1.  CRUMBS FOR HUMAN SPARROWS

Today I received a card from a generous and dedicated master and student in the United States. Part of his letter reads as follows:

"X" has renounced his ordination on this day and removed his Kesa (Skt. kasaya; Ch. jiasha), casting it back into the fires of samsara where it belongs, having found the institution referred to as "Buddhism", in all its varied forms, to be a hindrance due to its inherent tendencies, both dogmatic and sociocentric in nature.

While spiritual enlightenment is truly a worthy quest, one not to be taken lightly, it is likewise a journey beset by cul-de-sacs and

perils, a journey where the greatest danger lies in our own hopes and the blindness they can produce.

This person cannot change his heart and continues teaching the Dharma, but rejects the labels of "-ism." He has thus advanced a step in Dharma understanding.

Here this dedicated man has met with the fact that Buddhism, in and of itself, is a nest of Sparrows.

Within what is called Buddhism, the Dharma has been cast from the nest in order to fill the vacant part with the dried leaves of comfort, which are actually mildew. The Sparrows  occasionally seek a crumb of Dharma here and there. But these Sparrows are not interested in Dharma, they are interested in filling their bellies and sleeping soundly dreaming of their acquisitions and prestige on the morrow.

They inhabit the temples and viharas which are otherwise empty, assuming illusory forms as human creatures as adepts and many with greater shame cover themselves with multicolored robes and titles. They chirp and are very fluent but their sounds are really quite empty.

They chirp continually that "all is empty", but the emptiness is real and in their cognitive thoughts. As a Master one must be careful not to believe for a moment that the Sparrows will understand what they receive. He must know that they will take what they receive and add it to their own nest, which may have no resemblance to True Dharma.

Have you ever sat down for a while in the park where sparrows are present when someone casts a few crumbs among them?

The sparrows from a distance dart in and steal a crumb and then just as quickly dart away.

I feel here that I am throwing a bag of crumbs to sparrows. Web searchers dart in, pick up what they fancy and flit away just as quickly.

It is as if they never really were ever present. 

What crumbs of the Dharma have been chosen?

Sparrows are particular, but the human creature is dominated by insatiable folly. He uses the term Dharma without understanding.