Good morning!

We have a nice peaceful Sunday morning with our sittings and service. Yesterday I watched a program on Cinderella on the Discovery channel. It contained the portion of her stepmother cutting her daughter’s toes to fit into the shoe left at the palace. A commentator said that even today women do this, forcing to fit into society. Men also do this; humans are social animals.

Humans do this the most of all species, forcing to fit into the karma world, now making a pyramidal system with the five calamities of delusion, bondage, discrimination, exploitation, and destruction – me-ism, money-ism, militarism doomed to destruction with wars, nukes, warming, extinction, etc. We fit into the shoe of selfishness (nationalism, etc.), triple poisons, and the karma root.

The Buddha foresaw this and provided us with the Awakened Way by awakening in nirvana (no wind of karma). He told us to orient our minds from the source (yoni-so manasi-kāra). He truly oriented his mind and life from the source beyond karma, which is the only solution to all karmic problems and their suffering. Otherwise we are destined to disasters, destruction, and demise.

The Awakened Way is to cultivate and verify the culture of the five blisses of awakening, freedom, equality, love, and peace. Its concrete cultivation is sitting, stilling karma, and seeing the dharma of all dharmas – interdependent origination, intertwined bliss or calamities. Cultivation and verification is one. Let’s continue the practice of wholly wholesome free full function in fruition.

6/12/16

The pictures below were sent by Mr. Noriyuki Otsuka from Japan