Good morning!
We have a very quiet, beautiful Sunday morning wet with rain, giving life to all plants and animals. The beginning of Dogen’s Universal Recommendation for True Zazen reads:
In exhaustive pursuit, the root of the Way is perfectly penetrating. Why should you assume cultivation and verification? The supreme vehicle moves freely. Why should you consume striving and skill? Much more, its entirety is far beyond the realm of dust. Who would believe in the measures of sweeping? It never departs from right where you are. Why should you require the steps of cultivation? Any yet, if there is even the slightest discrepancy, you become separated as far apart as heaven and earth.
When we sit in zazen, we are perfectly penetrated throughout our worlds and become pure and free right here and now. We reach the root of the way – the awakened way in truth. We sit in truth and peace – pure peace and prognosis – because we become like crystal balls reflecting and penetrating all other balls, the whole world through and through.
Whenever we sit and stop karma, we return to this state in unconditioned peace and unsurpassed awakening. Dogen said that cultivation itself is verification. Unless we sit solid and serene, we cannot reach here. We only stray in samsaric suffering. When we become like crystal balls, all things come into us to reveal problems and solutions.
Yesterday I sent out the Global System Ethic news. The first piece was about abolishing nuclear power. Now we know that stopping electricity or water can cause reactors to explode and emit radiation all over the world. Terrorists, bombs, rockets, etc. can make nuclear reactors into nuclear bombs.
Natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, flooding or human errors, mishaps, or malice can do the same. Asahara, head of Aum Shinrikyou, said that he wanted to trigger a nuclear bomb, if they could have made one. He was a victim in society in his early years. Terrorists, criminals, and offenders were once victims in their societies.
The next topic in the newsletter was on American Awakening. The TV program showed the straight talks on Occupy movements, etc. The UC Davis pepper-spraying by policemen was the next item. A chancellor and a police chief said that sitting together with arms interlocked is violence. The students are victims of such staff and spreading and soaring buildings.
The students had better leave such campuses. All great people were not the products of schools, but come from nature, looking into the root of the way. Arundhati Roy said we are all occupiers, because we all want justice. She suggested some pre-revolution principles. We had better occupy ourselves in sitting. Anyone can reach the root of the way.
The pepper spray video was given there. A comment said that the policemen were cowards. They are cowards, because they are afraid of losing their jobs – money. They sold their souls. Those who sell their souls are cowards. Money is building the gigantic pyramid and occupying the world. Now the occupied are occupying it for justice for all.
Those who miss this truth will lose true life and world. That is the great loss for all. They deal with money and sell their souls. I have an idea about money. While things depreciate money appreciates – accumulates interest. This is usury. Islam prohibits interest. Local money depreciates. Who creates money and interests? There is no money in nature.
I’m glad that some of you are sitting with others on campus and other places. I hope more and more people sit, reach the root, really enjoy harmony, happiness, pure peace, and prognosis, and change their life and world. It may take some time to change the whole world, but any practitioner can enjoy such a world – a pure land always.
The world without separation, discrimination, exploitation, and extermination – just one piece of the self and other, birth and death, nothing to fear, is right here and now. So let us continue practice to settle solid and serene in this crystal clear and pure penetrating world with all always.
11/20/11
