With palms together,

This morning is the 8th day of the twelfth lunar cycle of the year: rohatsu. On this morning the Buddha looked up at the morning star and had a profound realization. He clearly saw that all things in all times are one, of one substance, interdependent and infinite, eternal, and always changing. But then he stood up and took a long walk.

He didn't go anywhere. There is no where to go. He was simply present, fully present with whoever he was with and in each moment, there was no difference between he and they. He saw clearly.

We know from his example and from the multitude of buddhas, before and after, that this kind of present moment living is possible even today. With practice and right understanding each of us are buddhas. Some of us are buddhas-in-waiting, but all of us are already buddhas.

As we take our next step into the new year please avoid making big plans. Have a place and live within it as fully as you possibly can: seeing clearly, tasting clearly, smelling clearly, feeling clearly, perceiving and thinking clearly everything just as it is with nothing added. This is our way.

On my calendar this morning it says:

Bring me a pearl from the bottom of the sea without getting wet.

What does this mean? If you read the words and get stuck in them you do not understand. What pearl? What sea? What does it mean "to bring"? What is "getting wet?"

When we understand this is not about thinking, not about words, but rather about correct action, then we are on the path. Our lives become actual expressions of that path.

What is your expression?

Be well,

May All Beings Be Free From Suffering
Rev. Sodaiho Roshi