The Zen Mind
Right now as this post goes live on my blog, I’m sitting in zazen with 100 eager seekers of truth, in a meditation retreat, discoursing on Zen, the path of no path, the way of no way. By a quiet lake, as twilight emerges on the horizon and a blanket of serenity and silence covers our outer and inner world, I felt it would be most apt to share my thoughts on Zen.
Let me begin with a beautiful aphorism, Hana wa hiraku bankoku no haru, from Moon by the Window by Shodo Harada Roshi:
“A single flower blooms and throughout the world it’s spring. In Zen, the word flower often refers to the Buddha, who is said to have been born under flowers, to have become enlightened under flowers, to have transmitted the Dharma with a flower, and to have passed away under flowers.
“When the Buddha was enlightened under the bodhi tree, he saw the morning star and exclaimed, “How wondrous! How wondrous! All beings from the origin are endowed with this same bright clear Mind to which I have just awakened!” For forty-nine years the Buddha taught that each and every person has the possibility of awakening and that this opportunity to awaken is the deepest value of being alive…
“We too can be born and can die under flowers, can finish this life as the Buddha did.”
Hana wa hiraku bankoku no haru
When a single flower blooms, it is spring throughout the world.
This is Zen in a nutshell. Our whole world lights up when our mind is at peace, when we are happy within. And, it’s all doom-and-gloom if our mind is indisposed. When the flower of mind blooms, it is spring all around. The question is how to ensure that this flower blossoms and remains in bloom? How to care for this flower?
Om Namah Shivay
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