[Flint]

Thank you, Bruce. Your post reminded me of a famous Buddhist teaching:

Asanga, Maitreya, a bitch and the maggots

In this regard, we find accounts of how Acharya Asanga spent twelve years in meditation, hoping to have a vision of Buddha Maitreya. His story is an example for us.

Asanga exerted himself so much throughout those years. But still he could not have a vision of the deity Maitreya. He lost heart and came out of his meditation cave. Asanga then was walking towards town when, all of a sudden, he came across a female dog totally infected by maggots on the lower part of her body. She was being eaten away by thousands and thousands of maggots. Asanga felt so much compassion towards the maggots and towards the female dog. He was wondering how to relieve both the maggots and the female dog. The maggots themselves are so delicate that to pick them up with the hand will kill them instantly. Asanga was so strongly motivated by compassion.

To save both the maggots and the dog, Asanga cut a piece of flesh from his own body so that the maggots can have a safe place to stay after he licked the maggots off the dog with his tongue. Under such strong compassion, he reached out his tongue with the eyes closed. No matter how much closer he went, he could not touch the dog.

Asanga opened his eyes and saw Lord Maitreya there in all his glory. In shock, Asanga said to Lord Maitreya, "You seemed to lack compassion towards meditators. I have exerted so much effort over the past twelve years but I could not get close to having a vision until now!" Lord Maitreya, however, said that he has always been close to Asanga, even on the very first day of his entering retreat. It is due to the strong and thick defilements that were obscuring Acharya Asanga that he could not see Maitreya.

Thus, Asanga came to understand that the very reason why he could not get a vision was because of the defilements weighing down on his mental continuum. It was due to the strong genuine compassion towards the female dog that Asanga could clear out the obscurations.

http://www.purifymind.com/BodhicittaGandenTri.htm