Independence Day is when we Win the Battle with Ourselves
Thanh Vi
Long Beach, CA
July 17, 2009
***
Saturday night July 4, 2009 was the most perfect Saturday evening in Long Beach, California. I had been at Chua Phat To, the Buddhist temple at 10th & Orange all day. We had been reciting Sutras and the name of Amitabha Buddha all day. As evening approached I was a little nervous but my friend at the temple made me feel more confident. Later I found out that the group was going to go to the beach to watch the fireworks from the Queen Mary. I had planned to go see them by myself, but it seemed more fun to go with Su Fo and everyone. He looked very cute in his Canada hat and tennis shoes.
It was a bit odd though, the whole time from the minute we left the parking lot at Chua Phat To until we returned after the fireworks I just kept reciting the name of Amitabha Buddha and I didn't want to stop. I was just following along reciting the Buddha's name.
The fourth of July is known as Independence Day in America. In 1776 the founding fathers of our country drafted up and signed the Declaration of Independence. The colonies in America wanted to be liberated from the rule of the King of England. There was a war and the fireworks represent the war and remind us of the song “The Star Spangled Banner.” That night I only stopped reciting the Buddha's name for a few seconds in order to whisper the song to myself as I watched the fireworks:
The rockets red glare
the bombs bursting in air
gave proof through the night
that our Flag was still there.
Oh say does that star spangled banner
still wave
over the land of the free and
the home of the brave.
It was such a wonderful night, the moon was full and the waves were beautiful. And there were a lot of people on the beach celebrating. I haven't had a fourth of July like that before ever. In the Buddha Dharma we always talk about freedom also. What are we trying to free ourselves from when we come to Dharma? Samsara? But what is samsara but our own afflictions.
Sometimes it seems like we have more afflictions than we had before we came to study the Dharma. For example, we lose sleep because the teacher wants us to come to temple early, we lose money because we have to take time off from work, we have less time for ourself and Thay even asks us to give up some of our favorite foods and become vegan. The verve of that guy! Who does he think he is telling me to stop eating chocolate and lose weight! Isn't the American dream to have everything you want when you want it?
But we can't have what we want all the time, it's just impossible. Even the wealthiest people don't have everything they want because there is always something else to want. You can never be free of desire and craving until you push yourself to face it.
One of my first jobs at the City of Ten thousand Buddhas was transcribing Dharma talks for their magazine Vajra Bodhi Sea. The very first talk that I transcribed for them was someone explaining the word trsna, the Sanskrit word for craving or thirst. Even Paris Hilton, the girl who has every and one of my personal heroes craves something new every sixty seconds at least.
Tsem Tulku Rinpoche gave me a book that he put together of his different quotations. He blessed it before he sent it to me. There is a line of the magical stuff that he poured over the book, and it is on the page where this quote is:
“The key to happiness is taking our strongest affliction, working on it, and chipping it away with time. When we chip away at it over time; we will see it lessen. When that lessens, the reactions that will have arisen from that mind will become less. When the reactions that arise from that mind become less, the counter-reactions back to us from others will become less. Then we will experience more peace.”
I am still trying to figure out if he chose that quote for me on purpose, and if so why. Sometimes I just look at it and rub away at the line. What is our greatest affliction? What is it that keeps us stuck in this mire? It is ourselves. It is the lie we buy every time we hold ourselves as more important or less important than the person sitting next to us. When we can see this lie as the deception that it is and force ourselves to face it every day, then we are truly brave and truly free.
Amitabha Buddha made vows to free living beings that called out to him. I rely upon his vows in every second of my life these days. Every time I say the Buddha's name I am praying for his limitless light to illumine the darkness of my ignorance. When I saw the fireworks lighting up the night, it reminds me of how the Buddha's light illumines even the darkest minds.
