The teleconference on Saturday, October 24, 2009, 7:00PM-9:00PM (EST), will be moderated and led by Ven. Kudagammana Seelaratana Thero (Chicago Buddhist Vihara, IL, USA).
The topic for meeting will be: “Simile of the Lotus Pond” – wherein The Lord Buddha compared this world to a Lotus Pond.
[ ……Then, having understood Brahma's invitation, out of compassion for beings, I surveyed the world with the eye of an Awakened One. As I did so, I saw beings with little dust in their eyes and those with much, those with keen faculties and those with dull, those with good attributes and those with bad, those easy to teach and those hard, some of them seeing disgrace & danger in the other world. Just as in a pond of blue or red or white lotuses, some lotuses — born & growing in the water — might flourish while immersed in the water, without rising up from the water; some might stand at an even level with the water; while some might rise up from the water and stand without being smeared by the water — so too, surveying the world with the eye of an Awakened One, I saw beings with little dust in their eyes and those with much, those with keen faculties and those with dull, those with good attributes and those with bad, those easy to teach and those hard, some of them seeing disgrace & danger in the other world. …….]
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.026.than.html#pond