Good morning!
We have a clear cool atmosphere after the Sunday sesshin sittings and service and the fall equinox. We call the equinox higan (彼岸), yonder shore, meaning nirvana. Sesshin means embracing the mind (接心) and touching the heart (摂心), eventually the Buddha-heart in nirvana and awakening. We are fortunate to sit together as zen-yū, Zen friends (禅友) and good friends (善友), kalyāna-mitra, translated into Sino-Japanese as zenchishiki (善知識, lit. good knowledge or knower, as a true friend is a knower of goodness).
Mitra (tomo: 友) is from mit (tomo: 共: together, cf. German mit, tra expresses means or agent), because a friend is together, especially in need, as a friend in need is a friend indeed. When Ananada, Buddha’s constant attendant, said, “Now I know that friends make half of my life,” the Buddha said, “Don’t say so, Ananada, friends make the whole of your life.” Good friends make a good life, and bad friends make a bad life, as a person is known by the company he keeps. We are actually together with all, making them friends and life.
Higher, world, or universal religions make their ideal figure a friend (Mitra, Mithra, Maitreya, Mazda, Massiah, Messiah, etc.), a good friend with good knowledge, compassionate and conversant with truth (Dharma, Dao, Dei, Divine, etc.) and path (Patha, Paṭipadā, Pratipad, Way, etc.). Their ideal figure is a future savior of all, because it is to be realized by all as everyone’s potential so that all may become friends of all, not foes of any. In the ordinary world, the karma world, our karma machine must cultivate for this goal.
Karma machines in the conventional world see and start from the (sinful = separated) self (delusion, original sin), with desire and divisiveness (triple poisons by karma), not seeing the holy truth (Dharma of Dependent Co-origination, unified whole), not cultivating in the triple learning (morality, concentration, prognosis). Those who settle in holiness (nirvana, heaven, etc.) must serve and save them (as bodhi-sattvas, awakening-beings, suffering servants, etc.), swimming in the karma world, staying in the nirvana base.
9/25/16
