“If the doors of perception are cleansed, everything will appear as it is—infinite”

(William Blake)

  Escaping from the clatter of cyber land for a few moments to discover how we may proceed with our innermost thoughts and dreams, not agreeing or disagreeing, asking, what is it we desire our lives to be, to become?

  The Great Enlightened One, the Buddha, “in him there is no defilement, no contamination, no attachment. His moral breeze and virtuous fragrance deeply permeate all.” Always a new beginning, “attaining that which has never been before.”

  No need to make resounding proclamations; no need to engage in disputes. Reach instinctively beyond discriminations and dichotomous thinking, manifesting our buddha-nature. Become so instilled with the Buddha’s teachings that in moment-to-moment experiences and communication, ignorance is overcome—compassion, a heart-beat away.

  When mind has been emptied and light has been called upon to purify the consciousness, freed from its attachments, self-serving discriminations—this is true liberation from suffering. When allowing the infinite potential of Buddha-mind to operate in unconstrained spontaneity, the common, rational ego is no longer in control, nor controlling factor. When the true nature of self is realized, the ego becomes a “lens of pure crystal” focusing all pervasive cosmic light. No shadows of pride, possessiveness cloud its purity. Conscious mind learns to be silent and attentive, attuned to transcendental knowledge, Mind Only.

  There is only One Mind, the substance of which cannot be differentiated. Accepting the miracle of existence—comprehending the governing force of primordial energy, the universal force which causes everything to live, we may return each moment to the realization of the archetypical essence of being and become more attentive to the world and people in our world, here and now.

  Human suffering is brought about by the accumulation of self-serving, ego-centric desire and the illusion that our ego-self is in control. All living beings, all phenomena come into being from emptiness, one substance with universal energy, therefore equal in the value of their existence. To devote one's self to the great life force of the universe and attain a spiritual unity with it; to obey reason and live in accordance with the greater life of the universe, is to discover “the great compassionate heart”—buddhahood itself, the karmic necessity of our existence.

  We are told by cosmologists and quantum physicists that the universe began breaking perfect symmetry into a huge, hot cauldron of energy governed by forces we do not understand completely. These forces exist today in our world. Without them the very fabric of existence bound together by these forces would not exist. Nothing has an independent existence. We are all part of one inseparable web of relationships.

  “Implied in new theories of physics (Timothy Ferris in “Beyond Newton and Einstein” – N.Y. Times, 9/26/82) “all the known forces in nature are manifestations of one basic interaction and that once, long ago, were part of a single, universal process.”

  Humanity continues as part of that “universal process.” Disagreeing or agreeing—contending rather than intending in realms of conditioned existence (dharma), inhibits the perfect symmetry of Mind which is neither created nor annihilated, but simply is. In the teachings of the Buddha, particularly in “great vehicle” Mahayana sutras, as the Lotus Sutra, “Original Mind” is called tathata, or ultimate nature of Mind without any attributes, the same as the mind of pure self—buddha-nature, vesture of pure, unqualified reality (dharmakaya), the soul of nirvana.

  May not the One mind of pure self, buddha-nature, be in itself, perfect symmetry? All dharmas, “laws” or elements of conditioned existence depend on Mind for their being and have Mind as their substance. From this standpoint, all conditioned existence is illusory and imaginary, and their being is in reality non-being. By contrast with these unreal existences, One Mind, tathata,  is the only real thing existing  in this world.

  Yet even though these conditioned existences (dharmas) have no being in reality because they originate in illusion and fancy, they nevertheless appear to be created and annihilated. But when such unreal existences are created, One Mind is not brought into existence, and when they are annihilated, One Mind does not perish. Uncreated, One Mind is never augmented; imperishable, it is never diminished. And as it never increases or decreases, One Mind is called tathata, ultimate nature, without attributes.

  Concentration means knowing that all dharmas, conditioned existences, have from the beginning no tathata of their own, are never created or annihilated by themselves, but are created and arise as productions of illusion and imagination. Created dharmas are in truth, non-existent. They are only the One Mind, the substance of which cannot be differentiated. If one seizes this standpoint, then in total mental calm one can stop the flow of false ideas. This is concentration.

  Insight means knowing that dharmas are neither created nor annihilated, but originate in and arise out of One Mind to serve an illusory and fanciful worldly purpose. They are like the illusions of dreams, seeming to exist when they do not exist. To know this is to attain insight, to aspire to the mind of  non-existence.

  When concentration is achieved, Pure Mind is merged through insight with non-dual nature and is harmoniously united with all beings. Calmness, tranquility and purity, depth, stability and quietude emerge. Inner silence is pure and pellucid, appearing without the appearance of movement, acting without the appearance of action.

  Thus it is, all conditions of existence are originally the same everywhere without differentiation and the nature of One Mind is existence. This is the root of the most profound dharma nature.

  When insight is attained, the root of Pure Mind and the activity of the phenomenal world are manifest without obstacle, spontaneously showing forth the capability of all things pure and impure.

  When there is concentration, our mind is everywhere the same. When there is concentration, one dwells ever in nirvana. When there is concentration one is not polluted by the world. When there is concentration, one attains eternal silence in the process of acting.

  This “truth of One Reality” is at the core of the Buddha’s teachings in the Lotus Sutra–the fundamental oneness of energy, non-differentiation at the heart of things, the one law that calls all things into being and moves them. This is called the real aspect of things. We are all one substance with this law and caused to live by it.  One’s own mind is intrinsically one with primordial energy, the imperishable life-force of the universe.

  “I also see bodhisattvas, persons of great compassion, who  observe that the nature of all existence is not in two opposing forms, but like space.” – Lotus Sutra

  How then shall we proceed? Releasing the personal ego is perhaps the first step, enabling us to find the imperishable life-force which exists in all things, in all beings. Serving this life-force is the great true compassion.

  From the Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue, the closing sutra of The Threefold Lotus Sutra: “The Buddha said to Ananda, Do you listen to me attentively! Do you listen to me attentively, ponder, and remember it! Of yore on Mount Gridhrakutha and in other places the Tathagata has already extensively explained the way of one reality.

The Buddha Wisdom is pure and minute,
 faultless and unhindered,
penetrating through infinite kalpas.

Like a meteor, like darkness, as a flickering lamp,
An illusion, like hoar-frost or a bubble,
Like clouds, a flash of lightning, or a dream,
So is all conditioned existence to be seen. – Diamond Sutra

Taken and edited from the writings of Nikkyo Niwano, Buddhism for Today, a Modern Interpretation of The Threefold Lotus Sutra, and Niwano’s other writings; the Kosei/Weatherhill English translation of The Threefold Lotus Sutra; and Hui-ssu in Taisbo Daiskyo, in The Diamond Sutra, from final teachings of the Buddha, with supplemental texts. General Editor, Raghavan Iyer. August 12, 1983; Concord Grove Press, London, Santa Barbara, New York. Copyright 1983, The Pythagorean Sangha.

“ego, a pure crystal” taken from symbol for 1°  Leo in An Astrological Mandala, The Cycle of Transformations and Its 360 Symbolic Phases, by Dane Rudhyar, published by Random House, 1973 [hardcover and paperback].

Celebrating the Vernal Equinox in Mexico

The Final Commission

”to give the Buddha-wisdom

the Self-existent wisdom

to all living beings”

  Again to say one need not be a “Buddhist” to practice the teachings of the Buddha. There is fundamentally no need to seek “identities” as this or that. Practicing these teachings is in essence celebrating life.

  AT THAT TIME Shakyamuni Buddha rose from his Law seat, manifesting supernatural powers, laid his right hand on the heads of the innumerable bodhi­sattva-mahasattvas, and spoke thus: “I, for incalculable hundreds of thousands of myriads of countless nayutas of kalpas, have practiced this rare Law of Perfect Enlightenment. Now I entrust it to you. Do you wholeheartedly promulgate this Law and make it increase and prosper far and wide.” . . .

  ".  .  .  The Tathagata is most benevolent and compassionate, not mean and stingy, and is able fearlessly to give the Buddha-wisdom, the Tathagata-wisdom, and the Self-existent wisdom to all living beings. The Tathagata is the great lord of giving to all living beings. Do you also follow and learn the Tathagata's example, not being mean and stingy.

  If good sons or good daughters in ages to come believe in the Tathagata-wisdom, do you proclaim this Law-flower Sutra to them that they may hear and know it, in order that they may obtain the Buddha-wisdom. If there be living beings who do not believe in it, do you show, teach, benefit, and rejoice them with the other profound laws of the Tathagata. If you are able thus to act, then you will have repaid the grace of the Buddhas.

  . . . Thereupon Shakyamuni Buddha caused all the emanated buddhas who had come from all directions, each to return to his own land, saying: “Buddhas! Peace be unto you. Let the stupa of the Buddha Abundant Treasures be restored as before.”

  As these words were spoken, the innumerable emanated buddhas from all directions, who were seated on lion thrones under the jewel trees, as well as the Buddha Abundant Treasures, the host of infinite asankhyeyas of bodhisattvas, Eminent Conduct and others, also the four groups of hearers, Shariputra and others, and all the worlds, gods, men, asuras, and so on, hearing the preaching of the Buddha, rejoiced greatly. /////

  This is a portion of the Lotus Sutra, the 22^nd chapter, I was able to relive this morning, in celebration of life, bringing an important event back to life and into today’s world, here and now, with you. Also celebrating a joyous, humorous, touching video with friends at Fanvids, ”I Think I Do” and post from Jerry Gordon in Japan, among other celebrations.

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

Living in the Moment

We walk on frosted ground
praising chrysanthemums bordering the fields
sit on the edge of the woods
waiting for the moon to rise
not having to be alone
is happiness
we do not talk
of failure or success – Chia Tao, “When I Find You Again It Will be in The Mountains”

You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light
in every moment of your life.

This minute that comes to me over the past decillions,
there is no greater than it and now.

All forces have been steadily employ’d
to complete and delight me.
Now on this spot I stand
with my robust soul.

Welcome is every organ and attribute of me,
Not an inch or a particle of an inch is vile,
and none shall be less familiar than the rest.
I am satisfied—I see, dance, laugh, sing;
As the hugging and loving bed fellow sleeps at my side through the night,
and withdraws at the peep of the day with stealthy tread,
Leaving me baskets cover’d with white towels swelling the house with their plenty

– Walt Whitman, “Leaves of Grass – Song of Myself”

Butchart Gardens, British Columbia

Inspirations

derived from the Buddha’s ageless teaching

of wisdom, compassion, and liberation

The Threefold Lotus Sutra

  Constant progress is the natural course of living beings. It is the right and true way for us to live. To strive in the midst of suffering humanity for the well being of all, is to live a truly human life, the bodhisattva toil.

  Thus if in life’s journey we strive always after our nature, talent, and occupation to create those things that make for the happiness and well being of others, then that creation and resulting harmony are the ultimate human ideal, a treasure of the highest order.

  We are all one substance with the great, all pervading life-force of the universe. The enlightenment of the Buddha—our own enlightenment—perceives this reality, the way in which always and everywhere the will of this universal energy appears in unlimited operation in both inanimate and living things.

  Shakyamuni Buddha lived in this world, and desired after he had “gone beyond” those still living would make themselves the light, continuing to practice and spread his ageless teachings of compassion and liberation. His “appearance” in future worlds would manifest in teachers who would follow, as indeed many teachers have – “in thousands of countless lands I  will  appear to preach the Law . . .”

  In the Buddha’s teachings there is no “above and below” – universal energy (“Buddha,” to give it a name) which causes us to live, surrounds us, dwells within us. We reach toward enlightenment in this life to enrich every moment of this life, not to find reward after we have gone beyond this life, but here  and now.

  “Further, bodhisattva-mahasattvas (persons of great compassion), contemplate all existences as void—appear­­ances as they reality, duly established as they are in reality, neither upside down, nor moving, nor receding, nor turning, just like space, of the nature of nothing­ness, cut off from the course of all words and expressions, unborn, not coming forth, not arising, nameless, formless, really without existence, unim­peded, infinite, boundless, unrestrained, only existing by causation, and pro­duced through distortion of thought.”–Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law – A Happy Life

Beyond all pairs of opposites . . .

  Beyond all pairs of opposites and all dichotomous thinking, one realizes the truth because one becomes it. Self-motivation is the key—the intent to weld a liberating spiritual endeavor into one’s daily life; the desire to learn, reach a state of self-attained enligh­tenment leading to the greatest gift of all, living in a state of universal benevolence and compas­sion; living in the same world as those great Bodhisattvas who “rise up from the earth” in the Lotus Sutra.

  The true life and soul of the Buddha’s teachings is knowing wholeheartedly all sentient beings have the buddha-nature (or enlightened nature) innately. To become aware of one’s own enlightened nature, bringing it to light from the depths of the mind, nurturing it and devel­oping it vigorously, sponta­neously realizing others possess it equally, is to “go beyond all pairs of opposites.”

  “What is the final, profound truth? It is finding the infinite life of humankind within the eternal life-force of the universe. The true nature of humankind, in its union with the eternal life-force of the universe which causes us to live, is called the “buddha” or enlightened nature. The Buddha in the Lotus Sutra teaches that all beings possess the buddha-nature (or potential for enligh­tenment) equally and that we should respect this potential in one another and encourage one another to develop and fulfill this potential. The noblest form of practicing the teachings of the Buddha is the way of bodhi­sattvas who devote themselves to attaining enlightenment not only for them­selves, but for all sentient beings.” – Nikkyo Niwano (edited)

  Identifying one’s self as a “Buddhist” is not required if one practices the teachings of the Buddha, as it suggests “different than—other than.” The Buddha’s teachings inform all enlightened think­ing, and all enlight­ened thinking resonates with the teachings of the Buddha, beyond all pairs of opposites and dichotomous thinking.

Redwoods

Shakyamuni’s Mission

as told in The Threefold Lotus Sutra

”To give peace to all creatures, I appear in the world”

  With all its grand “other-worldly” tales of treasure towers and Great Bodhisattvas rising from the earth, magic cities, stories of fabulous, larger-than-life enlightened beings (buddhas), as well as stories of extraordinary deeds of ordinary living beings, including persons of learning and those of self-attained enlightenment, it’s clear nevertheless that the Buddha’s supreme intent described in the sutra is to “cause all the living to enter the way supreme and speedily accomplish enlightenment.”

  The Threefold Lotus Sutra is one of the world’s great religious classics representing the culmination of the Buddha’s ageless teaching of wisdom, compassion and liberation, a significant resource for all those today whose hearts are longing to discover peace of mind and their place in the world.

  Also, the Sutra contains many “threads” following the Buddha’s life, and the dynamic, sometimes dramatic tale of a how he became motivated to go out into the world revealing his experience of attaining enlightenment to men and women of all classes and religions, so that all could attain the same enlightenment as he “long sitting” under the Bodhi tree in the City of Gaya.

To give peace to all creatures I appear in the world,
and for the hosts of the living
preach the Law pure as sweet dew,
the one and only Law of emancipation and nirvana.
With one transcendent voice I proclaim this meaning,
constantly taking the Great-vehicle as my subject.
I look upon all everywhere with equal eyes,
without distinction of persons, or mind of love or hate.
I have no predilections nor limitations or partiality;
ever to all I preach the Law equally;
as to one person, so to all.

Half Dome and the Milky Way

Thomas Jefferson

Religion and Science

Church and State

. . . that they will find their interest in acquiescing in the liberty and science of their country, and that the Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freer expansion of the human mind.

  Wisdom and Patriotism – To Moses Robinson – Washington, March 21, 1801 – “I entertain real hope that the whole body of  your fellow citizens will shortly be consolidated in the same sentiments. When they examine the real principles of both parties, I think they will find little to differ about. I know, indeed, that there are some of their leaders who have so committed themselves, that pride, if no other passion, will prevent their coalescing. We must be easy with them.

  The eastern States will be the last to come over, on account of the dominion of the clergy, who had a smell of union between Church and State, and began to indulge reveries which can never be realized in the present state of science. If indeed they could have prevailed on us to view all advances in science as dangerous innovations, and to look back to the opinions and practices of our forefathers, instead of looking forward, for  improvement, a promising groundwork would have been laid. But I am in hope their good sense will dictate to them, that since the mountain will not come to them, they had better go to the mountain; that they will find their interest in acquiescing in the liberty and science of their country, and that the Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freer expansion of the human mind.

  I sincerely wish with you, we could see our government so secured as to depend less  on the character of the person in whose hands it is trusted. Bad men will sometimes get in, and with such an immense patronage, may make great progress in corrupting the public mind and principles. This is a subject with which wisdom and patriotism should be occupied.

An Albatross

feeding from the hand of a sailor

(Full  Moon 2:25 am GMT, Thursday, 7/2}

capricorn 10° - an albatross feeding from the hand of a sailor.

keynote: The overcoming of fear and its rewards

  Those who radiate perfect harmlessness can call the wildest creatures to them and establish with them a partnership based on mutual respect and understanding. Every living entity plays a role in the worlds ritual of existence. Beyond these specific roles, which too often separate one entity from another, the communion of love and compassion can bring together the most disparate lives.

  The power of such a culture of harmlessness and compassion generates trust everywhere.

     – Dane Rudhyar’s Astrological Mandala

  The full moon shines on the earth this night, illuminating all living beings, everywhere. Here Rudhyar through the symbol originated by psychic Elsie Wheeler reveals “universal truths” available to all humanity. A worthy reminder for this extraordinary week of rainbows and wonders (Episcopalians, please note, will perform same-sex marriages nationwide), illuminating the world.

  On a personal level, this symbol came into my life on December 5, 1977 after hours of meditation and discovering that 10° Capricorn was the point of “Original Intent” in a Full Moon, 22 hours after I was born. I recall when I read the above, I burst into tears realizing, “This is what I have always wanted in my life. . .” communion of love and  compassion bringing together the most disparate lives.

  This morning, waking from sleep and as so often unable to quell the rush of memories, the year 1938 persisted. In the ephemeris, on January 2, 1938, I find there was a New  Moon at 10° Capricorn, “An albatross feeding from  the hand of a sailor.”  Well it’s been some 77 years since that New Moon, and quite a journey . . . One never knows, but certainly some connection with the universe endures, and most assuredly available for all of us today, here and now.

  In the lunar cycle, a Full Moon is a moment of fulfillment – future oriented toward disseminating to others what we have learned in previous cycles.

  The north  node of the  Moon (a point of integrating personal and “beyond the personal” energies) is at this time at 5° Libra – “Revealing to students the foundation of an inner knowledge upon which a new world could be built.”