(no subject)
My second cousin was in a parking lot near a motel when he was confronted by two police officers on accusations of public intoxication. Things escalated and what should have been a routine line of questioning ended with my cousin being tazed twice, falling off of a ten foot embankment and being paralyzed from the chest down without the use of his fingers. This was over last weekend. His alcohol level was below the legal limit.
Pema Chodron talks about shenpa, what hooks us, that preverbal response that arises from anger, lust and all those fine human emotions. I realize that one of my big ones is the feeling of being helpless. Nothing is a bigger threat to my nembutsu practice than wanting that perfect mantra that will make everything alright. Of course that mantra doesn't exist and at the risk of being cynical, if prayer healed that easily there would be no disease or injury anywhere in the world.
That doesn't mean I have chanted the Medicine Buddha's mantra for him, probably should have stuck with the nembutsu. I am amazed at how this impacted my inner landscape though. Academically I know these things are part of the Saha World and there is no way around them but faced with the reality there is the temptation to start looking for the loopholes.
Pema Chodron talks about shenpa, what hooks us, that preverbal response that arises from anger, lust and all those fine human emotions. I realize that one of my big ones is the feeling of being helpless. Nothing is a bigger threat to my nembutsu practice than wanting that perfect mantra that will make everything alright. Of course that mantra doesn't exist and at the risk of being cynical, if prayer healed that easily there would be no disease or injury anywhere in the world.
That doesn't mean I have chanted the Medicine Buddha's mantra for him, probably should have stuck with the nembutsu. I am amazed at how this impacted my inner landscape though. Academically I know these things are part of the Saha World and there is no way around them but faced with the reality there is the temptation to start looking for the loopholes.