NAMO BUDDHA

I have known the story of Namo Buddha (in Tibetan stag mo lus byin) since I was a child. When we had finished our nomadic livestock work at the end of the day, all of my family gathered in our tent around the mud-stove in the butter lamplight. While we ate our dinner sometimes our father told us some interesting stories including folk stories and some very basic Buddha dharma. He chanted the prayers he had memorized from when he was a monk before the cultural revolution.Among them stag mo lus byin’s story moved me greatly even I was a thoughtless child.

Since I heard that the Buddha had fed a tigress with his living body because of his unbearable compassion for the little tiger cubs’ lives I generated more Bodhicitta than I had before. However I was never expected that I could get to see the real holy place where the Buddha offered his body for benefit of sentient beings’ lives. Nevertheless I got the great fortune to study in the white monastery (shad dra) in Nepal from all my kind supporters and great teachers took us to see Namo Buddha during our orientation class.

When I first heard that we were going to see Namo Buddha I thought it was a normal Buddhist pilgrimage area and never expected that it was the holy place of stag mo lus byin. When I was first saw the carving of the Buddha feeding a tigress with his hand at the place, instantly it reminded me the story, which I heard from childhood. After I saw it I remembered my childhood thought. How could the Buddha do this without attachment to any of the worldly things even though his parents were there? How could he generate such unbearable compassion for others?

After we took Bodhicitta class I learned the answer to why one gave away one’s body through kindness and charity to beings who are suffering, and I realized we should practice to achieve Buddhahood little by little after we take the Bodhisattva vow. For that reason, I’m extremely happy to get this great chance to study at the white monastery!

~KajodWangmo from Tibet