Chapter 35 Compassion is knowing what the crab orchid needs (33)

My father once planted a crab orchid, and the snake tree hung on the dark wall next to the underground well.I cleverly moved the crab orchids to the sun so that the flowers would bloom more beautifully.A few days later, my father found that the crab orchid had withered. After searching for a long time, he finally found the murderer. Instead of admitting my fault like Washington who cut down the cherry tree, I said straightforwardly: "Plants need sunlight!" My father smiled and said: "My child, not every plant needs sunshine!" It needs the same sunshine, you have to give it according to its needs!"

In the process of growing up, I always remember this story when I was young, and even after learning Buddhism, I feel that "giving according to the needs of sentient beings" is the real compassion.This is a lesson my father taught me. My mother told me another kind of "compassion". I have a pair of trousers with a big hole, and I have been reluctant to throw it away, because there are traces of my mother's patching on it.It was the first time I went home overnight after I became a monk. After taking a bath that night, I saw my mother mending her clothes under the dim light. I took the trousers and saw the dense stitches my mother sewed one by one, and I was indescribably moved.

"The thread in the hands of the loving mother, and the clothes on the body of the wanderer. Before leaving, the stitches are dense, and the intention may be late." Although the mother was heartbroken when she became a monk, she still accepts me. The traces of stitches and stitches represent my mother. Acceptance of a monastic daughter.It's just that for her, I will always be a wanderer. The heart of a mother is the heart of a Bodhisattva. No wonder the Buddha said that the cultivation of a Bodhisattva heart should start with "knowing the mother and remembering the mother's kindness", because the mother tolerates her children without discrimination and never leaves her. No matter how the children treat her, the mother is still the same Open her warm arms and wait for her children.

A Japanese Buddhist scholar said: "Compassion is the display of the moral aspect of 'emptiness'", because "emptiness" includes all sentient beings - "compassion" is to give happiness to all living beings; "compassion" is to remove the suffering of all living beings.Without a boundless mind, how can we give pleasure and relieve suffering?Therefore, "compassion, compassion, joy, and equanimity" are also called "four immeasurable hearts". This kind of compassion is equal and indiscriminate, and "not hindered by selective prejudice and preference" can pervade all sentient beings.

I think, true compassion must be able to observe what the other person needs?What can I give myself?To achieve a balance between the two, to make others feel at ease, but also to make yourself feel at ease. Wisdom is a kind of choice. Only by observing causes and conditions and making correct and reasonable choices can we truly bless ourselves and others.I expect myself to have compassion with wisdom embedded in it.