Hello friends,

Fundamentally, is there a difference between being asleep or being awake?

I would say that there is not. Most of the time, we are (or at least, I am) just 'being.' When you are awake and tooling around in the car, running errands, how often do you think "hm, I'm awake right now." How often, while you're in bed dreaming, do you think, "This is an interesting dream?" No thought of waking when awake, no thought of sleeping when asleep.

Maybe "Bodhisattva-ing" (this is my new word, the present progressive of "To be a Bodhisattva") is also like this; when petting the cat, no thought of "petting the cat." Just spontaneous, complete action.

Maybe "Buddha-ing" (Anuttura Samma-Sambodhi) is something as simple as letting go of letting go. Following the path to the end, and then continuing into the wilderness. Or, to use an oft-used Zen-ism, to step off the hundred foot pole.

Or, to tie all of this back into my experience of sewing the rakusu:

It's in letting each stitch be each stitch, letting the Rakusu manifest as-it-is, not as-we-want-it-to-be.

We put thread into fabric, sew bits and pieces together. But the Rakusu, the Kesa, manifests in us, as us, perfect and complete, from the first stitch. Doing the Dharma for the sake of the Dharma.

Just my musings. What do you thinK?

Metta,

Perry