Good morning!
We could see the very thin new moon earlier. Now we can see beautiful flowers at the altar – lilies showing spring. We have now passed a half month since spring solstice. Even though we have very cool clear air, we feel spring atmosphere after a few sittings. We are penetrated by the clear cool air, harmonizing with all things – the whole world.
Doen’s poem titled Prostration describes such state:
No winter-grass being seen,
A white heron in snow-field
Hides itself in
Its own form.
Fuyukusa-mo
Mienu Yukinono
Shirasagiwa onoga-sugatani
Mio-kakushikeri
冬草も
見えぬ雪野の
しらさぎはおのが姿に
身をかくしけり
When we sit, we become like white herons in the snow field – just becoming one in the wholly wholesome world. But, in our ordinary world we see a lot of black bats making the world dark. It is like missing and messing the jigsaw pieces out of the original board. So, we should go back to the original ground to complete the original jigsaw puzzle.
I watched the movie titled Zen which tells about Dogen’s life again recently now on CDs. What is life? How we should live? Usually people don’t ask these essential questions and live only by their habits, driven by their karma winds, blown up and down through the Six Ways or Worlds – becoming hell beings, fighting devils, hungry ghosts, etc.
Please observe and obtain the meaning of our life and the answer how we should live our precious lives, which have been protected and fostered for four billion years, but could be lost in an instant like dewdrops on the grass blades. Dogen’s life was like a straight stick penetrating through all births and deaths, and embracing all beings all through his life.
He had his poems that he wouldn’t care about his life, but all being even to the smallest insects. Unless, he said, we really have this bodhisattva mind, we can never realize the awakened way. Because we don’t realize the awakened way, we come off from these jigsaw scenes – creating problems and sufferings – global warming, mass extinction, etc.
I forwarded to our e-list the news of companies, AT&T, GM, Microsoft, etc., funding the global warming denier Heartland Institute. They are short-sighted and thus suffer getting off the right track, missing all wholly wholesome, true, good, beautiful benefits and virtues. I also sent the news of Sen. Sander addressing this crucial topic like lion’s roar.
We have now the exhibit of the Reflections of the Buddha at the Pulitzer Foundation. You can see the child statue of the Prince Regent Shotoku standing as the first show piece. He commented on the three Mahayana scriptures: the Lotus Sutra (法華経), the Purity-honored-one Sutra (維摩経), and the Queen Shrimara’s Lioness Roar Sutra (勝鬘経).
The first one tells the unified one world like the jigsaw puzzle perfectly completed. In the second one Yuima (維摩) became sick due to the sickness of the world. By practice we can attain unconditioned peace and unsurpassed awakening. If our awakening is completely pure and penetrating, we can not separate ourselves from the sick world.
That’s why bodhisattvas must work to cure the sickness until the last piece is fit into the original jigsaw board to complete its beautiful scene. We need the lioness’s roar, stopping the chattering and neighing of monkey minds and horse wills in terror and awes. All the lioness’s roars will stop wars and pollution, if we realize the true life and right life way.
The last scene of the movie was that of small girls sitting under the guidance of a woman who had to work wrong way. One girl was sitting with the mudra as if holding something with one hand at the bottom and another at the top in place of the usual dharma-dhatu mudrâ. She said that she wanted to protect it from rain, much more from radiation rain.
The movie started with Dogen’s mother passing away from him advising to enter into the path of awakened way to save her and all others. All the lives and living have come from and being supported by the total universe, working for fifteen billion years. All plants and animals are gene-shared, life-shared beings, sisters and brothers, parents and children.
We do not notice it, much less realize it in our ordinary living. Lotus flowers bloom beautifully, growing out of mother earth often in muddy water. The popular phrase “Om mani padme hun” means “Homage to the jewel in the lotus.” We must protect and perfect it. We need to acquire, associate, and appreciate it in our moment to moment life.
2/19/12
