Good morning!
We had good sittings and a service in holy harmony, powerful unity, and unison. This is only possible with samâdhi (concentration) power in a wholly wholesome state, in total dedication of the body, mind, and world. In our hectic daily life, the body, mind, and world fall apart. Only practice makes perfect.
When we sit in zazen, we settle calm and clear in a wider world, eventually in the Dharma Dhâtu (Truth Realm or Root). When we start in action, we stir turbulence and turbidity in a smaller setting, eventually ending in deluded dead-end (death and destruction). This is happening on a global scale – the global warming, mass extinction, etc.
In general terms and trends (perhaps more so than with any particular individual), “individualism” and “conformism” are in contrast, with individual, social, and environmental levels reflecting their respective living styles, social systems, and ecological senses.
The trend is expressed in the addresses written on envelopes: the former starts with ego, the latter, the opposite. It is reflected in language structures, world views, and value systems.
In the former, ego comes first, and subjugates eco, but in the latter it is the opposite. The former trend has been dominant in recent centuries, stressing ego, economy, and ecology, in this order. This is the crucial cause of the global problematique and its difficulties in solution.
It is quite natural for living beings (karma machines for self-survival mechanisms) to do so – especially human beings with their advanced sciences and technologies – to break the built-in natural system balance.
This is the crucial condition for the system shift from ego to eco, selfish slaughtering (systemic suicide) to systemic sustainability. This is quite natural, from systemic truth (against the karmic, conditioned, conventional one).
Ego (separated, self) is only a part of, pertinent to, and perishable by eco (synthetic, system). It is like a bubble and the ocean: the former is limited, linked, and livable only on the latter. This relational reality applies to any sub-systems (societies, states, civilizations, etc.) and super-systems.
This has been the truth and message of genuine religions (= re-union of separated self to the wholly wholesome: the holy). However, institutionalized religions have missed the truth due to the strong karma (action-habit) of individuals and their groups (without the genuine practice of actually seeing and stopping karma).
The Buddha told us that human beings are karma-machines (kamma-yanta, -born: –ja, -heirs: –dâyâda, -owners: –saka, -relatives: –bandhu, etc.) and showed us how to stop them in order to attain unconditioned peace and unsurpassed awakening in the ultimate truth beyond convention.
His story of King Mirror (Âdassa, Facing-it) and the blind men, who touched only a part of an elephant and fought for their partial views, illustrates the Buddha’s holistic understanding and action (his life work).
Dogen clearly witnessed the true nature of “self,” as he said that only the awakened ones know it. He expressed his understanding and actualization of the Awakened Way:
“The practice of the awakened one is to practice together with the entire earth and to practice together with all sentient beings. If it is not with the entire whole, it is not yet the practice of the awakened one.”
Today we have a “Socially Engaged Buddhism” event held by the Buddhist Council of Greater St. Louis. It starts at 2:00 pm at the Ethical Society. So, please understand and actualize the true practice of the Awakened Way!
3/6/11