--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradh...@...> wrote: > > One of the greatest Mahasiddhas of India and Himalayas was a dog- > lover, the saint Kukkuripa. > . . . > But his heavenly hosts urged him to stay, saying: "How can you > even think about returning to a dog in a dark cave when you are > enjoying our good favor and every luxury and comfort we can offer? > Don't be so foolish --remain with us here." Time and time again, > Kukkuripa allowed himself to be persuaded. > > But one day when he looked down from the Thirty-three Heavens, > he realized that his loyal dog was pining for him - her eyes were > sad, her tail drooped, and she was so thin he could see her ribs. > Kukkuripa's heart ached for her. Then and there he descended from > paradise to rejoin her in the cave. > > The dog leaped and pranced with joy when she caught sight of her > beloved master. But no sooner did he sit down and begin to scratch > her favorite spot, just behind the ears, than she vanished from > sight! There before him, wreathed in a cloud of glory, stood a > radiantly beautiful Dakini. > > "Well done!" she cried. "Well done! You have proved your worth > by overcoming temptation. Now that you have returned, supreme > power is yours. You have learned that the mundane power of the > gods is delusory, for they still retain the notion of self. > Theirs' is the realm of fallible pleasure. But now your Dakini > can grant you supreme realization -- immaculate pleasure without > end."
While this is a neat story, and I applaud his decision to return to the dog in the cave rather than dwell among the full-of- self "heavenly hosts," isn't the guy being advised here by Just Another Bitch? I mean, she's talking about granting the guy "supreme power" and "pleasure without end." *HER* power and realization are so much cooler than *THEIR* power and real- ization, after all. And she's just as much relative as the "heavenly hosts" were. Seems to me that the writer of this tale was unaware of the old saying, "From the frying pan into the fire." :-) > Then she taught him how to achieve the symbolic union of > skillful means and perfect insight. As an irreversible, > infallible vision of immutability arose in his mindstream, > he did indeed attain the state of supreme realization. Vaj, I'm just goofing on this story to see if you're able to see it in another light. While it's cool, and its basic metaphor and teaching is valid and I was rooting big-time for the dog in this scenario, in the end when the dog became a Dakini the whole tale became just another My Teaching's Dick Is Longer Than Your Teaching's Dick story. The heavenly hosts' supreme realization just wasn't supreme enough. I think it would have been a cooler story if the dog had stayed a dog, and she hadn't trans- formed into just another bitch with a power fixation. :-) > Renowned as Guru Kukkuripa, the Dog Lover, he returned to > Kapilavastu, where he lived a long life of selfless service. Here was the real moral of the story. Too bad it had to be weakened by the last line: > And in due time, he ascended to the Paradise of the Dakinis > with a vast entourage of disciples. So he's back in the same place he was talked out of before, in a relative paradise full of relative beings who still believe in the value of power and having an "entourage." It's like the Dakini was Madonna, and rescued him from "lesser" entourages at the lesser nightspots of the SO not-chi-chi-enough thirty-three sensual heavens so that he could experience a "higher" entourage in all the best night- spots of Brahmaloka. :-) I think it would have been a better story if the original writer had just snipped all the stuff about the "Dakini" and left it with the guy realizing that caring about his dog was enough, and that a life of selfless service was enough. Leave "heaven" and "paradise" and "entourages" to those who find value in those things. A boy loves his dog. :-) :-) :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N-arXkfZds
