I first heard of Acharya Lama Gursam when I read in the newspaper about a pet blessing that he did in Pinellas County, but I was unable to attend it, naturally, because I read about it after it happened. However, as I have previously written, while I was staying in Boston, I heard that he was doing another blessing at an animal shelter in Jamaica Plain. Therefore, I set out from the center to attend it, but when my hearing aid battery died I turned back, knowing that the environment of such a shelter would be rather noisy and, without my hearing aid, I would be unlikely to hear his quiet voice.
Saturday, I again set out to attend one of Lama Gursam's pet blessings. However, I again had to turn back, this time, because of aftereffects of my radiation treatments. With the bleeding that I have been experiencing, I have to be very conscious of where rest rooms are available when I travel away from home. When I need to get to one, I may not have enough time to reach it before I have an “accident” which is the reason for my “just in case bag.” On this occasion I made my second bathroom break when I reached the Bruce B Downs Blvd exit on I-75. This wasn't even the halfway point on my drive. When I considered how scarce rest rooms would be as I got closer to the park, I realized that I needed to turn back.
As I've written earlier, sometimes when I am involved in Dharma activities, the symptoms will be in abeyance for just enough time to allow for just such activities. However, it does not always work that way. I could give myself a headache trying to second guess something like this. I could even read into it a sign that I am not supposed to have anything to do with animal blessings. However, I know that could not be true, because we need to promote animal blessings and animal liberations. In Western cultures, we have such a heritage from the Abrahamic religions and some aspects of Greek and Roman paganism that we are raised to treat animals as objects rather than sentient beings.
When we do animal blessings and animal releases, we attest to the fact that all of us are related. This is an essential part of the truth that we as Buddhists share with Native American spirituality and Earth-centered religion. Furthermore, this is fundamental to continuing to have human life on this planet. I have to believe that I must play some part in that, whether it is by becoming qualified to do animal blessings or merely encouraging them as well as animal liberations, That is a worthy aspiration for the benefit of all sentient beings.
In such a context, I have to regard my current physical limitation not as an insuperable obstacle, but rather simply as a hurdle to be overcome, just another along this course. There have been others like my alcoholism or my early limited religious perspectives the overcoming of which have provided occasions for spiritual growth. In fact, this seems like yet another aspect of this present “Journey Through Cancer” which is unfolding before me and around me. I am not anything special, merely a phenomenon that results from certain causes under certain conditions. The only thing that is special about me is the same thing that is special about all of us, our underlying buddhanature. Furthermore, I have the same calling we all have, to follow the Dharma to uncover that very buddhanature in Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.
No comments:
Post a Comment