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To lighten the mood, I shared a humorous story about meditation
A bunch of monks were meditating together when a Buddhist deity suddenly appeared before them. The deity pointed to one of the monks, named Larry, and said, “Your meditation is so pure that it has been noticed in all of the Pure Lands of the Buddha. It has been decided to award you with a choice of Buddha’s wisdom, or the wealth of the world.” Larry, of course, chose wisdom.
“So be it,” said the deity and disappeared in a puff of emptiness.
The monk just sat there, saying nothing. Finally one of the others monks couldn’t stand it anymore. “Say something,” he pleaded.
Larry quietly responded, “I should have taken the money.”
As we end the year and celebrate the holidays with our respective families, I wanted to highlight how important it is to lighten the spirits, enjoy the moment and find joy.
My daughter is 9 months old, and she is a bundle of joy. She recently started laughing out loud filled with joy at the simplest possible thing – bouncing the ball, seeing our cat walk and while playing peekaboo.
It made me think about how simple things can bring us joy. but as we grow old we lose that ability. Joy can be worldly – driven by our senses (getting anew car for example) or it can be unworldy, coming from within. Meditation helps us find joy from within – even Buddha has a half-smile while meditating.
I hope we all are able to find joy during these holidays and share joy with our close ones.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Deepak
Hakone Zendo 