Even the Sun Has Its Dark Moments

Then one day, a neighboring country invaded his nation, and because he was defeated he had to run away and hide. He had no food to eat during his flight, and he was also very tired and felt hot. With his enemies at his heels and his life at stake, he began thinking that it was terrible to be a king, absolutely terrible! It was a mistake that he had wished to become a king. And then he looked up and saw that the sun was very free and very high; no one could touch it, and it was shining and beautiful! So he said, “Oh, my God! To be the Sun; it’s better to be a Sun. I’d like to be a Sun. I don’t like being a king. I’d like to be a Sun.”

And so, “Bang!” he was up, and found himself on top of the universe, shining his love and warmth on all things from atop the earth. He was very glad bestowing his blessings on all the beings in the world. And he felt very magnificent, happy and noble indeed because he thought he was the highest in the universe. He looked down on all beings feeling very noble and delighted.

So he closed his eyes and meditated for a while and then suddenly said, “How come it’s so dark? It was so dark that his wisdom eye opened and he said, “Oh!” There was a big cloud in front of him, daring to cover him completely! And then he began struggling inside it and didn’t know how to get out. It was all dark, covering his wisdom eye as well. (Laughter) So he saw nothing and was very mad, saying, “I have to be a cloud. I must be a cloud! A cloud is greater than the Sun. The Sun is no good.”

So then, “Boom!” You know what happened again! (Laughter) The never-satisfied man got satisfied once more. He turned into a cloud. Then for a while, he was very pleased. He rained down on the people, destroying many things, and then blessed the land by making all the flowers grow with the water from his cloud. He made everyone happy, and he was happy, too. For a while he was very satisfied. And then suddenly, the wind came! And it reduced him to nothingness. He grew thinner and thinner, smaller and smaller, until he was like a thread, just hanging around trying to keep himself alive. And then he again got very angry. Still, he thought that he was OK, that maybe he could get together and return to being big again.

But then the wind blew him across a mountain top, and the mountain caught him, like someone catching your clothes. And he was caught there, hanging on top of the mountain, and he became irritated, saying, “Everything comes and goes, but the mountain always stands there; it never disappears, never gets destroyed, nothing! It’s always strong. Oh! I wish I were a mountain! I must be a mountain. A mountain is the best.” So, “Boom!” That sound came back again! And you know what he turned into? (A: “A mountain.”) A mountain! So then he was again very joyful. He had become a mountain. Not even the rain, wind, snow or sun — nothing could disturb the mountain. He sat like this (Master extends Her elbows outward in a mock show of sturdiness) just like me. (Laughter) He was feeling that the mountain was very great, and stuck his nose up to the sky. He felt he was very great. Every day he looked up and felt that he was very grand. (Laughter)

And then one day, he felt like someone was poking his feet with a knife or nails or something like that, and as he looked down he said, “Oh!” There was a stone mason breaking the stone of his feet down there. Of course, he got crazily mad and yelled, “How dare you poke my feet! That hurts!” But the mason didn’t care. He used his big hammer and very pointed chisel and just broke away the stones, one by one, and he was enjoying himself, singing and whistling at the same time. So, wow! He then got even angrier and said, “W-a-a-h ha-ha, I must be the stone mason!” (Laughter)

This is similar to us. Sometimes people say, “The ordinary mind is the Buddha’s mind,” but we don’t believe it. We don’t know what that is. And we actually don’t know until after enlightenment, and then we come back to being normal again. Then we know that everything is OK and realize that we know what the ordinary mind is. Before that, even though we have it, we don’t know.

The so-called normal way that people lead their lives is not the ordinary mind. The real ordinary mind is one that’s peaceful and calm, that takes everything as it comes and reacts to everything as needed. There’s no desire, no wanting, no rejecting and no agitation of any kind. That’s the ordinary mind. But the way people lead their daily lives is not what’s meant by the ordinary mind.

So take care that you don’t mistake the unenlightened with the enlightened, the enlightened with the super-enlightened, and the super-enlightened with the non-enlightened state of mind. After we become very enlightened, somehow we begin to stop talking. At first when we aren’t very enlightened, we talk a lot; we know everything. We know what “the Buddha” means, as well as Nirvana, samsara, karma, transmigration — everything. We know all the big words from all the religious sects. We know it all.

Then, after we become somewhat enlightened, we talk even more but our words have more essence. Our speech has a better meaning than before because we have a greater understanding of the meaning of words that we often said before but didn’t know the true meaning of. So there are two stages of talking. The latter stage of talk is of course more meaningful and honest because it comes from our own realization. And then after that, after the talking stage, we begin to be quiet. We don’t want to talk anymore. So of course you wonder why I talk (Master laughs.) — because you want me to talk.

Not talking doesn’t mean keeping quiet all day long. Because if a person doesn’t talk, it doesn’t mean he’s quiet. And if a person ceases all activity, it doesn’t mean she’s peaceful. So talking or not talking is not an external thing; it’s from the inside. At that time, you talk but you know it’s not necessary to talk. You talk at the request of other people or just to be a normal person or to make others happy. Or you just talk because talking or not talking is the same to you. It’s not such enthusiastic talk; it’s not such impressive talk anymore, like we want to make others convert to our beliefs or anything like that. It’s very casual and very normal. So, that’s it. That’s the story of the stone mason. It’s amazing isn’t it? It’s exactly like we are.

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