Sukihotu
This is in respond to an article written by Ven Dhammika "The Dhamma in Decline". You can read it here.
I think most people in the Buddhist community would agree with me that when one walk into a church, he is warmly welcomed. Compare to when one walk into a Buddhist center. He feels like walking into a refrigerator. Especially a Threavada temple.
I hate to say it, but I would rather like to connect this to the teaching of the Buddha Dhamma. The ultimate goal of a Buddhist is to attain nirvana. To do that, one has to train his mind by staying focus (mindful). To do that, one has to let go. Let go of luxury in life. Let go of music. Let go of gossiping. Let go of nice shirts.Let go of nice hair. Let go golf and etc.
There is nothing wrong about letting go if we wished to walk the spiritual path. But the trouble about practicing letting go is that we tend to let out so much we forgot to keep some important value in us. Simple things like smiling. hand shake, greetings, listening, hugs, doing things together, be part of the community and etc.
In my humble opinion to go about tackling what Ven Dhammika has brought-up is to change ourselves first. We need to flash our smile at the first sight of a friend. More importantly is to smile at strangers when they walked into our center. Lend them our ears. Throw away the fridge and make them feel warm. Radiate Metta Karuna. Let them fall in love with us at first sight. Make them feel welcome.
There's my 2 cent thoughts. I hope others will chip in too.
Mettacittena
21st June 2011
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