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Once, on Vulture Peak, amid a great assembly,
the Buddha, the World Honored One, held up a flower.
At this, all remained silent. Only Mahakashyapa smiled.
The World Honored One then said,
“I have the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shobogenzo), the wondrous Heart of Nirvana.
This, to Mahakashyapa, I now entrust.
In sitting Shikantaza, Just Sitting Zazen, it is vital to sit as the single flower, held by the World Honored One. All of time is held within this flower, the past and future is this present moment of the blossom, all of space in every direction, with no before or after, inside or outside, there is no other place to go that is separate from this flower. There is only this one flower, only this one sitting, embodying all. There is nothing more to do to perfect the flower, nothing lacking. One sits as a Buddha sitting, as Mahakashyapa and all the Ancestors sitting embodied in this one flowering sitting. This moment of sitting is the only moment, the moment of the smile, with nothing more to do or in need of doing. Buddha is complete, the flower is complete, the holding is complete, this sitting and sitter are complete, all is complete and whole, and all things of the world are petals on a single stem.
It is vital to sit with such attitude, deep within. The Way of 'Just Sitting' is medicine for so much of life where we feel swept along by time, always planning what is next, sometimes fearful of tomorrow, often longing for or regretting events of yesterday, dreaming of being elsewhere, pursued by threats, constantly chasing goals, running from morning until night, feeling lack and holes to fill, 1000 things to do, struggling in a broken world as me who is not you, encountering frictions, fractures, factions, filled with measures of up vs. down, likes and dislikes, sometime peace but sometime war, a cycle of birth, sickness, struggle, death.
Instead, as this lovely flower, all are the flower's petals, a single stem, all people, things and moments are just what they are, nothing to change. Mahakashyapa's Smile sweeps in all the smiles and all the tears of this human world. The True Dharma Eye knows all of it, all life's bittersweet, as the blossoming Treasure. Separate self drops away, before and after drop away, rising and falling, birth and death drop away, me who is not you drops away and with them, all frictions and factions drop away, Buddha who is not Mahakashyapa drops away, sitter separate from sitting drops away ... and all then reveal themselves as precisely each other all along. Each petal of the flower is the flower, the petal and root and thorn is the flower, thus stem is petal is root is thorn too, thus each petal is every petal, is stem, root, thorn and all petals. In this way, birth is death at the time of birth, death is birth at the time of death. Up is down when up, health is sickness in the time of health and sickness at the time of sick. Mahakashyapa is Buddha smiling, the flower is Mahakashyapa held aloft by Buddha, all in the assembly wisely smile, Vulture Peak is right where Zazen sits.
Nothing lacking, nothing to add nor take away, nothing more to do.
Some folks think that sitting ends when the bell rings. However, zazen has no beginning or end, no before or after. The insights and wisdom known on the sitting cushion should now carry into everything. and all other moments of our day. If you leave practice only to formal seated Zazen times, you miss the point that such becomes our way to experience all of life.
For example, hopefully we now learn that, seeing any raindrop or any roadside rusty tin can in this world, there is nothing to add to that drop or rusty can, nothing to take away, no other place for them to be. They are not thinking of their past or future, They are not comparing themselves to some better time or season. Each is just what it is, wholly. Every stone, star or mountain, minute, day or year is just the same ... just what it is. That means that every event is just what it is ... times of up just up, down fully down, birth in the time of birth, death the meeting of death. We learn to experience even the hard and heartbreaking moments of life as just that flowering in that moment. Strangely, there is still not anything to change, nor other place to run to. The flower of that moment, those troubles, are just that flower of a moment of troubles. We know the truth that, somehow, all of time, all of space, all of life is fully contained within that single stalk of thls living moment, wholly what it is. Its blossoming here and now, in this moment in our life, is the local manifestation of the universe expanding through the billions of years. Every moment of life is both the billions of years and timeless too. Every event of life can be encountered in this way without exception, both the happy and sad times, the easy and hard, every tiny tick of time the single flowering flower in its flowering season.
I remember, for example, when I was once sick in a hospital bed, and once I was at a friend's funeral mourning my friend, once I was filled with worry for my child, and yet in each there was also the sense that "it is all here, there is nothing to add or take away from this, no other place in life to be" than in this bed, than missing my departed friend, than in this night of worry.
Nothing lacking, nothing to add nor take away, nothing more to do.
Now don't get me wrong, don't misunderstand this "Nothing lacking ... nothing more to do." Though the flower is whole in each moment, it still reaches for the sun. We still should care for and water it if we wish to nurture its growth and survival. Weeds may need to be pulled, thorns avoided. I took my medicine to be out of the hospital bed. I wanted to get better and worked hard at it. A tin can as a bit of trash at the side of the road is perfect as that trash, shining like a jewel, yet bow to it and please pick it up! We Zen folks do not know life only one way but, rather, like two sides of a single, no-sided coin. There are things to do, problems to remedy, holes to fill, plans to make, past mistakes to learn from. There are things to add or take away from life's garden. Even so, it is also true ...
Nothing lacking, nothing to add nor take away, nothing more to do.
Know the flower of life in all such ways, at once: Nothing to change yet care and water required. This knowing is the True Dharma Eye, the Heart of Nirvana. This is the single flower with many sides and no other side at all. This is the flower of the whole world, this whole life, this whole sitting of Zazen in this whole moment, within its buds, sitting as the single flower.
Gassho, J
stlah
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