"Happy Fool's Day Means..."

Hi Dear Friends,

Today is 4/1/14, a fun-filled holiday, known as April Fools Day. But the term fool is quite significant when found in the Teachings of the Buddha.

There is a teaching called the 38 Blessings of Life and is called The Mangala Sutta. It deals with what 38 Blessings you should find and study, live by and spread to others in order to have the perfect environment to practice, teach and receive the Dhamma. The first teaching of the 38 Blessings of Life is:


"Not to associate with the foolish, but to associate with the wise; and to honor those who are worthy of honor — this is the greatest blessing." The Lord Buddha Siddhartha Gotama.

Yet how do we link this to April Fools Day, a lighthearted day to play practical and funny jokes on our friends and loved ones, with one of the Buddha's greatest teachings?

Let's look forward into the future. The next Lord Buddha, will be reborn during our present Buddhist Eon. His name will be Lord Buddha Ariya Meitreiya. He has been nick-named the "Happy Buddha," or the "Laughing Buddha." We all have seen His statue, a jolly laughing Buddha with His arms raised high with a jolly belly as he laughs and laughs.

I asked the well educated Buddhist volunteers to explain to me the meaning of the Laughing Buddha and their response was that He represented good luck, and just rub his belly for your good luck they said. That could not be further from the truth.

Just for background information, most Buddhist Eons contain 1 or 2 Lord Buddhas. However, since our Buddhist Eon is so particularly difficult and in many ways destructive, shameful and degredating, that five, yes five Lord Buddhas, have been assigned to our Buddhist Eon. The reason is not because that our Eon is longer, it is because our Buddhist Eon is much more daunting and difficult. Our Lord Buddha Siddhartha Gautama Buddha was the fourth one in our Buddhist Eon. With each successive Lord Buddha in this Buddhist Eon, each Lord Buddha has had to teach and to deal with a group of people who have been moving more and more away from the path of the Lord Buddha as to how to follow His teachings, reach inner peace, and how to reach more world peace through inner peace, and how to spread the Lord Buddha's Dhamma, after we have heard it, investigated it and we had successful results, thereby causing us to adopt the Lord Buddha's teachings.

So it is April Fools Day and it is the day for you to discover the meaning of the posing of Lord Buddha Ariya Meitreiya. He is laughing at the foolishness of Humankind. At the end of the Lord Buddha Siddhartha Gautama's time the plight of human suffering will be greater, and less people will end up following His teachers. So it will be up to Lord Buddha Ariya Meitreiya to re-ignite the flame of the Triple Gem, The Buddha, The Dhamma and the Sangha inside all human beings. I can only say that with each successive Lord Buddha in His time starting with the first one, He had less suffering people to deal with and they were not as evil as the second Lord Buddha's disciples. Each successive Lord Buddha had many more troubled people, places and circumstances to deal with until His time was completed. And His legacy continues on, but it will dwindle in the end as predicted by the Wise Sages in our history.

Here is an opportunity to wake up, recite the 5 Precepts and meditate that you will not associate with fools, destroy any living thing, you will not hurt anyone with your words, you will not covet another who is already in a steady relationship with another. You will not lie or gossip or spread slander. And we will not consume items, such as alcohol, that cause heedlessness of the body and causes weakness of the mind, making it easier to break the previous 4 Precepts.

Let us begin our day, filled with this teaching, ringing throughout our inner center as we meditate on eliminating foolish people, places and circumstances from our lives. And meditate on wisdom instead, how you can acquire it and how you can utilize more in your life to improve each and every day your life. We can give this day a new name! Let's call it "Happy Wisdom Day."



Dear Friends,

Have a loving, awesome, wisdom filled day, filled with people who are the real deal, starting with you.