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shines forth love and gives everyone in the world a nice big hug. Our practice
advisors talk to us about “mindfulness of bodily sensation,” “actually practising the
forms,” “using the breath as a touchstone,” and boring stuff like that when we want
some of this “feeling the space with the space” and to be “bright right through” like
the Zen Master talks about. They keep asking us to go back to the doorway and
repeat gassho-monjin and take our time when we want to talk them about
reincarnation.
Dogen says that all of this is like the story in chapter 4 of the Lotus sutra. He
will make several references to it later in the text and so I will provide a brief
summary of the parable. The sutra depicts Mahakasyapa and other senior students
telling a parable of the new understanding they have gained by the Buddha’s
revelation of his skilful means in guiding them towards the Vast Path.  A young boy
runs away from his father and goes off to a foreign land where he grows up and
grows old, impoverished, a lonely wanderer. At the age of fifty he has been just
getting by, taking odd jobs here and there. In his wanderings, quite by accident, he
stumbles upon his father’s house. He has been gone so long that he does not
recognize his father, now the lord of a mansion with vast storehouses of jewels,
stables and so on. In fact, he is frightened simply by his father’s magnificence and
slinks away to the gutters. His father however recognizes him. The father would like
to reclaim his son and give to him his inheritance of all of this wealth but the sight of
this wealthy and powerful man has sent the son scuttering away. So he sends
servants to hire the son to sweep dung. The father slowly makes contact with the
son, once even rubbing dirt on himself so as to not scare away the poor beggar. The
son becomes accustomed to the richness of his surroundings and is given many
promotions and kindnesses by his employer. Over time he shows great honesty and
integrity and becomes foremost in the household. Nonetheless, he still has a sense of
worthlessness and so the father does not reveal the real nature of their relationship.
Finally, on his death bed, the father confirms before all of the retainers that this is
his son and that all of the wealth of the household belongs to him.
All of the richness that lies within the Shobogenzo, the Treasury of the Eye of
Utter Reality, of the Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors is already yours. Instead of
wandering here and there, being blown about the winds and storms of hope and
fear, please come here and just sit down. Now sit up. While it’s not quite like
sweeping dung, we have some cleaning up to do.