Good Karma Music Stories

Across the street from my home lives an old woman in a small cottage home. She is almost 80 years old, she has lived a long life full of friendship, dreams, losses, travels, many jobs, many homes, she has felt a lot, experienced a LOT. She still does experience, and love, and care for the world, and suffer; and live alone in a small cottage home.Now, she is ignored by her neighbors, her family, her community, she feels alienated, isolated–alone. Her wisdom is not valued. Like so many elders in our community she is safely kept away in a distant, remote dwelling, where her feelings and perspectives will not disturb our comfortable care-free existences.She wants, needs, TRIES to approach her neighbors to talk with them. But, they do not have time. We do not have time. I do not have time. Do not have time for her, do not have time simply to listen to her, so she can be heard, recognized, valued, loved.So I asked myself: “What do I have time for? What do I not have time for? What can I learn from this old woman? What can she learn from me? How do I want my neighborhood community to feel? I talk to the old woman across the street frequently, I stop when I am hurrying to get somewhere, I stop for her, and I stop for myself. She has taught me a lot, she is very wise, and has many stories she wants to share to illuminate truths about life, she is a Buddha. I wonder, “How many Buddhas are on my block?” I am grateful that I have met one of them, and I am grateful that she is my friend.This story is dedicated to my friend and neighbor–the old woman who lives in a cottage alone.

The other weekend I was at Tilden park with my family. When we were on our way out of the park, I saw a women struggling to carry a folded table and serval boxes all at the same time, I offered her help, and carried the large table to picnic area, she then asked if I could go to her car and carry a package of bottled water to her. She was exhausted as she was setting up a picnic by herself and apparently had first set everything up in the wrong area and then had to move it. It was a pleasure to help her.

I remember spending a Friday morning at the United Cerebral Palsy organization with children suffering from paralysis and slurred speech. Reading to them and teaching them to fold flowers was an enjoyable experience. When my time was up, i walked to the bus stop thinking of a hibiscus flower. When the bus stopped, an advertisement with a red hibiscus flower appeared on the side of the bus. That’s when I realized mind and matter are one.

After a short rain, the side road in front of my apartment became pond and I discovered hundreds and hundreds of tadpoles in the afternoon. Knowing that the pond will dry very soon, I used a bowl and a spoon to rescue as many tadpoles as I could to a local river and a lake. I did this for a couple of days and was able to save hundreds from drying up.

In the morning I recited the Shurangama Mantra with all the monks at Bailinsi with a wish that the world will be free of disasters and difficulties. Surrounded by around a hundred monks, I could feel the mantra sounds resonating in my heart and within the Buddha Hall. May the sound carry throughout the world for the benefit of all beings.

Every day I encounter an opportunity to practise kindness and generosity, either by helping with something practical or sharing some aspect of Dhamma. Earlier this week I was able to show a group of school children around a spiritual community, answer their many questions, and introduce them to meditation.

I feed my neighbors: a family of possums, lorikeets, currawongs, kookaburras, brush turkeys, and recite the Buddha’s name for them at the same time. I learn about their lives and make their stories visible in photographs, to raise people’s awareness of the dignity and sentience in the world around us.