Category: Sunday Photo

I’ll be posting a bunch of blossom photos this month, I hope no one minds!

Here is the trail to Tapsa, Pagoda Temple, at night lined with cherry blossoms. It’s one of the many special places in Korea to see cherry blossoms on display.

It’s just about cherry blossom time in Seoul.

I’ve heard from my friend that they’re already out in the southern parts.

When I think about what I’ll miss when I finally leave Korea, mountains, temples, and cherry blossoms are the first things to come to mind.

I feel like the bells are ringing all around the world right now.

I finally started to understand Daehaeng Kun Sunim’s meaning of entrusting. I’ve stopped paying much attention to the news, it doesn’t feel like there’s a whole lot of concern in the news for a good outcome, but merely sensationalizing the situation and creating panic. I know there’s a whole lot going on in the world, the best I can do is intrust that my intentions for everything to be well, and keep going in my life.

Chong Go Sunim once told us that if you know something bad is going to happen, it’s better not to add to it by just talking about it, but instead to entrust it and know that it will be taken care of. He added that Daehaeng Kun Sunim once said, “Before there was the nuclear bomb [or nuclear power, or demonstrations, if I may add] there was mind.” It would be much more useful to entrust the situation to our fundamental mind right now than to get caught up in the panic.

I’ve been sending many thoughts of Metta to the engineers working in Japan. I feel they are truly Bodhisattvas. They aren’t doing this only for their families, or the Japanese people, but potentially all sentient beings on this planet. What ever their fate may be, may the merit of their sacrifice carry them a great way!

At the risk of sounding like a cheese ball, I’ve been thinking about the Mayan prophecy that now would be a time of great change. The reason I’m not too shy to share that is, well, change isn’t exactly a foreign concept to Buddhism. There is always change, so it’s always a good time to practice, but maybe now more people may start paying attention!

The ground may not have moved, here in Korea, but I still feel a little shaken. Not only by the disaster in japan, but all the other recent ones along with it.

Today, I’d like to share one of my favorite shots from my trips to Japan.

May things settle, maybe not exactly as they were before, but to some sense of normalcy for all those who have to keep going on in the midst of their world having been shaken up and washed away.

Weeds are the bane of fields, lust is the bane of mankind. Therefore, what is offered to those free of lust yields abundant fruit.

Weeds are the bane of fields, hatred is the bane of mankind. Therefore, what is offered to those free of hatred yields abundant fruit.

Weeds are the bane of fields, delusion is the bane of mankind. Therefore, what is offered to those free of delusion yields abundant fruit.

Weeds are the bane of fields, desire is the bane of mankind. Therefore, what is offered to those free of desire yields abundant fruit.

-Tanhavagga Sutta

 

 

Our Buddha nature is like a light in a house. Even if you close all the doors and cover all the windows, some light still shines through to the outside. That’s how we know Buddha-nature is there.

-Mingyur Rinpoche

This photo looks like a double exposure, but it was taken through the huge glass window that covers the front entrance of the Dharma Hall at Jogyesa during Winter time. The light shining off the massive gold Buddha is just enough to shine through the reflection of the tree and buildings, just like our Buddha-nature.

The one “rule” I’d set for myself when posting Sunday Photos was that I would only post images from Korean temples.

Well, today, I’ve decided to take a bit of a vacation to Bangkok, where Chong Go Sunim has been for the last few days to attend a short retreat at the Bangkok Hanmaum.

He’d mentioned to me a few times before that he really had a nice feeling from Wat Pho, one of the most famous attractions in Bangkok, the temple that houses a massive gold Parinirvana Buddha. During my last trip to Bangkok, I took this photo of the Buddha’s eye, about to close for the last time in this realm.

“One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus leaf is untouched by water.”
-Bhagavad-Gita

 

Awakening is likened to a lotus rising from the muddy waters, flowering in consciousness.

I’d never really considered, though, where does the mud come from?

A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

-Albert Einstein, 1921