Buddha Pournima......The Day of Enlighenment

Buddha Pournima,......the day of Gautama Buddha's enlightenment How to Respond to Evil with Good… This post is based on some words about Buddha that I came across a while ago. These words tell us how to respond to evil with good http://youtu.be/UnM9pfxVWkA Buddha was well known for his ability to respond to evil with good. There was a man that knew about this reputation and he travelled miles and miles to test Buddha. When he got in Buddha’s presence he verbally abused him, he insulted and offended him. - Buddha was unmoved. He simply turned to the man and said: “May I ask you a question?” The man agreed and said: “Well what?” Buddha continued: “When someone offers you a gift and you decline to accept it, to whom then does it belong?” The man replied: “Well then it belongs to the person who offered it.” Buddha smiled: “That is correct.” And then he said: “So if I decline to accept your abuse, does it not then still belong to you?” The man was speechless and left…   A person who grows on the spiritual path cannot ignore Gautama because his presence has become so dominant. In his own lifetime, he had forty thousand monks who went out to spread the spiritual process. In his own silent way, he changed the world forever. He has been one of the greatest spiritual waves on the planet. Buddha Pournami has always been significant in the yogic culture and was always a very auspicious day in any spiritual aspirant’s life. but today. On that full moon evening over 2500 years ago, a man blossomed into a being. Though people generally associate the word Buddha with Gautama, he is not the only Buddha. There have been thousands of Buddhas on this planet and there still are. “Bu” means Buddhi or the intellect. One who is above his intellect, one who is no longer a part of his mind, is a Buddha. Right now, most people are just a bundle of thoughts, emotions, opinions, and of course, prejudices. Please see, what we consider as “ourself” is just a jumble of things that we have gathered from outside. Whichever kind of situations we were exposed to, that is the kind of nonsense we have gathered in our mind. Our mind is society’s garbage bin, because we have no choice about what to take and what not to take. Whoever goes that way throws something into our head. We can enshrine this nonsense as divinity if we want, but it will not become divinity; it is just simple mind. There is another way to experience life and go beyond the process that we call as mind. To do this, we need to shut the garbage bin and keep it aside. The mind is a phenomenal thing, but if we get stuck to it, it will take us for a ride endlessly. If we are in the mind, we are a nonstop suffering human being – we cannot help it, even no one can help. Suffering is inevitable. Maybe when we are watching the sunset, it is so beautiful that we forget everything, but our suffering is sitting right behind us like a tail. The moment we look back, it is right there. What we call as “our happiness,” are those moments when we forgot our suffering. As long as we are in the mind, fears, anxieties and struggles are inevitable; that is the nature of the mind. It is because people are unable to bear the torture of the mind that they have devised many ways in society to go below the mind. Excessive eating, alcohol, excessive indulgence in physical pleasures, these are all ways to go below the mind. People use them and for a few moments they forget the torture. If Mr. X hits the bottle and sleep. For a few hours his mind does not bother him anymore because he has gone below the mind. There is great pleasure and it is so relaxing because suddenly the tortures of his mind are not there. So he gets deeply addicted to it. But the nature of the evolutionary process is such that this being which was below the mind has right now evolved into the mind. If it wants to become free, it has to go beyond the mind. There is no such thing as going back. If by using a chemical he goes below the mind, he will see, life always catches up with him with more intensity after that is over. It is always so. Suffering intensifies. The process of yoga is to see how to go beyond the mind. Only when a person is beyond the mind, he can really be himself with enlightenment.   Buddha Song https://youtu.be/lzrCRDGctNE Buddh Hai Prabuddh hai, Shuddh hai, Uski katha jo Buddh hai The Enlightened One, the Pure One, The story of the One, who is Buddha Har tarah ka thha vilaas, par nahi bujhti thhi pyaas, Raaj-bhog pramaad thhe par manah-shaanti ka thha hraas Pleasure of every kind there to take, but the thirst it could not quench or slake, Kingly pleasures there were it is said, but peace of mind would falter and ebb Isi bhogi zindagi mein ek din Gautam chale Teen drishy dikhey, unhe tab isi ambar ke tale In this life of pleasure, one day Gautama went walking, When under the skies, he saw three sights come stalking Ek rogi, ek vriddh, ek shav ko dekh ke, Raja Gautam bhikshu ban, Samaan ho bas chal pade One ill, one old, one corpse he did perceive, King turned beggar and as Samaan he did leave Khojte phirte chale uss gyaan ko jo gupt hai Prabuddh hai, Shuddh hai, Uski katha jo Buddh hai Seeking and searching for that knowledge which was hidden, The Enlightened One, the Pure One, The story of the One, who is Buddha Ek shaakha par latakti zindagi ko thaam ke, Kee Niranjana paar aur phir baithhe mann mein thhan ke Grasping for life on a branch in the river, Crossing the Niranjan he sat not to be deterred Ya toh srishti se pare ki jyoti mujhko dikhegi, Ya isi Bodhi tale meri ye kaya mitegi The light beyond creation either I must see, Or my body will fall here under this Bodhi tree Usi pal, is kshitij mein ek poorn chandr udit hua, Usi pal, is jeev mein ek poorn Soorya vidit hua At that moment a moon rose on the horizon, At that moment within a sun did enlighten Isi Bodhi ke tale ek Raja Gautam mrit hua, Aur isi Bodhi tale Prabuddh Buddh-avtarit hua Under this Bodhi a king Gautama did perish, Under this Bodhi Buddha was there to cherish Upanishad ke saar se inki katha santript hai Prabuddh hai, Shuddh hai, Uski katha jo Buddh hai. With the essence of the Upanishad his story is replete, The Enlightened One, the Pure One, The story of the One, who is Buddha http://youtu.be/t4AJFyK63Hg  ----------------------------------------------------