Die Lehre Buddhas

osamu-tezuka-buddha

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently I stayed in a hotel in Kassel.
To my surprise I found in my room not only the obligatory New Testament, but also Die Lehre Budhas/The Teaching of Buddha, published by The Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK), Society for the Promotion of Buddhism):20140828_214948

 

To celebrate this surprise, I show you the drawing that I made in this room.
Top-001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And one of the pictures that I asked the woman who was vacuum cleaning outside my room to take of me. (I stayed drawing till noon, the time I had to check out).
20140828_113724

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, I see that the pictures do not match. Actually the vacuum cleaning lady came along two weeks later, when I was on my way back home staying in the same hotel:
moz-screenshot-105

 

And I will type for you the randomly chosen pages from the English part of the book that I happened to read.
I type this from the copy that I asked the reception in the hotel to make of chapter 2, the pages 29 – 32:

THE APPEARANCE OF BUDDHA

1.    It is seldom that a Buddha appears in this world.
Now a Buddha does appear, attains Enlightenment,
introduces the Dharma, severs the net of suspicion,
removes the lure of desire at its root, plugs the fountain
of evil. Completely unhindered He walks at will over the
world. There is nothing greater than to revere the Buddha.

Buddha appears in the world of suffering because
He can not desert suffering people. His only purpose is to
spread the Dharma and to bless all people with its Truth.

It is very difficult to introduce the Dharma into a
world filled with injustice and false standards, a world
that is vainly strugling with insatiable desires and
discomforts. Buddha faces these difficulties because of
His great love and compassion.

2.    Buddha is a good friend to all people. If Buddha
finds a man suffering from the heavy burden of worldly
passions, He feels compassion and shares the burden with
him. If He meets a man suffering from delusion, He will
clear away the delusion by the pure light of His wisdom.

Like a calf which enjoys its life with its mother,
those who have heard the Buddha’s teachings are after-
ward unwilling to leave Him because His teachings bring
them happiness.

3.      When the moon sets, people say that the moon has
disappeared; and when the moon rises, they say that the
moon has appeared. In fact, the moon neither goes nor
comes, but shines continually in the sky. Buddha is
exactly like the moon: He neither appears nor disappears;
He only seems to do so out of love for the people that He
may teach them.

People call one phase of the moon full moon,
they call another phase a crescent moon; in reality, the
moon is always perfectly round, neither waxing nor
waning. Buddha is precisely like the moon. In the eyes of
men, Buddha may seem to change in appearance, but, in
truth, Buddha does not change.

The moon appears everywhere, over a crowded city,
a sleepy village, a mountain, a river. It is seen in the
depth of a pond, in a jug of water, in a drop of dew
hanging on a leaf. If a man walks hundreds of miles the
moon goes with him. To men the moon seems to change,
but the moon does not change. Buddha is like the moon
in following the people of this world in all their changing
circumstances, manifesting various appearances; but in
His Essence He does not change.

4.      The fact that the Buddha appears and disappears can be
explained by causality: namely, when the cause and
conditions are propitious, Buddha appears; when causes
and conditions are not propitious, Buddha seems to
disappear from the world.

Whether Buddha appears or disappears, Buddhahood
always remains the same. Knowing this principle, one
must keep to the path of Enlightenment and attain
Perfect Wisdom, undisturbed by the apparent changes in
the image of Buddha, in the condition of the world, or in
the fluctuations of human thought.

It has been explained that Buddha is not a physical
body but is Enlightenment. A body may be thought of as
a receptacle; then, if this receptacle is filled with
Enlightenment, it may be called Buddha. Therefore, if
anyone is attached to the physical body of Buddha and
laments His disappearance, he will be unable to see the
true Buddha.

In reality, the true nature of al things transcends
the discrimination of appearance and disappearance, of
coming and going, of good and evil. All things are
substanceless and perfectly homogeneous.

Such discriminations are caused by an erroneous
judgement by those who see these phenomena. The true
form of Buddha neither appears nor disappears.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

So, that was a light verse story about Buddhahood.
There was more light verse in the hotel on my way home.
The price of the rooms were more than doubled, because of a big congres in that weekend. At my breakfast it became a bit clear what the congres was about: there were people having breakfast in the strangest clothing.
A chat with two girls at another table gave the explanation:
Connichi, the Manga Messe 2014 in Kassel was going on.
Take a look:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgg5dWoKF-s

Two years ago after the same retreat something simular happened to me after having ended up in Magdeburg, where the next morning in a hotel people were dressed up like animals and a chat with a lad learned me that there was a Furry Convention going on there:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcJ6NeQowUM

There seems to be a strong need in Germany to dress up furry and funny.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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