JMJm, thank you for bringing this clarifying and inspiring teisho to
the Zen Forum. --ED With respect to all, Good Morning JMJM, It
is true that to see oneself as one with everything, there is a danger we
will fall into a sort of quietism. This is why we must step off the top
of that hunded foot pole of emptiness into the world of an awakened
everyday. In Zen we step back from that pole in order to work for the
freedom of all beings. We live in a world of two truths, the Universe is
One and the Universe is not one. Realizing the Vast Impermenance of all
things does not negate all things. Engaged practice, then, is a
practice of going out into the world of the relative with an Absolute
Mind. How we walk, talk, eat, and touch become teachers to those
around us. Are we present? Are we kind? Do we practice with a mindful
heart? These are profound, but beginning steps, steps of a first order.
A second order is more foundational. We practice to address the
conditions within which duality is permitted to emerge. Notions of
social stratification, distributive justice, and prejudice must be
addressed directly, challenged, and transformed. I say transformed
rather than eliminated because these causes of duality function for
purposes that are usually righteous. The purposes of stratifacation,
unequal distribution of goods and services, and prejudice often have
more to do with fear and the consequent presumed need for self
preservation than anything about the targets of these efforts. The goal
may be righteous, but the method is problematic. When people have a
"self" and fear the loss of things that support that "self" they will do
all manner of things to protect it. So, our practice (for ourselves, as
well as for others) is to cut through the delusion of a self, show there
is no need to protect a nonexistant self, and find ways to support such
a transformative process. Our methods include challenging, teaching,
and supporting people as they are in the everyday world. Bearing witness
for peace, and against hunger and violence are beginning steps, but key
steps. In truth, Two and One are in support of one another. When we
can live with such an open eye, we know we have nothing to fear. Without
fear, the bodhisattva is free to engage the universe. Be well
Rev. Daiho Hilbert, abbot OCMZÂ
