By Justin Lee
The Buddha had a question. He had just awakened from the dream of the world. He was free finally of its illusion. He was Awake. The world lay comatose around him. Dark as night. It all seemed so far away, now that he was in the Light. The world of the unreal seemed so unreal. Yet he had a question – What about the others? What about those who continue to sleep? Could he help them? No. The depth of their sleep is deep, too ingrained, too massive. I cannot lift leaden heads from stone pillows.
During his own awakening, he had been attended to by Brahma Sahampati. The Brahma heard Buddha’s question, and offered, “Yes, maybe you’re right. Maybe you cannot help. Yet, what if there’s someone ready to wake up. Will you lend a hand? What if there are two or three? Perhaps you’re right, yet perhaps you can also try.”
Now the Buddha remembered the rice pudding. A girl had offered it to him. “Here, eat.” She had offered him life, while his extreme devotion to bodily austerities was soon to give him death. She was kind.
Now the Buddha remembered when he was seven years old, sitting under the shade of a tree. He watched his father in the sun preparing to plow a field. In the softness of a cool breeze, he had dropped into a deep meditation. Now many years later, he again sat under the shade of a tree. This time he had entered meditation with a vow to Enlightenment, and had returned, Awake. Both times the arms of a tree had shaded him from the burning sun. Both were kind.
When father plowed the field under the rolling blaze of the sun, he was asleep. He plowed the endless dream of birth, life, and death. The trees though, shading me from that same sun, allowed me the cool of a quiet heart. Under their kindness, I awoke to the Light itself. Perhaps I can be a tree. Perhaps my arms can shade sleeping ones from the turbulence of heated dreams. Perhaps I can offer the rice pudding of compassion. Perhaps I can show how the dream of the world is suffering and that there is a path out of that suffering. As a mother calls to her sleeping child, I will call them from their dreams. From the dark, their eyes may open.
May all beings be peaceful.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature.
May all beings be free.