Soaked Sutras and Serpent Spirits
The hailstorm hit our village just as badly as people were speculating and most of our village is severely destroyed. The bridge was completely wiped out, which is our only access point to coming in and our of our town. This poses a huge problem for our community and needs to be remodeled right away. My nunnery is very damaged, with hail pelting through the roof, it needs to be patched up and the foundation of our building is compromised. Also many of our sutras and texts are soaked in water which really is detrimental to my studies.
But we cannot dwell on the negative, we must move forward and begin repairing our beautiful town. Everyone here has to help do their part but we do not all have the resources to do the repairs. The other nuns and I have decided to reach out to the lay people of our community for donations so we can make the necessary repairs to our home.
It will take everyone in the village to get things fixed as quickly as possible. I have heard that our neighboring village has a naga illness. It is our duty to go help them. I believe that our doctors and ritualists should go as soon as possible to help those in need, so, as a community we need to get our bridge fixed. Those who are not capable to help the next village with their naga illness can stay here and aid with reconstructing our village. I am not qualified to help heal a naga illness so I will stay behind and help fix the nunnery. I have donated some gold in order to rebuild the bridge, but in the mean time I have turned to my studying, of what text is still legible, to learn more about naga illnesses.
After searching for many hours through our library I found the Gyu-zhi, the most important text about Tibetan medicine. In the 81st chapter I found lots of information about naga. They are serpent spirits that can release their poisonous effects onto people and cause mental illness. There can be a large range of these mental illnesses, and often causes a skin disease. I remember my aunt teaching me when I was young that the skin is the layer where our outer worlds and inner world meet and interact, so it makes sense that a naga illness would manifest on someones skin.
One thing I found interesting while studying naga illnesses is that they are a powerful force of bad karma, but do they arise from desire and hate, or ignorance, or maybe both? It is not easy to restrain an evil karma; both mental and physical actions must be taken. I think it is best not to hypothesize why the naga illness has attacked our neighbours, no need for more gossip in this town. From the amount of gossip in the past few week I think we’re lucky that we just had a hailstorm. It could of been us being attacked by the naga illness.
All this thinking about karma has reinforced by belief in sending our villagers to help those attacked by the naga. One way to cause positive karmic effect is to practice generosity and help others. By sending people we are not only helping them but accumulating good karma. I understand that the effects of karma do not last forever but as Buddhists it is our moral responsibility to try and seek liberation through good actions and karma. It is important for me to practice generosity and incorporate it into all of my thoughts and actions. Duhkha is unavoidable and marks the phenomenal world but the path to enlightenment is one through generosity and kindness.
One thing that has really stuck with me is what my tutor, Alama, said after the hailstorm hit us; she spoke about pratitya-samutpada, or dependent origination. The hailstorm happened because the conditions for it to occur were there. To me that means that everything is dependent on previous circumstances. But I also have to remember the characteristic of anitya.
Impermanence is something that we all have to remember in a time like this. All things are apart of a continual flux that we cannot stop. I interpret this as nothing lasts forever and that I have to take what happens, whether good or bad, and keep moving forward. I cannot dwell on things. One thing that has changed my perspective is having many the sutras and text being destroyed by the hailstorm. I was really upset when I found them soaked in water, Alama sat me down and lectured me on the importance of detachment. I cannot be attached to worldly possessions because these things are not permanent.
I am beginning to understand that the path to enlightenment is not something that can be perfected overnight, it takes many years and even then it is still very difficult. To fully practice the eightfold path and the concept of no-self is a challenging and demanding task requiring full consciousness and effort. I have a lot to learn but for now I know that to be generous is always the right way to be. Right now I have to go back to the library and try to salvage what I can of some of the drenched sutras.
