Good evening!
As we had a few light showers, we now enjoy cool and clear air. Hopefully, with clouds clearing, we can see the full moon, perfectly round, beautifully brilliant, and calm and clear, enlightening, engendering, and embracing the whole world.
So, the full moon represents the awakened heart. Like Dogen, Ryokan loved the full moon, sometimes forgetting his guest on the way back from buying sake for him, having stopped to appreciate it, and sometimes lamenting that his guest, having taken his sleeping quilts, forgot to take the moon as well.
This guest had no eye for the moon, wind, birds, and flowers. There are people who finish their lives having no eyes for beauty, truth, and peace, but only for money, matter, and might, creating sufferings for themselves and others.
Even if they temporarily enjoy fame and fortune in their small world, their lives are miserable ones, like Hitler’s. All the buddhas (awakened ones) enjoy limitless learning, light, life, liberation, and love in unsurpassed awakening and unconditioned peace.
8/12/11
