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The Sutra of Parables
On January 12, 1997, at Upper Hamlet, after two days of Western New Year, it was determined that the Ceremony of Vietnamese Chanting for the Year 2000 and Peaceful Steps must be completed in English before the end of 1997. We learned about the three prostrations (and the five prostrations at Plum Village). Prostrating is not to beg or to ask for something, but an act of returning to the ontological ground, like a wave remembering it is water. Each breath, each sound of the bell, each peaceful step… is an opportunity to return. When we prostrate with our five limbs touching the earth, we let go of the self (the nail that contains sorrow, anger, jealousy), embracing the stream of shared life with our parents, ancestors, brothers and sisters… so that the mind opens up according to three steps:
- First prostration: a straight line from above to below—embracing “father, mother, ancestors, brothers and sisters” right in the act of touching the earth with five limbs.
- Second prostration: a horizontal line from left to right—identifying with “Bodhisattvas, suffering beings,” starting from a concrete person and then expanding to the ten directions (four cardinal directions + above, below + four corners = ten directions).
- Third prostration: a circular line—expanding infinitely, transcending time and space, becoming the endless ten directions, crystallizing the Four Immeasurable Minds (loving-kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity).
After that, an excerpt from M. 99 (The Water Simile Sutra, Middle Length Discourses 25; Pali Aṅguttara 3.186) was shared, in which Venerable Śāriputra teaches five methods to transform anger:
- Method 1: The action is unlovely but the speech is lovely—pay attention to the speech.
- Method 2: The speech is unlovely but the action is lovely—pay attention to the action.
- Method 3: Both body and speech are unlovely, but the mind still has some goodness—kneel down and drink the water that remains in the buffalo’s footprint.
- Method 4: Body, speech, and mind are all unlovely—give rise to compassion, and lead the destitute person to the healing village.
- Method 5: Body, speech, and mind are all lovely, but there is jealousy—like a cool lotus pond, joyfully enjoy and let go of anger.