“… no difference between “swept away” and “not swept away,” between form and emptiness, between deluded and awakened …“
Description: The Zen tradition embodies a basic fact or reality of our human experience, and says there are two entries or gates into it, as expressed by Bodhidharma—by “principle” and by “practice.” Henry talks about these two gates and elaborates on a prior discussion about quantitative and qualitative practice. In Case 64, Master Hogen poses the koan’s central question: “‘The one body manifests itself in myriad phenomena’—what does it mean?” The gateway to this statement is to sit, to practice, and allow it to invite a qualitative shift. If we have had a glimpse of the “principle,” namely that form is emptiness and emptiness is form, then, the one body indeed manifests itself in myriad phenomena. Hogen asks, “Are the myriad phenomena swept away or are they not?” This practice can bring us to a place where there is no difference between “swept away” and “not swept away,” between form and emptiness, between deluded and awakened.
Post & Featured image: Balance by Quangpraha, CCO Public Domain.