Monday, December 31, 2007

Non-Preaching of a Non-Dream in a Non-Dream - for Michael Thaler

Master Wanshi wrote:

The water is clean right to the bottom,

Fishes are swimming, slowly, slowly.

The sky is wide beyond limit,

And birds are flying, far, far away...



But in this picture, on the look-out for a mouse to eat,

A big hungry buzzard is flying like a big hungry buzzard.

2 Comments:

Blogger Michael said...

Mike,

I'm deeply moved and humbled by your last two posts. Thank you. You have my love and gratitude.

12:51 AM  
Blogger Mike Cross said...

Thank you, Michael. While lying in bed with flu these past two days, I have thought about you a lot, and particularly in relation to the meaning of taking refuge in the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

I wanted to tell you that, in looking around for any person in the world who I could truly revere as Buddha, I have never found one that I didn't doubt. Not Gudo Nishijima, not the Dalai Lama, not Tich Nhat Hahn, not anybody. And the reason may be that the real ultimate meaning of Buddha is not any person out there. But when you and I, with whatever energy we can muster in our respective illnesses, let our arse touch a sitting cushion for even five minutes, Buddha exists just there.

Secondly, in searching the internet for evidence of true preaching of the Dharma, i.e. non-preaching of non-"Buddhist" reality, I have been drawn back to your blog. If not for you, I may have given up my blogging experiment long ago. Your account of your journey of living with a terminal illness is a shining example of non-Buddhist non-preaching (albeit tainted from time to time with spurious concepts and terms, like Soto Zen, Buddhist precepts, sesshin, Zazen, et cetera).

Thirdly, you don't have to go through any kind of formal ceremony to be my brother -- fellow fraud that you are. Whatever a Sangha is, you and I belong to the same one.

Love is a big word. There are many kinds of love, and most if not all of them prove, often contrary to expectations, subject to change. But one moment of sitting-zen is for keeps. My devotion to sitting-zen will never change, and you are part of my practise.

8:56 PM  

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