Once upon a time there was a wise man who decided to spend his life searching to find ways to cure an illness that afflicted almost everyone in his kingdom.

For over 40 years he tried different recipes and concoctions, but they were so complicated that only he and other people who dedicated their lives to learning these recipes ever found any benefit. Then, one day this great and wise man formulated a medicine that helped cure the illness very effectively.

The most incredible aspect of the cure he had found was that the ingredients were available in the bodies of all common people, and the recipe only required the common people to realise that they themselves contained the ingredients. This was wondrous! The wise man wanted this wisdom to become available to all the people of his kingdom: rich and poor, young and old, man and woman. He set about creating a visual record of his wisdom, and entrusted it to his loyal followers with the express wish that it be spread as widely as possible throughout the kindgom after his life was ended.

Well, in time the great man’s life on this earth came to an end, but his knowledge and wisdom continued on in the form of this written instructions and a great diagram.

Many, many years later, the kingdom of the wise man came to know and be at peace with many other kingdoms upon the world. The people’s of the kingdoms of the world all talked to one another, and it was found that the suffering that had afflicted the wise man’s kingdom in the distant past now also afflicted much of the world.

Now, the trustees of the wise man’s original writings and diagram decided to tell the world that only by directly reading their original copy of the ingredients, and their original copy of the diagram (and paying them) could anyone hope to make the recipe for easing their suffering.

Many of the followers thought this was unfair, and felt this was not what the wise man would have wanted. After all, it wasn’t the paper upon which the ingredients and diagram were written that were magical. It wasn’t even the ink that made them special. It certainly wasn’t the elaborate library in which the documents were kept, and it certainly wasn’t the trustees who imbued the documents with any power. The essence of the power of the documents is what they said. It was in the form of their characters, and what they implied.

The followers of the wise man thought the trustees’ behaviour was most odd, and in an effort to spread the documents and diagram, they created many copies, and sent them to other kingdoms so that the people there could also be relieved of their suffering. Before long people throughout the world began to feel better. The followers of the wise man grew rapidly in number, and in thanks to the wise man, they built buildings and planted trees around the library in honour of the wise man.

Seeing so many people claim they were no longer suffering must clearly have angered the trustees of the original documents because before long they expelled the followers from the library, banishing them for all time. The buildings the followers built were torn down and the trees they had planted were chopped up. The trustees were acting in a way which confused the followers. The trustees told the world that the followers’ copy of the ingredients and diagram were incorrect, and that these copies would only bring more suffering down upon the people of the world.

This is most odd, as the wise man never suggested that his work could not be copied, and was clear in his conviction to ease the suffering of all people. There could only be one reason for the trustees being so angry - the same reason for anyone to display anger and to act in revenge - reasons which have not changed since the birth of humanity, and the reasons why any spiritual organisation led by humans is doomed to fail.

Ironically - the followers then began to form groups within each kingdom, and before long they too began to proclaim that their writings, their diagram and their practice was the only way to ease the suffering of the people. By now, even more copies of the writings and the diagram were spreading around the world. The people were easing their suffering. The medicine was doing it’s job. But now even the followers were beginning to display the same behaviour that the trustees had originally, by insisting that they were somehow the only conduit for the acquisition of the documents and diagram. However, it was too late. The cat was out of the bag, so to speak. The people were empowered, they were learning, and realising the end to their suffering.

Post Script - the future and the only future in which I could play a part.

Now, many years later, the suffering has largely been eradicated. The people of the world have all seen the ingredients and the diagram, and can produce copies of it at will. Nobody owns it. Nobody has the right to withhold it. Everybody benefits from it. The library, in it’s magnificent splendour, now stands open to all once more. A lesson hangs upon the wall for visitors to read that shows how the most beautiful medicine in the world was withheld by people driven by ego. In this time, the followers too also realised they shouldn’t behave in the same way as the trustees, and became far more accessible, helping people the world over to realise that they held within themselves the cure to their own suffering, and that to provide access to this information was an inalienable humane responsibility.

This made everyone feel good inside.

November and December have been a busy time. My neighbour who was recently diagnosed with cancer, was kind enough to help me build a butsudan. It was great to see it being made, and it’s now sitting on it’s table waiting for a gohonzon, but again I’ve not been able to get down to Taplow court. Another friend of mine has been suffering from cancer, and had been through a major operation recently, and was in hospital for a couple of weeks before being allowed home. The weekend being the only time I was able to visit, everything else went on hold. Oh, and my dear old mom coming to lunch, and the inevitable distractions with our children. There should be more hours in the day!

Furio was kind enough to send me some 2008 SGI-Italia diaries that he has produced. They look great, and I’m looking forward to taking them to my local chapter if I ever get there!

The weather is so cold. The birds are eating their way through a lot of grain.

My father is once again a part of my life. Its been a rocky road, but I feel enriched now I have started healing the damage caused by my previous anger.

To seek enlightenment for one’s own gratification is surely the path to disappointment and despair. To escape the things which try us in this life through one’s study of Buddhism, and it’s forms of meditation, is to take the view that one can exist as distinct from the rest of the world. This attitude only serves to blind people to their buddhahood and to the truth that they are inseparable from the sufferings of this saha world. This is why students of teachings that promote contemplative meditation in isolation from the rest of the world will only find the briefest relief in this life, and will be awakened only to the two vehicles of learning and realisation in an endless austerity of death and rebirth. The true beauty in awakening one’s buddha nature is beyond description, and yet remains too subtle to be easily explained to one who does not accept the mystic truth extant in all manifestation.

Aniruddha was one of Shakyamuni’s 10 major disciples, but before this he was a poor man who once gave millet to a struggling beggar. He later searched for more millet, but a hare jumped on his back and turned into a corpse. Frightened by this he tried to shake it loose, without success. He rushed home, where the corpse fell from his back, and turned into gold. Evidently, this was the great benefit befalling him for his compassionate act of kindness to the beggar. Now, evil robbers learned of his gain, and came to steal his gold, but when they came to his house all they could find was a corpse.

The evil robbers in this story could be equated to those who only wish to learn Buddhist principles in an attempt to improve their lives alone. The poor mans house is like the Lotus Sutra which contains within it the difficult to attain way, or gold, of the Buddha’s infinite wisdom and compassion for all life. For those who do not genuinely seek the way of the Buddha, and do not take faith in Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, however, the house will seem as though it contains nothing but the cold corpse of learning and realisation.

Be strong in faith above all things, and give the millet of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo to those around you at all times. The corpse upon your back, which weights heavy like one’s karma from kalpas past will gradually, through the daimoku of practice and faith, fall from your back as gold.

Don’t eat a whole madras curry with rice and nan bread on an empty stomach, particularly one with copious amounts of ghee. The resulting belly cramps and racing heart really aren’t worth it!
Happily, unlike Tokuitsu, who was described by Dengyo as a “feeder on lowly food”, due to his inability to enjoy the Ghee of the Lotus Sutra, the only ghee that seems to totally disagree with me is the slightly less metaphysical, and altogether more artery hardening clarified butter that the boys down the local takeaway seem to use in bucketfuls!

Technorati has my little blog at a rank (yes, blogs are ranked) of 4,446,976. I’m not really sure what this is meant to achieve. There must be millions of people out there all beavering away, talking about the latest films, how skinny filmstar X is, or how the latest gadget from the east can store all your MP3’s and navigate you to your nearest Virgin Megastore. Obviously my meanderings are of little consequence - Oh Whine whine whine, I hear you say - but hold on. Technorati don’t even have a blog category for religion, let alone Buddhism.

Technology blogs account for 55,817 blogs, maybe understandable, and encouragingly, Art checks in with 64,794, but then look at Blogs - yes, Blogs about… BLOGS! There are 162,592 blogs about blogs.

In an environment where the amount of meta information supercedes real information, is it any wonder that people begin to wonder what it’s all about? So, with that in mind I’m going to continue talking about the most important things that humanity should be concerned with. How to end suffering, reveal our buddha nature, and bring happiness and peace to the world of the human condition.

If one person reads this blog, and picks up a copy of the Gosho, or reads the Lotus Sutra, or simply chants Nam Myoho Renge Kyo once, then my lifestate will have been enhanced more than by all the money I have earned throughout my professional life!