Good evening!
Because of the high temperature going up to 80s all at once we have beautiful blossoms of pears, plums, magnolias, etc. Magnolia in Japanese is mokuren (木蓮), tree lotus, because the shape of the flower buds and pedals look like those of lotus.
Buddhist value and love lotus flowers, because they grow out of muddy water and bloom beautifully never smeared by it. Also in the buds and flowers are already fruit. Sitting still makes cultivation and verification into one (shushô ittô: 修証一等) as Dogen said.
We take shower or bath to clean our bodies, but cannot purify our minds and mental worlds. When we sit solid and serene, nirvâna, windless of karma, we purify our bodies, minds, and worlds through and through.
It is said that a moment of a spring evening is worth a thousand gold (shunshô ikkoku atai senkin: 春宵一刻値千金). If we can sit this moment in penetrating pure peace and prognosis, that is priceless.
3/13/12
