by Mark Kayo 

At my job, rain halts our work and creates a welcomed break. We all congregate in a maintenance building until it passes, or in cases where it looks like it will stick around for a while, we are sent home.

Last week, while sitting at work watching the rain fall, I found myself lost in contemplation, and I discovered that rain is a perfect model to inspire us in our Buddhist lives. A model that contains many teachings to be discovered.

If we look at the life of a single raindrop, we can see that it leads to a very enlightened existence.

Born in the clouds, a raindrop begins its short life as a drop falling to the earth, with no aspirations to be anything more than a raindrop. Not dwelling in the past or worrying about the future, just being the best raindrop that it can be in the here and now.

At the end of its short life, it reaches the earth. With no regrets, it gladly falls exactly where it is supposed to be, having lived in harmony with the universe. Maybe it will be absorbed into the earth, a river, or an ocean, where it begins a new life. Maybe it will be absorbed into the roots

of a tree. What once was a tiny raindrop, now becomes part of a mighty tree. Maybe it will drop into a lazy stream, to be sipped by a newborn fawn. Maybe it will just land on a sidewalk, waiting on the sun’s evaporating heat to take it back to the clouds where it can become a raindrop once again.

In this way, the tiny raindrop teaches us about transmigration, or rebirth and death, as well as the naturalness of all life.

Mark Kayo Sensei is a Lay Minister with  Bright dawn Way of Oneness Buddhism. for more information about Bright Dawn click here.