Borisim

When we visited Gyuto monastery in Dharamsala, we had private audience of His holiness.

That time, we asked about the Bodhisattva’s vows of not eating meet & five spicy scented vegetables.

Actually, these vows are not included in the Tibetan Bodhisattva’s vows, but we traditionally follow these rules of not eating meet and five spicy scented vegetables(garlic, onion, spring onions and so forth) in our monasteries. It is the same with China and Japan. The reason of not eating meat is to cultivate our compassionate mind for all sentient beings. And also in Mahayana suturas, they say that ” If you eat cooked garlic, you are easy to get angry, and if you eat uncooked garlic, it is not easy for you to control your sexual desire.”

If you follow these rules, you come to know that these are really conducive to the concentrated mind and your meditation.

The 17th Karmapa gave a Dharma talk on vegetarianism in Kagyu monlam prayer in 2007 to the tibetan monks and buddhist from all over the world, and he made a strong statement against eating meat within his monasteries and centers.

He answerd our question, “We also encourage to eat white food, it means that you refrain from meat, onion and garlic. ”

and he remarked that, “In actual sense, we have to practise, that’s the vow.”

Click to hear his holiness voice! interview with the 17th Karmapa

Click here to watch! –> compassion

One day, a bird came into our small Buddha hall. But the bird couldn’t find the way out, hitting here and there. My master saw the bird hitting windows, approached it. Then the bird stop hitting , sat on his finger and finally got out safely.

When he sat meditating in his room, a bird came in and sat on even his head for a few moment.

Other beings also can feel the compassionate energy from Moo Moo sunim like us.

MooMoo sunim in his cave

Looking for your baby

who is on your back,

We call it Practice.

Awaring of no need to look for,

We call it Sudden enlightenment.

The food for mice

Our Master Moo Moo had three-year retreat in a cave of Mt. Jirisan.

During the retreat, he lived olny on a few spoons of mixed grain cereal once a day. He didn’t have enough food and to make things worse, a mouse gnawed through the bag of the cereal. So he declared war on the mouse. He tried his best, hiding it in some other places or packing it harder. But the mouse never ever failed to find out the bag and eat the cereal.

So he gave up hiding the food from the mouse. Instead, he started gathering seeds around the cave. From that time on, he waited the mouse with holding seeds on his hand at his lunch time.

When he opened up his plastic bag for lunch, the smell of cereal spread out. And the mouse showed up, coming close to him and eating seeds in his hand.

After his three-year retreat, he gives some food to mice live in our place. He always washes the bowl clean, putting grain or crackers in it, feeling sorry for not having shared his food. The bowl for mice is in our wash-place. So whenever the bowl becomes empty, they bite our soap to let us know. How smart they are!

May all beings in our community be happy!

sign for emptiness

You can see our huts behind us

Our master Moo Moo Sunim

Click here to watch!—> It’s great to give

This,

you can get,

 even before

taking the first step.