Good morning!
Last evening suddenly thunder and shower started after the long spell of heat wave reaching 108 degrees. It was really compassionate rain for all plants and animals. InJapanthey now have heavy rain. So, we have extreme weathers in different places. Just the next town has different weather.
I imagined the dharma rain wetting plants and animals. There is the dharma rain in some places. When we sit we become like trees showered with the dharma rain. Dogen said that when we walk in mist, we are unwittingly wet. When we walk long enough, our robes become drenched and bodies wet.
When we sit long enough, we are like trees enjoying the dharma rain. As we practice more, our roots get deeper and deeper, our trunks higher and higher, branches wider and wider. We are not. We can keep green leaves unaffected by short spell of heat, as our roots are deep in the dharma water.
As we practice more, the dharma rain nourishes us, and our trunks and leaves – skin, flesh, bones and marrows – are all immersed in the dharma water, universal truth – we become universal truth itself, freed from fears and worries, nested in nirvana, unconditioned peace.
We become great trees, standing stable and tall, functioning fully with flourishing leaves, free from spell of heat or short storms. When we are separated from the dharma rain, we become dry and die. Global warming is causing climate change, devastation of eco systems, and mass extinction.
Still we continue small, selfish ideas and actions, caught by money, matter, and me-ism, creating heat waves, tornados, hurricanes, radiation disasters, polluting everything everywhere, because we are neither safely settled in the dharma dhâtu, truth world nor abundantly nourished by the dharma rain.
That’s why we need to practice – sit, stop our selfish karmas, and see holy (wholly wholesome) truth, goodness, and beauty. All depend on our practice. Whenever we actually do it, we witness the dharma rain, penetrated by the universal truth throughout. So, we can strive for the universal truth.
All buddhas and bodhisattvas showed this way of practice beyond small selfish delusions, desires, and divisions, enjoying truth, peace, harmony, and happiness. No one can settle in untruth, but in universal and eternal truth. We can settle in and become it beyond any superficial states and situations.
We see now the half moon, but there is always the full moon beneath its changing phases. So, I hope we can see, settle in it like great trees, rooted deep, growing high, and enjoy amrita, ambrosia of immortality. All buddhas and bodhisattvas enjoy limitless light, liberation, love, life, and learning.
So, let us continue and concentrate in our practice and enjoy penetrating purity, peace, and prognosis, holy harmony, health, and happiness. Nothing is more pervasive, perfect, and precious than this. It is good in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end, good for all always.
7/8/12
