Category Archives: Transmigrating (Six Worlds/Ways)

Dogen’s Doei (道元道詠): Poems in the Way, 31

Thirty casual poems at my grass hut (11):   Strayers far and near In the Six Paths – Are my fathers and My mothers indeed!     Sōan-no gū-ei sanjisshu (11):   Mutsu-no michi Ochi-kochi mayou Tomogara-wa Wa-ga chichi-zo kashi … Continue reading

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Dogen’s Doei (道元道詠): Poems in the Way, 30

Thirty casual poems at my grass hut (10):   The long, long night Like draping tail Of a mountain fowl Has dawned at last.     Sōan-no gū-ei sanjisshu (10):   Ashibiki-no Yamadori-no o-no Shidari-o-no Naganagashi-yo-mo Akete keru-kana     … Continue reading

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Dogen’s Doei (道元道詠): Poems in the Way, 29

Thirty casual poems at my grass hut (9):   The path-ends of One foolish mind One seems to tread As the Six Paths.     Sōan-no gū-ei sanjisshu (9):   Orokanaru Kokoro-hitotsu-no Yuku-sue-wo Mutsu-no Michi-to-ya Hito-no fumu-ran     草庵之偶詠三十首 … Continue reading

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Supramundane Sitting

Good morning!   Now we have spring rain moistening the air, wetting the ground, giving life to plants, animals, and everything. We used to say, “It’s spring rain: let’s go walking in the rain.” After the radiation rain started, we could not so easily suggest going into the rain, and we must even keep inside our houses.   This morning I watched a special TV program from Japan about the Great East Japan Earthquake, with the tsunami and nuclear disaster. Today’s special was the fifteenth of the series, featuring Katsurao (葛尾) village, with more than a thousand people at the 20km border from the nuclear plants.   The villagers had to leave their homes after the nuclear plant explosions, with the government extending evacuation zones from 5km to 10km to 20km, etc. They left their village before the government’s evacuation order, but the farmers had to remain behind in order to take care of their cattle.   One farmer who let his cattle graze freely outside decided to put them to a quick death rather than let them starve slowly. He tied them up without access to water. When he returned home after one month, he found all had died. One got freed and tried to reach the drinking place, but could not.   Maybe we are like them, with our thirst. Gotama (Best Cow) Siddhatta (Obtaining Objective) wanted to save all beings from sufferings: birth, aging, sickness, and death. This diagram of the Twelvefold Dependent Origination shows how thirst (tańhā/tṛṣņā) with delusion leads to actions/appropriations and suffering (called sandō).   All living beings feel thirst for water, food, etc., trying to do anything for their survival. Appropriation of body/mind or identification as an American, etc., makes us to go through birth and death, transmigrating through all kinds of ways as hungry ghosts, fighting devils, etc, exploiting and exterminating.   Possession is possessedness. Whatever we possess, we are possessed by it – self, state, species, civilization, and so forth. Possessions become the triple poisons of delusion, desire, and divisiveness, and these then make the triple … Continue reading

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World Exhausted by Awakening

Good morning! The Buddha said, “We cannot reach the end of the world by walking.” We can reach only by awaking to the world. Only practice makes possible and perfect. 12/17/12  

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Mind Makes Mundus

Good evening!   We have beautiful bright stars in the crisp cool sky. We may see them on a ship in the great ocean or a boat in the fast rapids. Dogen told a story: a man dropped his stuff … Continue reading

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