Good evening!
We had aki-bare (秋晴れ: clear, cloudless autumn sky: aki-bare) at noon. Then the wind started. We now have clouds in the evening – lower clouds, dark, and higher clouds, white. Dark clouds bring rain, lightning, thunderclaps, typhoons, and tornados. White clouds rise up to the zenith – like nyûdô-gumo (入道雲: lit. entering the true way cloud: cumulonimbus: nyûdô-gumo ). Beyond clouds is the vast speckless space. This is compared to nirvana – windless, cloudless state. It pervades and produces all. Such is nirvana. From nirvana the bodies, minds, and the worlds are pervaded and produced – sometimes stormy and dark, sometimes calm and clear.
Whenever we sit still and serene, we go back to nirvana – without karma wind and clouds. The Buddha talked about “mental orientation from the source or origin (yoniso manasi-kâra)” – observe how things originate and cease and settle in their origin. We witness the complete cessation of all origination in this sitting – all karmas are stopped and all physical and mental fabrications are ceased. We can reach the ultimate source and settle there in perfect peace and pure prognosis. This is nirvana – unconditioned peace – where unsurpassed right complete awakening is (正法眼蔵涅槃妙心: the right dharma eye stored in the subtle nirvana mind: shobo-genzo nehan-myoshin).
9/29/11
