Posted inMC Podcasts

Teisho: Case 51, Book of Equanimity, Hogen’s By Boat or Land

February 23, 2017

The Dharma is rarely encountered, even in hundreds of millions of ages.
Now we see it, hear it, receive and maintain it.
May we fully realize the Tathagata’s true meaning.”
       Gatha On Opening the Dharma

waking from cocoon of dreams

Description: There is a second birth that occurs, says Henry; a waking from a cocoon of dreams. Case 51 from the Book of Equanimity addresses this birth. Inspired by a line from ‘On Opening the Dharma,’ Henry starts by noting that ‘ages’ is a translation of ‘Kalpas,’ an incalculably long period of time. And yet, in the midst of this incalculable vastness of time, here we are! Staring right at the Dharma. How can this be?

Henry then recounts Hogen’s asking Senior Monk Kaku if he came by boat or by land and comments on the interchange. Hogen had the capacity to convey his world in very few words, springing from a great awakening experience whereby the Buddha dharma (world of the infinite) and the worldly dharma (world of phenomena) have merged completely. The true fact is that the the two worlds are one fact.

“Maybe you just get a little sense of it,” asks Henry.

Post & Featured Image : Cocoon by LoggaWiggler, CCO Public Domain.

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