When you think of the Dhamma, you can imagine you are sick. You are in bed, you are ill, the doctor comes to see you and gives you a bottle of medicine. The medicine is there to save you from your sickness, maybe you're even going to die, it might be a medicine that saves your life. The Dhamma is like a medicine that can save your life. Now with this bottle that the doctor gives to you, it is wonderful, it is fabulous, it is going to save your physical life. How thankful can you be that somehow this bottle is in your hand now, not just in a store or pharmacy somewhere. It is with you, you have this wonderful bottle that can save your life. This is a way to think of the Dhamma. And it is even more wonderful that you have the Dhamma.
If you think about it, how many of your friends have the Dhamma? How many people in Germany have it? Last month we had our very first student from Palestine, the very first one, we have never had someone from Palestine before. He was overjoyed at the end. He wished that we would go there and teach everybody in the whole Middle East. Now you think about this, he was lucky, he got out. He was actually a Canadian citizen but his family was from Palestine, he was born in Jerusalem. He was so fortunate to get the Dhamma, it was wonderful, wonderful for him to get the Dhamma. It was mind blowing for him and he wished that everyone could get it. That is how wonderful the Dhamma is. But how many of his relatives, how many of his friends have had any chance to get it. Here it is easier, a higher percentage of people here are coming into contact with the Dhamma than in the Middle East, but it is still rare here. You have friends, you have family, some of you have a husband or wife who doesn't practice the Dhamma, but you do. It is so rare that you have it, how wonderful the Dhamma is. Maybe that can stimulate the a way of thinking about the Dhamma for you.
As to the Buddha and the Sangha, this person has no problem and hopefully all of you have no problem, because when we think of the Buddha, he is like that wonderful doctor who discovered this medicine. One way to look at it, have any of you had the disease Polio? None of you. Why? Because you were given a vaccine when you were a kid, you were given a little sugar cube or an injection in the arm or whatever. You were given the vaccine so you would not get polio. Wonderful, isn't this great? I had a friend who had a shriveled up leg. There is a women who lives near Wat Kow Tahm who has a shriveled up leg. They had polio when they were kids, but you didn't have polio. Why? Because you were given this wonderful medicine, but who discovered the medicine? How many of you know his name? His name was Doctor Salk. Most people on the planet don't even know his name, but he saved their legs, and he even saved many lives. And people don't even know his name.
You drink milk, the milk you buy from stores is called pasteurized. Why is it given the name pasteurized, it is an odd word? Louis and Marie Pasteur. They discovered how to pasteurize it, how to make it clean and safe so that it would not have as much disease as it used to have. How often in your heart and your mind have you felt thankfulness and gratitude towards Dr. Salk, to Louis and Marie Pasteur, towards all the other people who have helped you with your physical health? Most people on the planet never ever think one bit about it. They just take it for granted. "Yes, I got all my vaccines, so what? Everyone gets vaccines, so what is the big deal?" But when we actually think about these doctors and scientists and so on, who spent years and years working and working and working trying desperately to discover a cure for a major disease, isn't that wonderful what they did? Now, that is just the physical body. For Polio it was mostly the shriveled legs. There were people who died, too. If we can be so thankful to Dr. Salk that we have two strong legs, what can we say about being thankful to the Buddha? He is saving our mind and our heart.
So when we open this up, to the original teacher, the person who discovered the medicine, how wonderful he was. To the Sangha, when we bow, we bow to the noble Sangha (those people who became partly or fully enlightened). How wonderful, they worked, worked, and worked on all these teachings until they reached a high level, a level way beyond were we are at present. But they did it, how wonderful. And then they were able to keep it pure. When they did it and were teaching it, it was more pure. So how wonderful it is that for 2,500 years people have become partly or fully enlightened, have done all the hard work necessary to achieve that level, how wonderful that is, and how thankful we can be towards them. So to open that up in your reflections.