A Buddhist Fable on praise and blame, Lord Buddha, Padmasambhava, Sakya
Pandita, Vajrayogini, Kanjur / Tanjur, 8 of the 16 arhats, Sakya
Monastery in Seattle, Washington, USA
A Buddhist Fable on praise and blame, Lord Buddha, Padmasambhava, Sakya Pandita, Vajrayogini, Kanjur / Tanjur, 8 of the 16 arhats, Sakya Monastery in Seattle, Washington, USA, a photo by Wonderlane on Flickr.
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A Buddhist fable -
Once upon a time a man came to Lord Buddha and begged for his teachings.
Lord Buddha declined to teach the man, telling the man that he wasn't ready.
But this man begged and whined and moaned and said he would do anything if the Buddha would only please teach him.
So the Buddha said "You will do anything?"
"I will do anything at all! to gain your instruction!" said the man with great eagerness.
Buddha gave the man the following assignment - to go down to the graveyard and praise everyone in their graves - the entire place.
And the man went to the graveyard and heaped praise on the dead for remaining still and quiet and complimented them for having nice headstones, pretty flowers decorating their graves, and living a good life.
Having praised all those dead he returned to the Buddha.
"Did you do it?" asked Lord Buddha.
"Yes!" said the man with great pride and vigor.
"Ok," said the Buddha, "Now go to the same graveyard and heap insults on the dead and blame them."
Sure enough the man went and accused the dead of being lazy laying around in their coffins all day and night, and that worms were crawling among their bones, and how gross their decay was, and it was their fault that their fingers were falling off, going through all the very same graves.
When completed he returned, and the Buddha said "Did you do it?"
And the man reported, "Yes Lord Buddha, I did it."
"Ok" asked the Buddha, "and how did the dead respond when you praised them?"
"They had no response when I praised them," said the man.
"And how did the dead react when you blamed them?" asked the Buddha.
"They had no response to the blame either." said the man.
"You should have the same response to praise and blame." said Lord Buddha.
And that was his teaching.
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