Just A Thought ~ GOOD IN EVERYTHING

Like the moon, which has no light of its own, but mirrors the sun, so everything reflects and echoes Dharma; everything and everyone has Dharma-lessons to impart, even if they are unaware of it.

In Shakespeare’s play, As You like It, a Duke whose realm has been usurped by his brother, and who now resides in a forest, instead of feeling resentment at his condition, speaks of it so:

“Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, hath not old custom made this life more sweet than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods more free of peril than the envious court?

Here feel we not the penalty of Adam; the seasons’ difference, as the icy fang and churlish chiding of the winter’s wind, which, when it bites and blows upon my body even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say ‘this is no flattery; these are counselors that feelingly persuade me what I am’. In plainer and less-poetic English he is saying that, having grown used to the simplicity of life in the forest, he finds it more agreeable than restricted and formal court-life ~ and less dangerous, too; it is not a loss, like Adam’s loss of Eden, but a gain. The changing seasons and weather do not lie, like flatterers, but serve as reminders of our frailty. Adversity, though unpleasant, has lessons in its hands (like the toad, which was commonly believed to have a jewel in its ugly head). And so, living far from complicated society, it is easy to perceive Dharma all around.

Seen in this way, therefore, it is not appropriate to ask “Who is your teacher?” But, since such a question is often asked, the only answer would be: ”Who is not my teacher?”