[music] Dharma Vites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you and happy listening. [music] The Buddha says, "It is like unto a great cloud, rising above the world, covering all things everywhere. A gracious cloud, full of moisture. Licening flames flash and dazzle, voices of thunder vibrate so far, bringing joy and ease to all. The sun's rays are veiled, and the earth is cooled. The cloud lowers and spreads, as if it might be caught and gathered. Its rain everywhere equally descends on all the sites, streaming and pouring unstinted, permeating the land. On mountains, by rivers, in valleys, in hidden recesses they grow. The plants, trees and herbs, trees both great and small. The shoots of the ripening grain, grapevine and sugarcane. Fertilised are these by the rain, and abundantly enriched. The dry ground is soaked. Herbs and trees flourish together, from the one water which issued from that cloud. Plants, trees, thickets, forests. According to need, we save moisture. All of the various trees, lofty, medium, low, each according to its size, grows and develops, roots, stalks, branches, leaves, blossoms and fruits in their brilliant colours. Wherever the one rain reaches, all become fresh and glossy. According as their bodies, forms and natures are great, or small, so the enriching rain, though it is one the same, makes each of them flash. In like manner also, the Buddha appears here in the world, like unto a great cloud, universally covering all the things. And having appeared in the world, he, for the sake of the living, discriminates and proclaims the truth in regards to all laws. The great, holy, world-honored one, among the gods and men, and among other beings, proclaims abroad this word. I am the Thargator, the most honored among men. I appear in the world, like unto this great cloud, to pour enrichment on all parched living beings, to free them from their misery, to attain the joy of peace, joy of the present world, and joy of Nirvana. God's men and everyone power can well with your mind. Where this is the parable of the rain cloud. And here clearly, the rain cloud is the Buddha, pouring down the rain. And the rain is the Dharma, the teaching. And the plants are all living beings. The plants are what we may describe as the cosmic Sangha, all living beings. Now, there's a number of points to be just briefly noted here. First of all, the rain falls on all alike. The Buddha does not discriminate. The Buddha does not differentiate. We know that the historical Buddha didn't do this. He preached his Dharma, he taught his Dharma to all alike, to princes, to peasants, to men, to women, to merchants, to outcasts, to murderers, to robbers. He taught his Dharma to all without making any distinction, without discrimination. So, the rain, the rain of the Dharma, falls on all alike. And those who receive the rain, the rain of the Dharma, the plants, the living beings, in other words, ourselves. We grow, but we grow in accordance with our own individual nature. The rain falls on the palm tree. The palm tree goes into a palm tree. The rain falls on the flower. The flower grows into a flower. The flower doesn't become a palm tree, the palm tree doesn't become a flower. Each grows nourished by the same rain, but in accordance with his own nature. So, in the same way, we all learn and practice the same Dharma. What we develop spiritually, each in his or her own way. Though at the same time, we all grow equally towards the same enlightenment, the same Buddhahood, the same Bodhi. Now, for the growth of a plant, we may say, five things are needed. The plant, well, first of all, there needs to be a seed, then the soil, then there's warmth, there's light, and, of course, finally, the rain. So, similarly, if we are to grow, if we are to grow spiritually, we need five things. First of all, there needs to be a seed. There needs to be what we may call a potentiality for enlightenment. And according to traditional Buddhist teaching, all human beings do possess that. Even, we may say, all living beings possess that. They possess the potentiality for enlightenment. The seed is there. All can become enlightened, if they make the effort, and if conditions are propitious. So, the seed, that's the first thing. We all have that. And then, corresponding to the soil, there needs to be favorable circumstances. Favourable circumstances, circumstance is favorable to spiritual growth and spiritual development. It's not that we can't develop if circumstances are unfavorable, but it's very much more difficult. And especially if we need leisure, we need health, we need facilities of various kinds. And in the West, I think, we're very, very fortunate that usually these facilities do lie ready to hand. Some of you, before this talk, saw the video of my last visit to India. And many of our Indian Buddhist friends do not enjoy the facilities that we enjoy. For them, it's not easy to follow the spiritual life. For all sorts of reasons. I'll just give you a few examples that I know from my personal experience. I remember there was a young woman who became a Buddhist and who wanted to take up meditation. But she came from an ex-untouchable Buddhist family and they all lived together in a hut which had only one room and there were 18 members of the family. But she was determined to meditate. So she meditated every morning. She got it very early. And she meditated sitting up on a shelf on one side of this one room of the hut. And she kept up on meditation practice in that way. I don't suppose any of you have ever meditated or had to meditate in that particular way. Sitting up on a shelf in a room, a small room occupied by 17 other people. But this is what she did. Very recently I heard the case of an old woman. Not an old one this time. This old woman wanted to go on one of our retreats. And the retreat was the last week. And in India it costs usually a hundred rupees for the week's retreat. A hundred rupees is about... Oh, what's a hundred rupees? It's about two pounds sterling. So what's that in dollars? About five. About five. About five dollars. That's what it costs, sir, for a week's retreat. But this old woman didn't have that five dollars, sir. That hundred rupees. So she was 70 years of age, by the way. So what did she do? She worked for a month as a farm laborer. Digging and carrying stones at the age of 70. She saved up at hundred rupees and then she came on a week's retreat. So that's the sort of difficulty people have to face there if they want to practice the Dharma. We don't have those sort of difficulties. Anywhere, I think, in the West. Well, certainly not also perhaps some of the Eastern European countries or perhaps some parts of South America. We don't really usually encounter those sort of difficulties. We have it very easy and we don't always appreciate that. We have access to books, access to literature. We have free time. We have health. We have leisure. But we have to ask ourselves, do we really make the best use of those facilities? The soil is really there. But then, corresponding to the heat, the warmth that the seed needs, we need the warmth of spiritual friendship. And spiritual friendship is very important in Buddhism. And in the F.W. where we distinguish two kinds of spiritual friendship, what we call vertical between the less and the more spiritually experienced, especially between people and the teacher. And horizontal spiritual friendship, the spiritual friendship which brings up within the Sangha, among those who are practically on the same level, is pure spiritual friendship. And we do really need both. We can't always be in personal contact with our teacher. Perhaps our teacher has many disciples and he doesn't have much time to spare for us. But he gives what we need. But we need more than that in the sense of needing more, let us say ordinary human spiritual friendship, and that we get from our peers. So we need both of these. We need that warmth. We need that friendship, that devotion in our spiritual lives. So warmth also is one that helps us in our spiritual growth, our spiritual development. Spiritual friendship is essential. And then, corresponding to the light that the seed needs, if it is to grow, we need intellectual clarity. We need clear thinking. And this is one of the things that does sometimes disturb me. I think not all Western Buddhists are notorious for clarity of thought. One can read also books written on Buddhism, on the Dharma, by people with less or more factual knowledge about Buddhism, but only to often run friends quite serious misunderstandings and misrepresentations even about quite basic, dynamic matters. So we need the light of intellectual clarity. We need also clear thinking. We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. And thank you. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]
