The Buddha told this parable of the four horses.

The first horse will run fast as soon as he see's the riders whip, the second will run fast when he feels the whip, the third horse runs fast when he feels the whip, the forth and slowest horse will run only after being whipped over and over.

Shunryu Suzuki a Zen teacher, explained the parable this way: 'If you think the aim of Zen practice is to train you to become one of the best horses, you will have a big problem. This is not the right understanding. If you consider the mercy of the Buddha, how do you think Buddha will feel about the four horses? He will have more sympathy for the worst one than for the best one'.

So these horses represent the four types of people who practice Buddhism. The first person immediately acts on the lessons of suffering as explained in the four noble truths. The second kind acts not only when they hear about suffering but also when they feel it. The third kind is not affected at all until they experience it in people close to them. The fourth kind is not motivated until they experience suffering for themselves.

As the Buddha's compassion focuses on the slowest horse in the same way it focuses on the fourth kind of person which is where most of us fall. With boundless compassion the Buddha makes each of us number one even if your in last place, it is the last place finisher, the foolish being who is first in the Buddha's eyes.

With boundless compassion we were taught these truths and we must act on them now before death comes. We have the message. We are accepted as we are and with the Dharma as our guide there is no way we cannot advance and achieve eventual enlightenment. Let me finish with this verse by a Shin Buddhist writer; Awakening is dynamic, Constantly evolving with life's realities, Unfolding from ego self to compassionate self, from enclosed self to open self, from foolish self to enlightened self.

I was fortunate enough to see a performance this past week called All Victorious Ocean.  It was a play about the life of tantric yogini, Yeshe Tsogyal.  The email blast described it as "a harrowing and erotic tale".  I found it very moving and inspiring.  The lady tsogyal was entirely committed to both her practice and her Guru, Padmasambhava.  She performs extreme austerities, many mysterious practices, and perfeccts her compassion.  As a result, she overcomes extreme obstacles in order to realize the true luminosity of her own mind and beingness.  I took a few pictures, mostly of the stage design.  Please enjoy.

Here are a few of my favorite books about Lady and Guru

Sky Dancer: The Secret Life & Songs of the Lady Yeshe Tsogyel

Dakini Teachings

The Pictures

Compassion as a Pillar of World Peace

Come and have a look at this beautifull place at the Buddha Center click here for url

While we still have our “self ” intact, that’s the one we love best. We won’t find anybody who will love us as much as we do ourselves. Yet, because of our ego delusion, we believe that there must be somebody like that somewhere. In reality we should look at this search in a different way. We shouldn’t try to find somebody who will help us to support our self-delusion but rather someone who will help us to get rid of it. That can be the Buddha and his teachings, because such is the essence of the dhamma.

Introspection shows us the difficulties in making the self solid and secure. In fact, this is such a burden that we cannot be deeply happy. We can be pleasurably excited, but complete happiness is not possible with a view that needs constant reinforcement. We are not satisfied with telling ourselves how wonderful and clever we are. We need another person to reinforce and support this view.

The bigger our self-image is, the easier it gets knocked down. We often believe that it is sensitivity when our feelings are hurt, but it just means that we are self-centered and want to protect our threatened ego.

To look for total satisfaction in oneself is a futile endeavor. Neither satisfaction nor self really exist. Since everything changes from moment to moment, where can self and where can satisfaction be found? Yet these are two things that the whole world is looking for and it sounds quite reasonable, doesn’t it? But since these are impossible to find, everybody is unhappy. Not necessarily because of tragedies, poverty, sickness, or death: simply because of unfilled desire. Everybody is looking for something that isn’t available. It’s worse than looking for a needle in a haystack; at least the needle is there, even though it is hard to find. But satisfaction and self are both delusions, so how can they ever be found? Searching here and there keeps everyone busy on this little globe of ours. If we were to stop looking for satisfaction for the self, we would have an immediate lessening of dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), since dukkha arises only from wanting something. Also our self-concept would be minimized, as ego is no longer constantly in the forefront of the mind.

To get to this enormous root system that entangles us, we have to use mindfulness. The reason we find it so difficult to be really mindful is the fact that true attention shows us that there is no person, only mind and body. It is like coming up against a wall and instead of digging through that wall, the mind veers off and doesn’t want to know anything further. True mindfulness has arisen when there is only the action but no doer. With divided mindfulness we experience both, the one who is mindful and the one who is being watched. If we use precision in our attention, we see—even if only for a moment—that no person is embedded in our mind/body process. We can never forget that experience.

From Within Our Own Hearts, © Ayya Khema. Published in 2006 by the Buddhist Publication Society

Martie Georgia, BC Faciliator handed this out during her meditation aug. 4, 2010 – I thought everyone would enjouy

delani