Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Ten Ox-Herding Pictures: Stage Nine.

STAGE 9
RETURNING TO THE SOURCE

Introduction
It is originally pure and clean without a speck of dust clinging.
He observes the flourishing and dying of form
while remaining in the silence of no-action.
This is not the same as illusion; what need is there for striving or
planning?
The water is blue and the mountains green;
he sits and watches phenomena take form and decay.

Verse
Having come back to the origin and returned to the source,
you see that you have expended efforts in vain.
What could be superior to becoming blind and deaf
in this very moment?
Inside the hermitage,
you do not see what is in front of the hermitage.
The water flows of itself and the flowers are naturally red.

So Daiho:

The bodhisattvas whisper in our ear. We see poverty. We see war. We see cruelty and illness, sickness and death. We see our neighbors stealing, lying, cheating, and swindling. We see the world manipulating as if it is OK because we are, afterall, just putting a positive "spin" on things.We see this all as one side of the human coin. And the bodhisattvas whisper.

We are here to attain clear mind then step out into the universe to assist all beings. We are here to help. To save. To nurture. To witness. To do what is there to be done.

There should be no distinctions here: just wash the dishes, write your congressman, talkk to your neighbor. No better or worse, higher or lower, just the simple and clear experssion of buddha in action. Saving a fly from death is the same as saving a man from execution. It is our true nature to witness.

So here it is: our practice is to destroy the stored assumptions we carry around on our backs, these multiply colored filters through which we distort our perception and thus, skew our thoughts, feelings and behavior. Our practice is to develop clear mind. To perceive without history and distinction, without distorted thought and feeling, then to seamlessly behave according to what is there to do.

Our time on the cushion is time with the ultimate therapist who cures us and sends us on our way.

Be well.

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