful, I believe the drivers had no intention to obstruct anyone. And in truth, there was no obstruction - in the sense that the gap was adequate though small. Anyway, the lady was obstructed not by the cars or her body, but by the "fatness" of her ego - as she felt she deserved more space . Even if she was genuinely concerned with letting the drivers realise their mistake, so as to benefit other pedestrians, there was no need to scream at both drivers - especially since there was also no way to tell who was the "guilty" driver who created the gap.

Ironically, while the lady was complaining of the cars "blocking" her way, she was unmindfully blocking mine. Looking back, she left less space for me than the car gap. If she felt that the drivers deserved her scolding about the "lack" of space, well, looks like I had more ground (but less space, haha) to grumble at her! Suddenly, the following Dhammapada verse by the Buddha made a lot of sense: "Not the faults of others, nor what others have done or left undone, but one's own deeds, done and left undone, should one consider." The very moment we find fault in others, we lose vigilance in guarding our own deeds - and might end up as "faulty", if not more, than the ones we criticised. The verse advises us to spend more effort being mindful of ourselves than others - as being unenlightened, we only have so much mindfulness to spare. Of course, this is not to say we should keep quiet when we see others make mistakes - it's just that it is spiritually unproductive to oneself to do deliberate fault-finding in others more than ourselves. We should also check that we are not guilty of the same mistakes before we patiently let others be aware of them.

Because I let go of obstructions set by my ego in the moment, I swiftly and silently passed through the two gaps - one set by the lady and the other by the cars... while she was remained stuck... obstructed by herself, making others and herself unhappy unnecessarily. How often do we do the same? How often do we let our ego get in the way? If we are able to let our ego go, what else can't we? When we set everything free, we become free of everything. The Buddha in the Infinite Life Sutra tells us the following of Bodhisattvas in Pureland, "Just like the wind, they are not attached to anything, and so they are without obstruction... They are like the lotus flowers that do not attach to the filthy mud ..." This means to experience Pureland now, we only have to let go of the obstruction of our ego . Are you in Pureland yet? What got in your way? -shian

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