Good morning!
Now we have a bright sunny Sunday morning, almost seemingly spring here.
In Japan March 3 is celebrated as girls’ day, Peach Period. May 5 is boys’ day
with carps flying in the sky over green trees. Now they have peach blossoms
and even cherry blossoms. Here we will soon see forsythias and crocuses, etc.
I remember we could not see flowers in New York until May.
We still see snow here, but the roads are dry and we can drive easily. Those who
came here early saw the beautiful moon in the cloudless sky, already the half moon
now, since we talked about the full moon last week. The moon is full beyond the new,
crescent, half moon phases, if we see well enough. The full moon represents the
Buddha mind, perfectly round, clear, and calm.
It is always there, bright and brilliant, illuminating the world in the darkness of night,
though not seen in the daytime or dark days. Almost eight centuries ago Dogen went
to China in a ship, encountered a severe storm, and became sick with diarrhea, but
was cured by sitting in Zazen. After the stormy sea stilled he must have seen the
beautiful moon over the calm, clear sea.
He mentioned the moon in the water in his Genjōkōan, Realizing Universal Truth,
which I quoted last Sunday. This is the succeeding part of it:
When the dharmas (true forms) have not permeated the body
and mind, one feels as if filled with the dharmas. When the
dharmas fill the body and mind, one feels partially insufficient.
For instance, when one travels on the ocean in a ship, away
from the mountains, and looks around in the four directions,
the ocean seems to be round. It seems to show no different
phases. However, this ocean is not just round or even square,
but its characteristics are inexhaustible.
It is like a palace, and like a garland. Only to the reach of one’s
own eyes, it temporarily looks round. In this way are all things.
Inside the dusty mundane world and outside the (conventional)
rules (supramundane world), things are provided with many
an aspect, but are only seen and grasped up to the reach of one’s
own dedicated learning (of sitting meditation) and the power of
one’s own vision. To hear each of the family-mode of all
dharmas, one must know not only squareness and roundness,
but also that the remaining characteristics of the ocean and the
mountains are much more and limitless, and that there are
(many) worlds in the four directions. This is not only about our
outer sides, but one should know that this applies also to right
here (-under) and a very drop of water.
The palace and garland mentioned here refers to the Buddhist saying of “four views
of one water.” The ocean is a big beautiful palace for fish; it can swallow all the
mountains underneath its water level. It is life itself, outside of which the fish must
die. The garland is for celestial beings, shining from afar; this globe is a small blue
jewel. The blood bath is the view of devils.
So, depending on how one sees, things look completely different. The Buddha mind
can see from zero to infinity, not just part of it, knowing the unknowable also. Some
people never see the ocean, some may see only a part of it, some sail into the sea,
and some see it from the sky, etc. But it is quite different for those who live underwater,
or far up and away from it.
From the moon mind, this globe is a blue planet with water. It may be the only planet
with life, or it may be one of many with many modes of lives. When we sit in Zazen,
we can cultivate and verify the Ten Ox/Bull Herding stages. If we want to witness the
Buddha mind, we must search for the bull’s footprints, find its hind and then whole,
try to catch, tether, and tame it.
Its pictures show how to ride on it, coming home heartily and seeing it no more,
and even no one – nothing but the perfection of all in one round circle (ichi-en-so)
– neither birth nor death, neither gain nor loss, neither meeting nor parting, just
the full moon. From there the Bodhisattva ways start in seeing, striving concentratedly,
returning constantly. Otherwise bulls haunt.
The last picture shows Hotei, usually identified as Maitreya Buddha, with or without
a small boy. I hope we can continue our cultivation and verification of the Buddha Way,
seeing the full moon, the Buddha mind, the mirror mind persistently polished, which
sees the world – not only this one, but also the whole world in ten directions – as a ball
of calm, cool, and clear crystal.
3/3/13
