You should not have the slightest fear in your heart. It is lack of courage that prevents one from attaining Buddhahood, although one may have professed faith in the Lotus Sutra many times since innumerable kalpas ago.

There is definitely something extraordinary in the ebb and flow of the tide, the rising and setting of the moon, and the way in which summer, autumn, winter, and spring give way to each other. Something uncommon also occurs when an ordinary person attains Buddhahood. At such a time, the three obstacles and four devils will invariably appear, and the wise will rejoice while the foolish will retreat.- The Three Obstacles and Four Devils, WND1 page 637

Q. Why will the wise rejoice?

A. Because it’s a confirmation of the principle that bad things happen at the least expected moment!  Attaining Buddhahood is often (erroneously) seen as a good thing and that like climbing Mount Everest, there is no higher place to go.  Surely, you might think, nothing bad can happen to that Buddhist now?  But it’s precisely because of this that the Buddha is tested by circumstance.  Why?  We don’t know – but we observe that it always happens.

There’s no need to have a reason
There’s no need to wonder why
It’s a part of me that tells you
Oh, don’t you ever, don’t ever say die
Never, never, never say die again

Related posts:
  1. The 26 Admonitions explained by Richard Causton Introduction I’ve nabbed the content of this from Ted Penfold. ...
  2. Never Seek the Gohonzon Outside Yourself At a discussion meeting this evening we discussed the subject;...
  3. What is the Creative Conciousness? Answer – Courage. Art and creativity come in many forms but since the...
  4. A Grave Offence [...] Take these teachings to heart, and always remember that...
  5. Exerting Oneself Bravely and Vigorously This is the Soka Spirit! Words From the Gosho “Although...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

  One Response to “Courage: Three Obstacles and Four Devils”

  1. [...] Courage: Three Obstacles and Four Devils [...]

 Leave a Reply

(required)

(required)

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Powered by Sweet Captcha
Verify your real existence,
Drag Drag the ice cream to the cone
  • captcha
  • captcha
  • captcha
  • captcha

Attach a file Uploading File types: jpg, png, zip,pdf, Max size: 2Mbytes, Max count: 3
   
Use OpenDNS

© 2007-2012 Strangely Perfect All Rights Reserved