My Heart is a Golden Buddha Read online

  So, like the sunim said, even if you have a horrible dream, don’t let yourself think that something terrible is going to happen to you. Turn that thought around.

  All of the lives and consciousnesses within your body will follow your thoughts, so instead learn to view things positively and raise kind and generous thoughts.

  21

  The Good for Nothing Son

  Once upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his only son. Unfortunately, his son was the source of every kind of heartache and frustration.

  He was always getting drunk and gambling away their money; he often stole from people, and was constantly starting fights. Sometimes he’d scream and rant in the streets, and at other times he’d pass out in a stranger’s yard.

  His behavior became so outrageous that the old man didn’t dare show his face in town.

  Not only did the son not take care of his elderly father, one day he even stole the deed to their house. He sold it and spent all the money in a single night on women and alcohol.

  Finally the old man exploded: “Get out! Go crawl off and die! Never come back! May the typhus get you for all I care!” Indeed, before long, his son really did catch typhus, and died soon after.

  The old man had spoken without thinking, out of deep frustration, but he hadn’t really wanted his son to die; it felt as if his sadness and regret would tear his heart into little pieces.

  One day a sunim was passing by and saw him sitting in front of his little hut, so sad that no more tears would come.

  Seeing the old man’s pain, the sunim looked deep inside of the old man. At last he spoke:

  “The principles that guide this world function very precisely. They function without even the tiniest error, and nothing happens outside of them. We receive things exactly as we have done them.

  “In your last life you wasted all of your family’s money on gambling and having fun, and you even sold your own wife. You caused your parents every kind of frustration and heartache, and eventually your father’s anger killed him.

  “It was this connection that caused him to be reborn as your son. So, who else can you blame for all of this? Your karma from that life was just about to expire, and your son would have straightened out and become an upstanding person. Unfortunately, you couldn’t endure this long enough.

  “However, losing yourself in sadness won’t help either you or your son. If you truly love your son, if you truly want to move past this suffering, then you have to return all of your regrets, anger, and sadness to your foundation. Let go and let go of those.

  “Keep doing this, and eventually they will quiet down. It’s not easy, but this is the only way forward; this is the only way you can help your son.

  “We all share a foundation, our true essence, which is inherently pure and can transform all evil karma and suffering. Through this foundation, we are connected to every animate and inanimate life and object throughout the universe.

  “Thus, if you work on returning everything to your foundation, you can also help lift the darkness that is covering your son’s mind. So don’t be too sad, and don’t hate yourself. Let go of all of the bad karma between the two of you, and let go of all the stupid and harmful things that were done.

  “When you can let go of those, they will melt down and disappear, helping your son be reborn in a good place.” The sunim then said a prayer for the old man’s son, and left.

  ∴

  Not a single thing in this world remains the same. Everything is ceaselessly flowing and changing.

  Even though you or the ones you love suffer from the karma you have created through your words or actions, that suffering can change in an instant, depending upon how well you are able to return thoughts to your foundation, and depending upon the thoughts you give rise to now.

  Suppose someone in your family did something truly bad; even in that case, you should unconditionally entrust everything to your foundation. Through it, the minds of parents and children, husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters are all connected as one. So entrust everything to your foundation, Juingong, knowing, “You’re the one that can take care of all of this.”

  For example, if your child runs away and later returns home, don’t start yelling at him or her. Instead, embrace them with a warm and gentle heart. Ask them if they are hungry, ask if they were safe.

  At first, your child will probably respond in a cold and distant manner, but gradually, as they begin to feel the warmth and love of home, they’ll stop wandering around. As you entrust all of your love and concern to your foundation, through their foundation your child will sense those things. In this way, your family will come to share love and happiness together.

  This kind of harmony is the source of all good fortune, grace, and virtue.

  22

  The Travels of a Seon Master

  On a cold winter’s day, a seon master was traveling through the mountains when he heard a woman sobbing.

  The sounds were coming from the area of some graves, and as he went closer he saw a woman sitting on the ground, hugging the body of a young boy. It was the middle of winter, but her clothes were thin and threadbare, and her fingers were torn and bleeding. It looked as if she had been trying to scratch a grave out of the frozen ground.

  Through her tears, the woman spoke to her child: “Your father died before you were born, but at least I had you. But now you’re gone and I’m all alone. Let’s go together. We’ll go together and see your father.”

  Confronted with this situation, the seon master couldn’t just continue on his way. From a non-dual state, he asked himself how he could help the woman. Then, as he looked the boy over carefully, he realized that, in terms of karma, the boy had died long before he should have.

  The seon master said to the woman, “It wasn’t time for your son to die, so if I can find his spirit, he can still return to his body and live. Now listen carefully, this is important: while I’m gone, you have to light a candle so I can find you and your son’s body.

  “I’m not talking about a physical candle. You need to light the candle of your mind and keep it bright. The deep karmic affinity between the two of you will lead me to your son’s body, but if your candle of mind goes out, I won’t be able to find my way back to him. And keep your son’s body wrapped up and warm.”

  The child had already been dead for quite a while, so the seon master had to hurry. He sat down, crossed his legs, and immediately entered a state of deep samadhi. He left his body and went to the realms of the dead to look for the boy’s spirit.

  The first realm he went to was the realm of illusion. After you die, you have to get through the realm of illusion in order to go forward on your own path. But when the seon master arrived, he found this realm absolutely packed with spirits who were stuck there, unable to continue forward.

  He told those spirits, “Everything you’re seeing now, the terrifying ghosts, the monsters, the writhing snakes, all of these are illusions. They’re images created by your consciousness and thus seem real to you. But they’re only illusions—just go forward bravely and you’ll find that those things have no substance. They’ll all disappear.”

  With this the seon master led all of those spirits through the realm of illusion towards the undying realm.

  Those spirits needed to pass through the undying realm in order to reach the realm of birth and death, and so move forward into their next life. However, as the seon master was about to enter, they all suddenly stopped. To them, the undying realm looked like a great ball of fire, and they were afraid of getting burned.

  The seon master needed to hurry, but he also couldn’t just leave those beings there, so he said to them, “What’s before you isn’t real; it’s just a projection of your mind. You’re still thinking in terms of the material realm. You don’t have a body now, so there’s no way what you see can hurt you.”

  Understanding this, all of the spirits stepped forward, and the flames disappeared. Thus they were able to pass thr
ough the undying realm, and so continued on their own paths. The seon master was able to help them move forward because he had become one with them.

  Those spirits had been freed, but the seon master still needed to find the boy. He went to the guardian of the undying realm, “I’m looking for the spirit of one who died before his time. Do you know if he’s here?”

  The guardian looked at his list, but the boy’s name wasn’t on it. “He’s not here, so he must be in the realm of unfinished lives. That’s where you need to look.”

  The seon master went to the realm of unfinished lives, and found that it was filled with those who had died before their proper time. He went to the being who was in charge and together they found the boy’s spirit. The seon master quickly led the boy’s spirit out of that realm and back to the realm of the living.

  In the meantime, the boy’s mother had been working very hard to keep her candle of mind bright, but she was tiring.

  Her light had almost gone out when the seon master arrived back at the boy’s body. As soon as the boy's spirit touched his body, his heart started to beat and with a great gasp he began to breathe again.

  His mother burst into tears, holding her son to her chest as she knelt there. Looking at them, the seon master put his hands together and bowed, and then continued on his way.

  ∴

  Our mind has no substance, so it can’t be caught or trapped by anything. It’s free to function and do whatever is needed.

  However, people have evolved with a physical body for so many eons that even when they’re dead, they think their existence is subject to the laws of the material realm.

  So, even though they don’t have a body, they think fire can hurt them. Even though their minds can go anywhere instantly, they try to walk or look for a car or train to take them where they want to go. They think that snakes can bite them and knives can stab them. In truth, none of those things have any power over them.

  Nevertheless, the thinking done while living in the material realm becomes thought habits that tend to bind people. Even after death, these habits constrain and hinder them.

  If you want to be able to go forward after death without being caught by these kinds of illusions, then you have to let go of your discriminations while alive. However, you’ll probably find times when your expectations and ideas about how things should be cause you to become angry or offended by something that was ultimately quite minor.

  Likewise, there are probably also times when you’re able to shrug off things that are quite difficult and painful, all the while striding forward with confidence and determination. You’re able to do that because, even though you didn’t realize it, you were discarding your fixed ideas and entrusting everything to your foundation.

  When you can entrust everything to your foundation in this way—the big things, the small things, everything—you’ll free yourself in this life, as well as the next.

  And, like the seon master, you will be able to save not just yourself, but everyone else you encounter as well.

  23

  Even a Tree Understands Gratitude

  Long ago, a well-to-do man brought home a tree sapling. He planted it in the center of his courtyard and took care of it himself.

  Year after year, the man fussed over the tree, protecting it from insects and giving it just the right amount of water and fertilizer. And year after year, the tree showered the courtyard with magnificent flowers.

  One night, the man had a strange dream in which the tree was talking to him. It told him that a great disaster would soon strike, so he needed to leave the area right away. But the man didn’t take it seriously, and forgot all about it by the time he sat down for breakfast.

  Three days later, all of the man’s animals broke out of their corrals and pens and ran away. His servants looked everywhere, but they couldn’t find a single one. He stomped around cursing his bad luck, for now it looked as though he wasn’t going to be well-to-do for much longer!

  Finally, exhausted by his emotions, he fell into a deep sleep. Again the tree appeared to him, imploring him to leave:

  “A volcano is about to erupt! There's no time. You must leave now! I’m going too!”

  This time, the man took the dream seriously. As he left his house, he noticed that the tree’s leaves had already started to wilt.

  He ordered his family and servants to hurriedly pack their belongings, and then he ran out to warn everybody who lived in the area. They all left in a great rush and headed for a valley several miles away. Arriving, they were shocked to see all of the animals that had run away.

  As they stared at the animals, a series of huge explosions shook the ground. The ground rocked like water, and day turned to night.

  Several days later, after things had calmed down, the man was looking over a wasteland of ash and boulders. A few crushed walls were all that was left of his home.

  ∴

  Even a plant that seems to know nothing sends down deeper roots in a year when typhoons will come.

  How can we human beings, who are endowed with the six senses and who have evolved through so many levels of existence, know less than a plant? We human beings have more abilities than plants or animals, yet how is it that we don’t perceive what is right under our noses?

  Why is this? It’s because we don’t see our foundation, our inherent mind, which has existed before we were born. Instead we’ve only seen what our eyes have shown us.

  We must start by having faith in our foundation, our true nature. Then reality will become clearer and our wisdom will grow brighter. We’ll also become able to freely use the abilities inherent within us.

  Believe in your foundation. It’s this foundation, your true self, that can show you how to become free.

  24

  The Pure-hearted Sculptor

  If you go to Bulguk Temple near Gyeongju, you can still see in the courtyard two magnificent stone pagodas. There is an air about them of something profound and peaceful, and perhaps you will understand why when you hear how they came to be.

  Over a thousand years ago, after Kim Daesung became prime minister of the Silla Kingdom, he began to rebuild Bulguk Temple.

  He wanted to add two pagodas that would express the richness and depth of the Buddha’s teachings, but in order to do this he knew he needed to find an artisan whose great skill was matched by an equally deep sincerity and faith. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t find such a person.

  Yet Kim Daesung knew that if he was sincere enough, he would surely find a craftsman of equal sincerity.

  So, for one hundred days, he fasted and prayed. Although he was rebuilding Bulguk Temple in honor of his parents, it wasn’t for them alone that he was praying. He was praying for all beings, that they would truly awaken to their inherent Buddha-nature, and that the entire world would live together peacefully and harmoniously.

  He poured his entire heart into his prayers and meditation, and on the night of the one hundredth day the Buddha appeared in a dream, saying to him, “In the lands of the old Baekje kingdom is a sculptor of great depth and sincerity, called Asadal.”

  Kim Daesung left immediately for the southwest of Korea, to the lands that had been the old Baekje kingdom. He spent months there, traveling through villages and cities, always asking if anyone had ever heard of a stone carver by the name of Asadal.

  One day, as he traveled through a remote mountain valley, he heard a woman call, “Asadal, dinner’s ready.” At last, he had found the man he’d been looking for!

  He humbly asked Asadal to design and carve two pagodas for Bulguk Temple, and explained his hope that they would express the Buddha’s teachings and guide all who gazed upon them.

  Asadal was filled with joy at the prospect of being able to contribute to the reconstruction of a great temple like Bulguk, but he couldn’t immediately accept Kim Daesung’s offer.

  For Asadal had a wife, Asanyo, who he loved very much. They lived together with her father, and it was he w
ho had taught Asadal all of the stone carver’s arts. But he was elderly, and would never survive the journey to Bulguk Temple.

  Yet if Asadal went by himself, Asanyo would be left trying to care for her father by herself. No matter how Asadal looked at the situation, there seemed to be no good answer.

  That night Asadal told his wife about Kim Daesung’s proposal. Asanyo was filled with joy, for she loved him deeply and knew that he was capable of producing something wonderful. But she noticed that Asadal was uneasy, and also realized that even traveling to Bulguk Temple would take many, many weeks.

  “I know the circumstances will be difficult, but the pagodas you’ll make will convey the Buddha’s teachings throughout the centuries. Don’t worry about father; I’ll take good care of him. And even though we’ll be apart, think of all the benefits those pagodas will have for so many generations of people.

  “You’ve dreamed about being able to do something like this, and when the work is finished, we can be together again.”

  With this, Asadal made up his mind to go to Bulguk Temple and carve the pagodas. He and Asanyo held each other and cried for a long time, promising that one day they would hold each other again.

  After he arrived at Bulguk temple, Asadal set about designing and carving the pagodas. Although he missed Asanyo terribly, everything he did was imbued with the love he felt for her.

  Thinking of her hope that these pagodas would benefit generation after generation, his great love for her expressed itself as compassion for all beings and the hope that they would dissolve all traces of self-centeredness and awaken to the eternal, fundamental Buddha within.