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A Dharma Talk for Mother's Day
We're all mothers. Some of us are mothers of children. Others of us might be mothers of pets. Some of us are mothers of plants or computers. Some of us are mothers of cars and work teams and garbage cans. Let's use today to remind ourselves about things we can do to be great mothers. I scavenged through Buddha's teachings and life to come up with ten suggestions:
1. Don't advise unless asked. Once Buddha was fully enlightened, he didn't want to teach, figuring that we wouldn't be ready to listen to what he had to say. In fact it took several gods coming down from the heavens to nag at him for him to get started. All through his life he waited for people to ask him for a teaching before he opened his mouth -- not all the time but often enough. We need to remember to wait until we're asked. We don't do that enough.
2. Smile a lot. The sun smiles all the time…that happy face came from somewhere. And I've yet to see a smile-free Buddha statue. Smiles make us feel good -- when we get them and when we offer them.
3. Clean up stuff. It doesn't matter whose job it is. Everyone feels better when things are clean. The one exception to this may be a teenager's bedroom.
4. Protect all children. Period. I just saw a wonderful movie, Monsoon Wedding, where a young woman breaks all of her cultural norms to protect a little girl from advances by her great uncle. We need to do that. So what is someone gets mad? The child needs help. If we don't help her or him, who will?
5. Tell stories that comfort. We all have them and the world needs them. Look at how successful Chicken Soup for the Soul and all its spin-offs have been. Just when I think I've seen the last iteration, the next one appears. I think we're up to Chicken soup stories for pets…..next it will be plants. We can't get enough.
6. Give everybody a second chance over and over. For his entire life, up to his death, Buddha was haunted by his cousin Devadatta. It was like Spy vs. Spy in Mad Magazine. One day Devadatta is getting an elephant totally drunk so he will run down Buddha. Next he is up on a cliff, rolling boulders down toward Buddha. But Buddha kept giving him a second chance, over and over. How can we do less?
7. Give little presents to people. Generosity keeps us sweet and soft Plus its fun to give presents and its fun to get presents. Barbara Sher, the life coach in Real Simple, tells us that getting rid of our clutter will make us feel good. I say one person's clutter is another person's present.
8. Forgive everything. We don't have to forget but we do need to forgive. If the mothers of the world can't forgive, who will teach the children?
9. Appreciate the little things. Joy is in small details - the taste of a strawberry, the feel of a cup, the smile of a child, the way a puppy's whole backside moves when she wags her tail. Appreciating the small things reminds us how incredibly lucky we are living on this planet at this time. We have so much, you and I.
10. Get enough sleep so you can do numbers one through nine.
Happy Mothers Day!
