![]() But we cannot get to this point by bypassing our emotions. When we are no longer defining self on the level of emotion, our sense of self is liberated from our conflicted feelings. If she said those words today, I’d say back, very lovingly, “Thank you. When my mother would say this to me, I would get even more upset. Some of us, growing up, may have been told we were too emotional. The emotional body is a wonderful way to enter into anything and everything that needs to be seen. Illumination has no emotional afflictions. You can enjoy it now.” I was so happy to hear that! Here we are, involved in the harvesting of the heart, or as Dogen would say, our body–mind, and we can enjoy that. ![]() I then found this quote by Thanissaro Bhikkhu: “The path doesn’t save all its pleasures for the end. I recall when looking over the seven factors of enlightenment, the phrase “joyful effort” gave me something, a little zing. Wholeheartedness is sometimes used as one way of expressing virya, or energy, as joyful effort. Perhaps, because we know that’s our nature, that is what we are continuously seeking. We yearn to return to this natural space, experiencing a universe that is undivided and nondual. We’ve all had moments when we release the thinking, discursive mind, and just chant, just eat, just walk, and just be. ![]() But we know from experience that we can close the divide. We can and do divide just about anything. Caerimonia, the Latin root of ceremony, means “with reverence, with sacredness, with healing.” So we collectively gather together our griefs, our joys, our sorrows, our broken trusts-in reverence, in sacredness-to restore and make whole what’s never been apart. We come together and collect our hearts and our minds, ceremoniously. When we appreciate the effect of this medicine, we know that medicine, we know that Master Hongzhi’s 834-year-old relics are still fresh and warm and vitally universal.” And I might add, they are here with us today. Maezumi Roshi wrote this about him: “The tongueless one prescribes with wordless sparklings, a medicine of nondual existence for the bodiless one. I’ve often said that if I could meet Hongzhi, I would probably ask him to read me his poetry while I lie on my back and watch the clouds. from Cultivating the Empty Field, translation by Taigen Dan Leighton with Yi Wu Contact phenomena with total sincerity, not a single atom of dust outside yourself. Having turned yourself around, accepting your situation, if you set foot on the path, spiritual energy will marvelously transport you. Straightforwardly abandon stratagems and take on responsibility. ![]() With boundless wisdom journey beyond this, forgetting accomplishments. Many lifetimes of misunderstanding come only from distrust, hindrance, and screens of confusion that we create in a scenario of isolation. We all have the clear, wondrously bright field from the beginning. Thus one can know oneself thus the self is completed. With piercing, quietly profound radiance, it mysteriously eliminates all disgrace. The following is one of his practice instructions-it’s something we are to do:Įmptiness is without characteristics. Hongzhi was a twelfth-century Zen master in China who had a great influence on Dogen.
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