Posted inBlue Cliff, Dharma, Videos

Time flies but it doesn’t fly away, Valerie Forstman (Video)

April 26, 2023

Unless we know exactly where we are, we can’t answer where we are going

~ Ryoun Roshi

Everything is constantly changing but not going anywhere. Valerie asks, What is time? What is this moment, is there anything outside of this now? What does this say about us about who we truly are, and about this practice? 

Case 53 from the Blue Cliff Record, Hyajkujo and the Wild Duck points directly to this matter. When a duck flies over Hyakujo, his master Baso asks, where did it go? Hyakujo says, it  flew away. 

Where did the duck go? This question points to this existence, to the fundamental question – where do you come from and where will you go after you die. How wide of a lens needs to open in order to see the matter of life and death?… the here and now. 

Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash

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