A monk asked Lin-chi the patriarch: – The scriptures pass on that as the Buddha Śākyamuni reached the enlightenment and broke the chain of the twelve causes, he decided not to enter the nirvana, because, moved by a great compassion, he wanted every living being to join that condition.
– You are saying of the bodhisattva.
– After that he broke free, how can the bodhisattva liberate the other ones?
– He ignores them.
– Why can’t he reveal them the Way?
– Breaking free he already did all that he could.
– Then it’s impossible to help the other ones in the Way.
– Ah, you are such an ungrateful person!
Poem
You are really ungrateful
if you don’t thank duly
who liberates you from himself.
One ring is enough to break
the whole chain of the twelve causes
if you don’t wrap yourself in the rest.
But not even ingratitude
could cause any reaction
or karma in who is free.
Originally posted in Italian on November 2, 2008 at 13:19
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