Good morning!
We have a beautiful Sunday morning with cool crisp air in sitting. We are almost starting autumn with abundant flowers and fruits. We have beautiful flowers here. The first Zen koan of the Shoyoroku is the Buddha holding up a flower and Mahakashapa smiling. This was the transmission of Zen and the Awakened Way. Flowers are beautiful, truthful, and peaceful, shared by all, except those who are in busy-ness, making money for matter and power. Money buys power and vice versa. Powers are now privatizing social and environmental resources, causing climate change, mass extinction – then nuclear winter?
The catastrophic crises caused by a pyramidal power civilization (matter/power) are due to the artificial animal (especially human) karma, fundamentally delusion (egoism), desire, and divisiveness, causing all human problems and sufferings. Flowers are part of the natural plant karma, basically truthful as trees (etymologically cognate with true), creating abundant fauna and flora. The Buddha showed us how to become like flowers and trees (cf. the cypress tree koan) by sitting still and stilling karma in nirvana and awakening – cure-all and care-all, a true panacea of all karma sickness and suffering.
Dogen said, “To learn the Awakened Way is to learn the self. To learn the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all dharmas. To be verified by all dharmas is to drop off the body and mind of the self and the bodies and minds of others. There is cessation and extinction of the trace of awakening. Traceless awakening is furthered on and on.” Selfishness is cured and taken care of by dharmas (forms/norms) through cultivation of bodies and minds into culture (heart/life) with the universal truth. Selfless striving is the Awakened Way for free and full flowering and fruiting in it.
Anyone who seeks to solve one’s problems and sufferings eventually comes to the Awakened Way and settles into nirvana and awakening, living buddha’s (the awakened) life – the original face (nature/home) and the last resort. So Dogen’s Universal Recommendation for the Right Zazen says, “Practice in such a way constantly and you will never fail to realize suchness. The treasure house will open by itself, and you will appreciate and use it at will.” So, please continue your practice living a good day every day. Only practice makes perfect. Dripping water penetrates rocks or turns into an ocean.
8/5/17
