Orange County Buddhist Church

A Diamond in Your Pocket

    The following story is taken from a book titled, "The Gift", by Carol Pearson. The story is based on an ancient Taoist tale, but I felt the message was beautiful and could be related in a Buddhist manner. Let me relate the story in my own words.

    Once a man had a son whom he loved very much. He gave his son a very prized possession, something shiny like a diamond. He told his son to keep it in his pocket near his heart, and that it was something for the "dark times" to help him see better. 

    The son thanked his father, but then said, "But father, what I would really like is that beautiful horse in the pasture over there? Could I have that horse?"

    The father said, "Yes, you may have that horse."  The son was overjoyed saying, "I am so fortunate."  The father responded, "We will see."  One day the beautiful new horse jumped over the fence and ran off. The son was heartbroken.  "My horse has run off! How unfortunate I am," cried the son.  "We will see," responded the father.

    Some days later, they heard the thundering sound of horses' hooves. To their great surprise, the horse returned with a whole herd of wild horses.  "How fortunate I am!" shouted the son.  "We'll see" said the father.

    When the son tried to ride one of the new wild horses, he was bucked off and broke his leg.   "How unfortunate I am!" cried the son.  But some time later, the King came by the village, drafting all the young men to fight in a war. The only young man not to be drafted was the son with the broken leg.  How fortunate I am, thought the young man.  "We'll see" said the father.

    Much time passed, and none of the young men returned from the war. The son was so lonesome that he had lost so many of his friends.  How unfortunate I am he thought.  "We'll see," responded the father.

    Because all of the young men were lost in the war, there was only one eligible bachelor left in the village. Soon all the young women looked to the Father's son longing to be his wife.  "I can marry the most beautiful woman in this village! How fortunate I am," the son said to the father.  "We'll see." said the father.

    The son fell in love with and married a most beautiful girl. 

    However, this most beautiful woman in the village was not brought up to do hard work. She refused to dust the house or feed the pigs that they raised.

    "How unfortunate I am," sighed the son. 

    "We'll see," said the father.

    In time, the son learned to see past his wife's beauty and to see deeper inside not only her, but inside himself. Their marriage and family life became better, and they had children.  The father, now a grandfather, would come over often to visit them.  "How fortunate I am," said the son.  "We'll see," again said the father.

    Many years later, the son's daughter grew up and wanted to move away to the city. She was rebelling against her parents. The son feared she would get into trouble in the big city and didn't want her to leave.  How unfortunate I am, he thought, and he went to discuss it with his father.  The father said, "Have you given your daughter that precious gift I gave to you long ago?"

    The son reached into his breast pocket and pulled out     something shiny like a diamond. He remembered what his father had told him when he had given it to him years ago.  "Something for the dark times, to help you see better," his father had said.  "I have had this all along to help me see, haven't I father," said the son.  "Yes. To see things simply as they are and that all things work together for good. How else could you have gotten back on a horse again, or found the true beauty in your wife, or raise any children? This is what I have received from my father, and from his father, and his father's father. Is it in your daughter's pocket?"

    With those words the son promised to give the shiny diamond like thing to his daughter, who was about to leave for the dark city. 

    "We will see," responded the father. 

    This beautiful story teaches us several things. First of all, it shows us the nature of our life. Life involves fortune and misfortune, throughout our life. Because of our narrow, self-centered perspective, we think that we are directly responsible for our fortune, and we cannot understand or accept when misfortune comes our way. But over the course of one's life, fortune and misfortune are a lot like this story. 

    What is the diamond shining in our pocket? I think it is the Buddha-Dharma, the Nembutsu, Namu-amidabutsu. If we have a light that reflects upon the darkness of our life, then we can see that our misfortune can be transformed into something fortunate. We can also see how we should not inflate our egos when we have fortune, because our fortune is largely due to others. Fortune and misfortune, good and bad, we can see life as it is if we have a diamond in our pocket to illuminate our life. 

    Without a diamond to illuminate our life, we might become over-attached to our fortune, and thus find ourselves inept at meeting misfortune. Without a diamond to illuminate our life, misfortune could cause us to fall into the dark pit of despair without a way out. Misfortune can be devastating in life. Business failure, marital problems, family problems, serious illness, a loss of a loved one, anything can cause us to fall into the darkness of despair. At such times we desperately need some kind of light to find our way. Just like a room that is thrown into complete darkness, even the smallest bit of light from a window or flashlight can help us to find our way. 

    Shinran Shonin was a man who discovered this brilliant light within his life. He always carried a diamond in his pocket. In one of his poems he states:

"Beams of light, thirty-six hundred
Thousand billion in number,
Shine brilliantly from within each flower;
There is no place they do not reach."

p. 335  Collected Works of Shinran Volume I

    This poem describes how the light of truth illuminates the flowers of the Pure Land. The Pure Land is a metaphor for Nirvana, the world of enlightenment. The flowers of the Pure Land are in a sense like all of us. The light of Namuamidabutsu has billions of rays that shine within each and every one of us. May we discover and carry with us that radiant diamond in our pocket, and may that precious jewel be handed down for generations and generations.

Namuamidabutsu
Rev. Marvin Harada