Dharma Talk by Rev. Kenzan Seidenberg
In the Meghiya sutra*, Meghiya was an attendant for Shakyamuni Buddha.
One day when Meghiya was out on alms round, he noticed a charming mango grove by a river and thought how wonderful it would be to practice meditation in this mango grove. So, when he got back to the Buddha, he asked the Buddha if he could go practice meditation in the mango grove. Imagine that: Meghiya had the opportunity to be in person with Shakyamuni Buddha, but he wanted to go sit in a “pleasing, charming mango grove” instead. The Buddha replied that Meghiya should stay with him for a while longer. Meghiya asked a second time if he could go practice in the mango grove instead. Again, the Buddha replied to stay with him for a while. A third time, Meghiya asked if he could go to the mango grove and finally the Buddha relented, saying, “Do what you think it is now time to do.” Meghiya left and went to “the pleasing, charming mango grove” and sat at the base of an appealing tree for meditation. The sutra then relates that Meghiya was “assailed by three kinds of unskillful thoughts: thoughts of sensuality, thoughts of ill will, and thoughts of doing harm.” And before the afternoon was even over, he returned back to the Buddha, bewildered. What could have gone wrong?
So, far from the charming mango grove being the perfect practice place he had imagined, Meghiya found there in that charming place his own unskillful thoughts. How striking that Meghiya, when in person with Shakyamuni Buddha, wanted to go off somewhere else -- somewhere “better” to practice -- and how human! Probably we all know this tendency to think: “If I went to that retreat in the Caribbean, I’d be calm and happy,” or “If I had that kind of meditation cushion, my meditation would improve,” or “If I join that online seminar with the famous teacher, I’ll get enlightened,” or perhaps “If the coronavirus were over, then my practice would be better.”
What if right where we are, right now, the people we are
with and the community who supports us are exactly the perfect conditions for
practice? What if, right now, we are with
Buddha and trying to go off somewhere else?
The Meghiya Sutta concludes with the following verse:
Little thoughts, subtle thoughts,
when followed, stir up the heart.
Not
comprehending the thoughts of the heart,
one runs here
& there,
the mind out
of control.
But
comprehending the thoughts of the heart,
one who is
ardent, mindful,
restrains
them.
When,
followed, they stir up the heart,
one awakened
lets
them go without trace.
* You can read the full Meghiya Sutta, including the Buddha's response, here: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.4.01.than.html
