All
beings without number I vow to liberate.
Endless
obsessions I vow to release.
Dharma
Gates beyond measure I vow to penetrate.
Limitless
Awakening, I vow to unfold.
The first of The Vows proclaims our intention to liberate all beings.
The second and third speak of what we are going to do and of how we are
going to do it. And the fourth, Limitless Awakening I Vow To Unfold, reminds
us that we will do this without limit, never stopping until all beings
are liberated. This progressive relationship between the Four Vows is,
of course, an interpretation we might find useful rather than how The
Four Great Vows are formally structured.
Anzan Sensei says, "In Zen we are concerned with the essence
of Buddhadharma. Buddhadharma means The Way of Waking Up. The Way of experiencing
directly what our life is, and The Way of penetrating into what it is
that is experiencing it". In "Needle in a Bag" Anzan
Sensei instructs us to "pierce this moment of hope and fear with
the needle of zazen, with the needle of mindfulness and then, as we stitch
together these moments of our lives with the needle of wakefulness, we
will find more and more that everything is unbound."
As everything is unbound, released everywhere around as reality, practice
must be unbound. Practice is simply seeing this moment, penetrating into
this moment, not only on the zafu, not only in the Monastery, but in the
street, in our homes, in our workplaces, on the toilet, shopping. Opportunities
to practice, innumerable opportunities to practice present themselves
moment after moment. Some opportunities are more attractive to self-image
than others. The more attractive, invariably seem to be those which involve
content, and the content found most interesting by self-image seems to
be in the area of thoughts and feelings, story lines, self-obsessed film
scripts, and novels about yourself. "How are you doing? How do you
think the other person is doing? How do you think I'm doing? What do they
mean? What's going on?"
Most of our day to day activity, however, and necessarily, involves questions
of what to do about our everyday and, by definition, mundane or worldly
activities such as shopping, cleaning, laundry, getting dressed, brushing
our teeth, eating and shitting.
Did you replace the used up toilet paper roll? Or were you so concerned
with your own obsessions about what's going on that you were not even
thinking about the next person who may use the washroom? Wake up! Did
you leave your shoes askew, directly in the path of the door to be opened
by the next person? Wake up! Did you notice a leaf lying on the floor
of the entranceway and decide to ignore it? Wake up! Did someone bring
you an egg and some toast, and rather than seeing the generosity of that
moment did you choose to speak of why it wasn't appropriate? Wake up!
Did you notice a person behind you in the grocery line becoming agitated
and irritated and yourself become agitated and irritated in return thus
helping them to propagate their state? Why not let them go before you,
why not just let go? Wake up!
As Anzan Sensei says,"It's everywhere. It is what you are.
You are the richness of this moment and this moment, each and every moment
is very rich." Each moment presents beings to be liberated, obsessions
to release, dharma gates to penetrate, limitless awakening to unfold,
WAKE UP!!!
Butsudo, Buddhaway, the Sensei translates as limitless Awakening.
Why? Well, it's not the Buddha's way alone, but our way as well, yours
and mine, of Awakening to who we are. We are each and all Buddha. Buddha;
one who has woken up. It reminds us each time we hear the Vow, that we
must wake up. We must recognize when we are dreaming. Butsudo: The Way
of Awakening. A way goes out limitless past all horizons. Our way embraces
all beings through releasing our images of self and other, this and that,
into the limitless and radiant expanse of Reality. Each moment, unfold,
wake up.
A great bow to the Buddhas and Dharma Ancestors and to Zen Master Anzan
Hoshin for the Teachings of the Buddhadharma, for the gift of the priceless
jewel of practice and awakening, for The Four Great Vows.
All
beings without number I vow to liberate.
Endless
obsessions I vow to release.
Dharma
Gates beyond measure I vow to penetrate.
Limitless
Awakening, I vow to unfold.
Thank you for listening.
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1999-2004 White Wind Zen Community. All rights reserved.