Relying on Joy
At the time of Buddha, there lived an old beggar woman called "Relying
on Joy". She used to watch the kings, princes, and people making offerings
to Buddha and his disciples, and there was nothing she would have liked more
than to be able to do the same. So she went out begging, but at the end of a
whole day all she had was one small coin. She took it to the oil-merchant to
try to buy some oil. He told her that she could not possibly buy anything with
so little. But when he heard that she wanted it to make an offering to Buddha,
he took pity on her and gave her the oil she wanted. She took it to the monastery,
where she lit a lamp. She placed it before Buddha, and made this wish:"I
have nothing to offer but this tiny lamp. But through this offering, in the
future may I be blessed with the lamp of wisdom. May I free all beings from
their darkness. May I purify all their obstructions, and lead them to enlightenment."
That night the oil in all the other lamps went out. But the beggar woman's lamp
was still burning at dawn, when Buddha's disciple Maudgalyayana came to collect
all the lamps. When he saw that one was still alight, full of oil and with a
new wick, he thought,"There's no reason why this lamp should still be burning
in the day time," and he tried to blow it out. But it kept on burning.
He tried to snuff it out with his fingers, but it stayed alight. He tried to
smother it with his robe, but still it burned on. The Buddha had been watching
all along, and said,"Maudgalyayana, do you want to put out that lamp? You
cannot. You cannot even move it, let alone put it out. If you were to pour the
water from all ocean over this lamp, it still wouldn't go out. The water in
all the rivers and the lakes of the world could not extinguish it. Why not?
Because this lamp was offered with devotion and with purity of heart and mind.
And that motivation has made it of tremendous benefit." When Buddha had
said this, the beggar woman approached him, and he made a prophesy that in the
future she would become a perfect buddha, call "Light of the Lamp."
So it is our motivation, good or bad, that determines the fruit of our actions.
(As told by Sogyal Rinpoche in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Copyright@1992 by Sogyal Rinpoche)