Caring for the sick weill earn the best merit
There was once an elderly Bikshu who had been ill for a long time. He grew
to be so weak that he could not get out of his bed. Yet, nobody came to
visit him.
The Buddha saw this miserable Bikshu in his meditation, so
he took five hundred followers to his Vihara and ordered them to take turns
in looking after the old Bikshu. All of them who had done so found his stench
and filth revolting and intolerable.
The Buddha knew of the situation, and went to bathe him personally.
This compassionate gesture of the Buddha shook the earth and cleared the
skies. The king and all the people in the city were shocked, and they came
to the Vihara to ask the Buddha:" Buddha! You are the teacher of the
three realms and the incomparable exemplar of heaven and earth. You have
already accomplished perfect wholesomeness. Why did you have to deign yourself
to bathe this frail and dirty old man?"
The Buddha told them:" The Buddha is here in this world
precisely for these poor,lonely people! Do you know that the best way to
breed felicitous merits is to care for the sick Bikshus, cultivators and
the aged? This can effect boundless blessings which will flow far and timeless
like the water of the Ganges. Besides being able to help fulfil your wishes,
liberation from the cycle of rebirths can also be attained when enough merits
are accomplished."
When the king and his people heard this, they were deeply
touched by both the verbal teaching and personal demonstration of the Buddha.
[Caring for the poor and sick so
that they can have some sense of reliance is cultivating the meritable field
of compassion.
Although the Buddha was fully wholesome in fruition of merits, his compassion
for sentient beings still flowed forever like the river that does not dry
up!]
