Learning To Surrender At City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas
ServiceSpace
--Bela Shah
3 minute read
Oct 29, 2015

 

A few days ago I experienced the gift of spending time at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. The gift itself was the result of the cultivation of so many before me. What was most transformational about the trip was the invitation to invoke compassion in every thought for 30 minutes as we chanted together and walked through the powerful vibrations of the monastery. I realized in one mili-moment of insight that every second I spend not cultivating compassion and kindness is a waste of each breath that I take. What a gift I've been given in this lifetime to cultivate loving kindness. How can I waste that? This singular moment of insight helped to dissolve so much built up residue, all of the heightened emotions that my mind has spun into a whirl wind of turmoil inside of me, whether it's work related or personal. Many times, there is so much ego and attachment in the thoughts that arise within my mind, sometimes at the most subtle level that it escapes me before I can catch it. But at the monastery, each second that I focused my thoughts on compassion and loving kindness, it worked like a balm to clear and calm my turbulent mind.

So many circumstances and actions, known and unknown, brought me into that space.. Nipun shared that when Master Hua had the idea to create the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and asked Rev. Heng Sure about his thoughts, Rev. Heng Sure said it sounded like a great idea. Master Hua said there would have to be sacrifice. Rev. Heng Sure didn't know at the time that he would be embarking on a pilgrimage of three steps and one bow for two years and nine months, surrendering to every thought that arose in his mind through compassion and loving kindness. Each day that he and Marty (then Heng Chau) walked with three steps and one bow from dawn until dusk, Master Hua carved 7 Buddha statues. There are 10,000 Buddha statues in total.

The question arose, "Who am I to walk through that great hall, under each of those Bhuddhas in my meager effort to invoke compassion?" But I realized I was asking the wrong question at great risk to myself, the Earth, and the cosmos. Actually, "Who am I not?" Aren't we here on Earth to work together to care for it and for each other? Why else would we have been given this gift of life? This is our purpose for being and breathing in harmony with our green companions. We have to stop. We have to stop running and destroying and exploiting. This is our time, the only time to work together and create a better world. If we can't learn how to surrender to our egos and dissolutions, all hope is lost.

Reflecting on all of this, my mind began to focus once more on compassion and loving kindness while waiting for the BART. Somewhere above, I heard the beautiful sounds of the flute floating around me. The BART was super crowded and there was no place to hold onto. A woman next to me kindly tapped me and asked me to share her hand rope with her so that I wouldn't fall. Seeing this, another woman asked a third woman to share her hand rope with her. We all stood there in the midst of that crowded BART ride, holding each other with kindness, bowing to each other's goodness. Another small reminder to me to keep surrendering as much as I can...to keep inviting compassion into my thoughts as much as I can....to keep working and to keep trying.

 

Posted by Bela Shah on Oct 29, 2015


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