A nice story to share with~

[nagaseeker]

If the Buddha is real, what have you lost?

Many years ago there was a scholar in China.
One day, during a big gathering he stood up to tell the people there Buddha could not possible exist.
When people are starting to become convinced by his argument, he raised a chanllenge to the Buddha in a loud voice:"Oh Buddha! If you really exist, please come down here and kill me infront of these people! Then we will believe your existance!"
He purposely waited for a few minutes. Of course the Buddha did not come and kill him.
He turned to the left and right to the audience and said: "There you see, the Buddha doesn't exist!"
A woman with a towel covering her head stood up (Many women in the farming land in China wears towel like this) and spoke to the Scholar: "Sir, your argument is very compelling, and you are a very learnt person. I am just a farming woman, hence I can't debate with you. But could you please answer a question I've been pondering? After practicing Buddhism for many years, my heart is filled with compassion and gratefulness just like the Buddha, hence I am always joyful. My heart is fulled with the peacefulness and equality of the Dharma. Because of believing in Buddhism, life have obtained great joy. Now please tell me, If I discover during my death that Buddha does not exist. Have I lost anything because I believed in Buddhism all these years?"
The scholar pondered for a long time, the whole gathering became completely silent, many people agreed with the woman's argument.
Even the scholar is suprised by the woman's simple logic, he quietly said to the woman:"ma'am, I believe you haven't lost anything."
The woman said to the scholar:"Thank you for your answer. However, I still have another question on my mind. If, during your death, you discover that the Buddha is absolutely real, heaven and hell also exists, may I please ask, what have you lost?"
The scholar thought for a long time, but could not answer.

interesting story n i like it when she said - Have I lost anything because I believed in Buddhism all these years?

[biggyboy]

Thank you nagaseekeer. Very interesting logic. I love it too.

I do believe that as long as we have the faith with the Buddha and practise it, one will never loose anything at all For every actions and knowledge stems from Buddha's teachings will never stray or puts anyone onto wrong path.  One will find their own level of joy, peace and happiness when the ultimate truth is founded and experienced.  Nothing to loose at all. 

[kurava]

Yes, whenever people question the validity of karma/ rebirth/ future lives, following the nice story told,we can tell them to reflect :

Even if we are not convinced of karma, at point of death , a person who's been following  the law of karma with virtuous conducts of body ,speech and mind will most likely not have regrets or lost out in any ways.

 Why ? If one has led a life filled with virtuous deeds, one will definitely have a peaceful state of mind at point of death. As the person's consciousness passes into bardo, his/her last thought in the immediate previous life will condition the next thought in the bardo state .  This will in turn determine the state of rebirth the person takes.

For those who don't believe in rebirth or future lives, what have you got to lose if you can die with a smile on your face ?

[pgdharma]

Thank you, nagaseeker, for this interesting story. For me, I believe that if we have faith in the Buddha and corporate His teachings into our daily lives, we will not lose anything but on the contrary reap the benefits of the Buddha’s teachings. Everything that the Buddha taught will lead us to the right path, so how can we lose unless we do not put His teachings into practice.

Buddha does exist; our Guru is the living Buddha.

[Tammy]

nagaseeker,

Thank you for the story, what the lady said did make a lot of sense to me..
Sometimes, a supposedly learned person can be too proud and he/she fails to look at things from the simplest and fundamental level. Whilst it takes simple and clear mind to see thru the logic!

My take is - we should treat everyone equally within pre-judge anyone. be humble. such is buddha's teachings

[Klein]

Wow! What a wonderful story! The old lady is so wise. I would follow the old lady's train of thought. We have nothing to lose but everything to gain. So better practise spirituality than not practise at all.

[Tenzin K]

Thanks nagaseeker. This is really interesting and like it very much.
Simple and very meaningful.

We can gain so much from Buddha's teaching and every single teaching is to liberate us from suffering.
The women voice up her experience from the teaching of Buddha. Her faith will not be shaken because that is the true happiness she really felt from the teaching.

Buddha teaching can never be wrong but just us if we not practicing it right.
We don't lose anything in practicing Buddha teaching because it just teach us to be a good person and to be able to benefit more people.   

[DSFriend]

I doubt there exists a faith which doesn't take into consideration the benefit of oneself. Aren't we all concerned with "what's in it for me"?

There are many faiths which teach good morals.

There are many faiths which promise the security of a better place after death.

So why Buddhism?

Everyone be it they believe in the Buddha or not, as long as they apply the teachings of the Buddha, they can experience what the woman in this story experienced.

Before you know it, you'll be in love with the Buddha

Thanks nagaseeker for the story.

[nagaseeker]

I doubt there exists a faith which doesn't take into consideration the benefit of oneself. Aren't we all concerned with "what's in it for me"?

There are many faiths which teach good morals.

There are many faiths which promise the security of a better place after death.

So why Buddhism?

Everyone be it they believe in the Buddha or not, as long as they apply the teachings of the Buddha, they can experience what the woman in this story experienced.

Before you know it, you'll be in love with the Buddha

Thanks nagaseeker for the story.

Yes DSfriend ,
the scholar in this story miss out the point of how to build faith n the logic behind it.Most of the clever ones tempt to seek truth by pointing out so called logic that they 'understand' but they skip all the process that they suppose to go through while the women in the story found the truth by 'simply' follow the teaching of buddha .if ones foundation is not strong n lack of practice n experience , how can one see the buddha's quality ?

[Poonlarp]

I think the Buddha exists in the story in the form of a farming women, who exactly speak the truth at their level.

What the women said is completely correct. We should not wait until something is proven then we gracefully bow down to pay respect and generate faith. Like if you have a very serious illness, we could not wait to check whether the doctor is qualified or not, to check the medicine effective or not, as we need to be cure immediately before the condition become worst. So having faith is very important to improve our life, especially to enlighten beings who has proven their path to free from all sufferings.

[happysun]

Wowww.....such as great story, thank you for your sharing! Dharma and Karma is very fair to everyone. You will more interest because you feel comfortable, nice and stable. But in Budhhism, we need to practice compassion and tolerance in front of many people especially in Varjayana training: action & talk must be consistent. The person who not treat us well, we need to take care of us! Cannot you do it?

A scholar may not understand Dharma very well compared with who not high educated. You will be surprised about it but not me.  Dharma is very simple don't talk too much.

[vajrastorm]

Yes, I like this story. It shows us what real sincere Dharma practice is.

The scholar is puffed up with his  intellectual knowledge and his 'intellectual prowess'. He thinks his logic is the best way of countering what he perceives as blind faith in Buddhism. He is not prepared for the profound wisdom of a simple farmer. How does one argue against the fact that this wise lady has found peace and joy in practicing and realizing the qualities of Lord Buddha - compassion and equanimity and remembering and repaying the kindness of others?   

Thank you.

[Gypsy]

Thank you for sharing this story, indeed interesting! Just a simple yet impactful line " Have i lost anything because i believed in Buddhism all these years? " This is simply powerful. I always think that when people refuse to listen to dharma or have faith in spirituality, giving lots of excuses to push themselves away from dharma or any religion, that's because they are full of fear, insecurity and afraid to lose. When you challenge them with your knowledge and you stand to win over the debate, they feel irritated, they would want to protect their ego by providing all sorts of irrational statements to prove they are right. Just like the Chinese scholar who wanted to challenge Buddha to kill him. Victory doesn't mean you are right and what really matters is what you've learnt from your failure. Faith is all about your perspective, and when you know you can bring peace to others when you change your perspective, why not change?

[Positive Change]

I do love this story... In fact it is so apt and very applicable in this degenerate age. We often have so many afflictions, often self made afflictions that we tend to blame everyone and everything else apart from ourselves. Buddhism... in fact all religions teach us to be the best persons we can be... and if those believe "systems" are wrong, what have we actually lost? Surely being kind, compassionate, caring and loving to name a few, are not qualities to be frowned at or wasted.

I much rather live life being the best me I can be then be a self centered, selfish child I have made myself into. Having said that, Karma does exist, if it does not, why the disparity amongst each and every one of us. Surely if there was a "creator" why did he or she not create us all EQUAL! Kinda sick sense of humour if that truly was the case... and you know what, even if one truly believed in that, why not be the best person you can be anyways, even in THAT scenario...

[bambi]

Thank you for this interesting story. It is a very logical question that the woman asked. In the end, whether we believe Buddha exist or not does not really matter(YES! I BELIEVE BUDDHAS EXIST!) so long as we have transformed our mind to be better is what we have gained and never lost. When we learn to let go of everything that we perceive as happiness and unhappiness, we will learn that we gained peace and calmness.