Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn has a series of Koans that his students would work through...one of them, Ko Bong's Three Gates has within it this particular koan:

The whole universe is on fire. Through what kind of samadhi can you escape being burned?
Here in the US, it is as if every day now there is another mass shooting, another day where people lives are taken, unexpectedly and without reason.

Looking at my news feed this morning, I saw a new report for a shooting that has happens in a Walmart in Oklahoma. Seeing it, my first reaction was:

"sigh..another one..." and I kept scrolling.

Then I caught what just happened.

This violence is becoming more and more frequent to the point that I can actually feel myself becoming de-sensitized to it.

And honestly, I do not like that.

Yet, what can be done?

I sit. I offer Metta. I pain, feel uneasy. Feel confused. Upset. At peace with it all.
Yet, is it enough?

This world is perfect and complete exactly as it is. Not a single leaf is out of place. It is all the great Dharma Body of the Buddha. It is all the ineffable Thusness that IS.
Yet, at the same time, it is burning. It is crumbling and can fall apart at any moment.

Perfection and chaos.

The whole universe is on fire. Through what kind of samadhi can you escape being burned?
I sit. I offer Metta.
I get out and scream at the injustice.


Sat/LAH

Seiryu