Welcome to this New Year 2019 and very soon to the Year of the Pig.
The Pig is the twelfth of all zodiac animals. According to one myth, the Jade Emperor said the order would be decided by the order in which they arrived to his party. Pig was late because he overslept. Another story says that a wolf destroyed his house. He had to rebuild his home before he could set off. When he arrived, he was the last one and could only take twelfth place.
The Pig is also associated with the Earthly Branch (di zhi ) hai, and the hours 9 11 in the night. In terms of yin and yang (yin yang), the Pig is yin. In Chinese culture, pigs are the symbol of wealth. Their chubby faces and big ears are signs of fortune as well. So a very Happy New Year to all our Pig friends!
Many people are encouraged to make a New Year resolution and sadly most of us forget or break them fairly rapidly. I’d like to suggest a resolution that we can all make and that we can all keep throughout the year because it involves something which we all have already but simply need to recognise and to cultivate.
I’m sure that you can recall a kindness done to you when you were a child or young person. Perhaps a helping hand and some encouragement when you were in your teens. Each of us has been the recipient of some act or acts of kindness in the past, the memory of which has stayed with us over many many years. Let me illustrate what I mean.
When I was a very young student at a boy’s school there was one senior boy who was the school bully. He shouted in a very loud voice and treated everyone with great cruelty and seemed to take delight in tormenting the other students especially the younger ones and everyone was fearful of him. Rikowski was his name. When you heard that Rikowski was coming you got out of the way as fast as you could. In those days his name sounded very foreign and that very foreignness added to our fear of him.
On one weekend our class was sent off into the bush for a camping trip and of all people Rikowski was chosen to be the senior student who would accompany our teacher and us on our expedition into the wild. We were fearful of the bush, its wild creatures, snakes and spiders and of the black darkness of night but all of us were more terrified of our senior guardian, Rikowski.
On the first day Rikowski was his usual cruel and bullying self, ordering people about and striking out at the younger students whenever an opportunity presented itself and the teacher was not looking. Rikowski had a way of exhausting everyone with his harshness and cruelty so that we were all glad to reach the end of the day and retreat into our sleeping bags and escape into sleep. Many of us had never been away from home before and sleeping in a tent on the ground in the middle of the bush surrounded by the strange noises of the night was terrifying. I could not sleep but lay with my eyes tightly shut hoping that the night would pass quickly but the night seemed to drag on forever. Finally I wriggled out of my sleeping bag, crawled out of the tent and sat just outside the door flaps, quietly weeping and wishing I were back home. I m not sure how long I sat there but suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and a very quiet voice asking what was wrong. I turned a little and was astonished to see that the hand and gentle voice was that of Rikowski. I told him sobbing, that I had never been away from home before and that I felt fearful and homesick. I expected him to yell at me and order me back into the tent but instead he very quietly reassured me that I need not worry because he would sit with me and make sure all was ok. While we sat together in the darkness he told me in whispers a little of his story, the origin of his name and of his parents and their struggle to survive the war in eastern Europe and their coming to Australia and what that meant to them. He told me too of how because of his parents and their foreignness he felt strange and out of place. How he feared other peoples judgement and rejection. As he spoke I could feel my anxiety and fear falling away and a growing understanding of Rikowski and an appreciation of his kindness.
When daylight came Rikowski resumed his bullying and shouting with all of us but it seemed to me that it has a lesser effect on me now having seen this other hidden side of him. The great kindness hidden within him, held back in secret because of his own fearfulness.
Some sixty years later I can still recall this simple small event and this act of kindness from someone I had been so fearful of beforehand. This is the power of kindness. The power, which is, found when we open our hearts to others (which is the first movement found in “Dana”) and offer them simple or great loving-kindness. I cannot recall any specific acts of cruelty perpetrated by Rikowski all those years ago yet when I think of him now it is with gratitude and appreciation for his Metta shown to me and a wish arises within my own heart and mind that he may be well and happy wherever he may be.
I’m sure you have had “Rikowski” moments in your life, times when you have been the recipient of great-unsolicited loving-kindness. My resolution for this year of the Pig and I encourage you to do likewise, is to become a great source of Loving-Kindness for all suffering beings. In the words of the Buddha:
Let no one deceive another nor despise any person whatever in any place. In anger or ill-will let no one wish any harm to another.
Just as a mother would protect her only child even at the risk of her own life, so let them cultivate a boundless heart towards all beings.
Let their hearts of boundless love pervade the whole world; above, below and across – with no obstruction, no hatred, and no enmity.
Whether they stand, walk, sit or lay down, as long as they are awake, they should develop this mindfulness. This they say, is Divine Abiding here and now.
With great gratitude to you and all suffering beings and wishing you every blessing,
Venerable Tejadhammo
