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Far From Buddhahood A university student while visiting Gasan asked hlm: ' Have you ever read the Christian Bible?' 'No, read it to me,' said Gasan. The student opened the Bible and read from St. Matthew: 'And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies in the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.... Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things Of itself." Gasan said: "Whoever uttered those words I consider an enlightened man.' The student continued reading: "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.' Gasan remarked: 'That is excellent. Whoever said that is not far from Buddhahood." FIower Shower Subhuti was Buddha's disciple. He was able to understand the potency of emptiness, the view that nothing exists except in its relationship and obiectivity. One day Subhuti, in a mood of sublime emptiness, was sitting under a tree. Flowers began to fall about him. "We are praising you for your discourse on emptiness," the gods whispered to him. "But I have not spoken of emptiness," said Subhuti. 'You have not spoken of emptiness, we have not heard emptiness," responded the gods. "This is the true emptiness." And blossoms showered upon Subhuti as rain. |