On April 25, 2009, a special ceremony was held in Puti Meditation Center in Taipei, Taiwan. This event attracted people from the local community as well as from other countries. They gathered here to celebrate the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhist teaching and a great scholar who discovered the path leading to enlightenment. As devoted Puti Meditation practitioners, many of the participants also came to this ceremony to listen to the teaching of Meditation Master JinBodhi and to receive his special blessing.

Master JinBodhi led the ceremony and addressed the audience with his unique teaching. He discussed the important implication of bathing Buddha, a traditional ritual performed during the ceremony, “Through this action of bathing the Buddha, actually we take this opportunity to purify ourselves and free ourselves from defilement and obstacles. These defilement and obstacles are accumulated due to our ignorance. Their existence in our body and mind result in all kinds of sufferings and illness. Therefore, by bathing the Buddha, we view ourselves as the Buddha and wash away our own defilement as if taking a shower at home only this shower is more profound.”

He further inspired the audience: “When we participate in an event like this or we practice meditation, we should keep our mind at ease and let our heart fill with love and kindness. Don’t let your house chore bother you; forget your troubles; forget the current economic situation as well as your stock performance. You just let your mind free and bring it to home where you can sincerely praise the virtue of Buddha and pay your tribute to this great man. It’s also very important to know that while you do a tribute or meditation, please don’t have any expectations on getting a quick return or reward. Generally speaking, we shouldn’t ask too much for money and virtue. But both money and virtue eventually will be accumulated.” The Master raised one of the most important issues encountered by everyone in their daily life. Indeed, in most circumstances, we tend to expect reward for what we did for others. But we forget that this expectation itself may become the very source of suffering.

How can we change our mind setting? Master JinBodhi continued with a story: “There was a great master in Tibet. He decided to take a retreat in a remote cave and arranged his disciple as his guard. This disciple was to stay just outside of the cave and respond to the master’s request. Unfortunately this was a quite slow-witted fellow and always messed things up. One day, the master wanted some water and there was no sight of the disciple. So the master had no other options but said to himself: ‘well, this means I shouldn’t drink.’ Many days later, at the time of arranged completion date, the disciple and many other fellow practitioners came to the cave. The disciple opened the gate and found his master asleep. Then one practitioner asked: ‘Are you awaked or not?’ All of a sudden, the master sat up and laughing: ‘of course I am awaked and I am also very happy.’ Well, these fellows knew just so well about his slow-witted disciple and could imagine how tired he might have been after being starved for so many days. But they didn’t understand why he was so happy. ‘Have you attained the dharma joy?’ one asked. ‘That already passed’, the master answered. ‘Did you have a good dream?’ ‘No’. ‘Then why are you so happy?’ ‘Because I see you,’ the master replied. They were puzzled: how could seeing us bring such a joy to him? The master then told them: ‘The fact that I see all of you proves that I am still alive.’ ‘Knowing you are alive gives you this much joy?’ they didn’t see the logic. The master explained: ‘It’s so rare to be born as a human being. So I am happy if I am still alive.’…Indeed, being alive is fortunate. There are so many disasters and incidents happening every day around us. If we are still alive, we should feel fortunate and be grateful. If we are still alive, we may be more fortunate tomorrow. And we will have the opportunity to do great and important things in the future. If we think this way, we will be thankful with gratitude for what we have already been rewarded and we will focus on doing things with no expectation on return.”