The Thinker, my Buddhist friend, my sounding board, my conscience keeper, called earlier today and said just one word,
“Coffee?”
And that is how we ended up once again in that quaint noisy little café overlooking the market place. I, with my coffee and he, with his ice-tea. We were meeting after months and I know that he had been away in the Himalayas. As he sat there, he dipped into his pocket and presented me with a beautiful book on the interpretation of ‘om mani padme hum’ the most powerful Buddhist mantra. Tibetans believe that chanting of this mantra invokes in those that chant it a feeling of absolute compassion and a state of bliss. I asked him if this was true.
Like always, he smiled and waited while thoughts arranged themselves in his mind. He then dipped his finger into the ice tea and flicked a drop in the air, chanted the mantra and offered his drink to nature, returning a little of what had been given to him.
He then said:
“Bliss is not so much about feeling happy and satisfied; it’s more about a feeling that things can’t get any better. The moment one feels that something can’t get any better then one feels a tiny rush of bliss.
There is so much perfection all around us that we don’t have to look very far to see something that can’t get any better. Almost everything in the nature around us is perfect, there is bliss everywhere. We just need to unite with nature.
Just like the river unites with the ocean
Just like the wind unites with the fragrance of the flowers
Just like the dawn unites with the warmth of the sun
Just like the prayers written on the flags unite with the winds
Just like the shrill call of the eagles unites with the peace of the valley below
Each loses itself while trying to unite but eventually gains so much from the union. So it is with the realization of bliss. We go looking for perfection and when we find it, the discovery leaves us filled with awe. We wonder in the ability of nature to awe us with its tiniest creation and it is in that realization, my friend, where bliss hides”.
1 comment:
simply loved the way you've described the depth and the wisdom of a simple action which i have so often seen in temples, being performed by the priests.. But never thought beyond it..
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