Posted inDharma, Gateless Gate, Koans

Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, One: Summer Sesshin, Talk 6

August 1, 2022

The things you know before you hear them, these are you, and this is why you are let in the world.

~ William Stafford

Henry begins this final dharma talk from the 2022 summer sesshin with short poems by William Stafford and Henry Shukman; each offers caution about speach. Next Henry concludes his previous two talks on Tozan and the Three Beatings. The koan shows us that suddenly, against all expectations, someone (Tozan) can be open to ultimate reality.

Henry lastly segues into the three treasures: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, noting that our world is on fire with the three poisons, greed, hatred and delusion. Despite the fact that our human condition predisposes us to feed this fire, only compassion, caring and concern for others can extinguish it — specifically, the three treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

The conventional logic of practice is that we are training ourselves to be less contaminated and deceived by the three poisons which perpetuate suffering. In ultimate reality, however, the logic of practice is entirely different. It’s not about taming or reducing anything. There is nothing to reduce. Rather, it is a discovery of all – one web of phenomena, where the multiplicities of all beings meet. This is the place where all healing occurs, yet healing is unnecessary because all is already healed.

Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash

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