Life Light

Good morning!

We saw the beautiful full moon and the morning star this morning. Now we have the bright daylight after sittings and the service. We have a very peaceful, beautiful morning.

Before I came here I watched TV news from Japan. All kinds of dramas are unfolding there now:

Nine days after the big earthquake and tsunami, an old lady, 80, and her grandchild, 16, a boy, were found alive. Somehow a gap opened, and the boy went out to the roof, wrapped in towels, to call for help. Having been in sub freezing temperatures, he was in a difficult state with his body temperature 29 degrees Celsius (about 85F). Fortunately, the two were shut in their kitchen and could drink what little milk, yogurt, and water were at hand.

“Even though we see someone in the morning, we may not necessarily in the evening,” Dogen said. In an instant, we may be separated from life into death – no one knows. Our life and death separation is paper-thin – caused not only by an unusual earthquake and tsunami, but by an ordinary mishap or accident.

The news told of peoples’ experiences at the nuclear plant. One worker described a terrifying situation – a sudden shock, blackout, disarray, cooling water spraying, and the dread of death. A member of the Hyper Rescue Team that has been supplying cooling water sent a message to his wife before undertaking a dangerous task near the reactor. She sent back to him a single line: “Please become a savior of Japan.” There are many more stories.

Yesterday, I talked about an engineer, a foreman who decided to write about the reality of nuclear power plants as he saw his approaching death, from cancer, due to his work at the plants. He remembered his mother’s words: “Nothing is greater than death.”

If we are prepared for death, nothing is difficult. Maybe we can do great things if we truly know the great last moment is inevitable. Because we don’t see this truth of life and death, we don’t care about our lives and sufferings. We just struggle through sufferings, but don’t really solve them. We must all face this ultimate problem, and we must ask “Ultimately for what? What to do, how to live?”

The Buddha told us to “orient the mind from the source” (yoniso manasi-kâra). Yoni is womb, the source or the ultimate. Manas is mind. Kâra as karma derives from the root krî, to create. We must create, make, or orient our minds from the source, the ultimate source, origin, zero or emptiness, where we come from and to where we return.

Sesshin stands for “touching the mind” (??) or “embracing the mind” (??). It allows us to touch this truth, everything, embracing everything. When we are busy, we cannot just sit down, we run after or away from objects. But when we sit, we stop karma and see how we drive our karma machine, called bhava-chakka, “becoming-wheel.” We are constantly becoming human, sick, old, etc. (called samsara, transmigration), and thus we suffer.

The Buddha knew how to stop this becoming-wheel, which, as you know, constantly runs with delusion and craving, ending in suffering. When we sit down, we stop this wheel and all karmas. So, of course, delusion, craving, becoming, suffering – all the turmoil and turbidity stop. Then, we become more and more transparent. When we sit, we experience this: “dropping off body and mind,” as Dogen said, or “clear crystal ball,” as Xuan-sha said.

The Buddha compared our birth as humans and encountering the awakened way to a blind turtle living at the bottom of the ocean, coming up to its surface once in a hundred years, and accidentally sticking its head into the hole of a floating log. So rare is it to be born as a human being and to meet the awakened way. Really, not just for a hundred years, but for billions of years we remain in selfish genes, and then stick our heads into human bodies.

We humans, with more delusions and cravings than any other beings, create problems and sufferings for us, others, other species, and future generations. How can we stop this? We stop karma and running on this becoming-wheel. When we run on this tread wheel, the world becomes beclouded. Our flesh eyes cannot see far enough.

But when we sit, we stop this ceaseless running on the wheel, settle, and see the world calm and clear like the full moon. Then we can touch the moon mind, which shines forth and illuminates the world calm and clear, reflecting the sun of truth, and working with the morning star and other stars.

When the moon mind becomes clearer, calmer, and full, we function freely and fully. It illuminates and reflects the truth and beauty of all stars, all beings, like a constellation of stars – life systems, body and mind, all interrelated and interpenetrated by this light and life. Then we find the full moon minds, the precious jewels, clear crystals, interconnected and intertwined, reflecting billions of years and the entire universe, limitlessly. Nothing is separated or eternal. The clear crystal ball is dynamic, like “snow, clear and cool,” as in Dogen’s poem on the original face:

Flowers in spring,
Cuckoo in summer,
The moon in autumn,
Snow in winter, clear and cool

Snow becomes flowers, cuckoos, and the moon. When flowers bloom, butterflies come. Such is life, beautiful, peaceful, truthful, and harmonious.

Sharing the same amount of life span and space, why should we discriminate, devastate, and destroy others? Destroying others is destroying ourselves. That’s why we must touch, embrace, and cultivate our minds to become the full moon, brilliant and beautiful, and to enjoy limitless life, light, liberation, and love.

3/20/11