No Display of Magic Powers

Each of us individually cannot really do all the necessary things in life. At some point we accept the need to call the plumber or the dentist.

No human is an island never has been - we beings and the great earth are the "One Body" as Bernie Glassman called it.

Same as in practice. In the forms of practice like zazen, kinhin, bowing, lighting incense, chanting and memorizing sutras, and understanding and explaining the wisdom all require different natures.  

Not one is above another, in fact “each is exactly even” people, things, thoughts, emotions, teachers, students and so on  - this equanimity in reality is what dharma points to.

Each of us are the most important monks. Just as we are.  

The original monasteries were made of us, meaning our diverse natures. There were “plumbers” of their day, and “dentists” and “scientists” and so on. Maybe some were meditating all day or for hours and days and months and even years, but we would not have Zen as we know it without the full picture of each one who - raises the Bodhi Mind - gives themselves to the practice - experiences their True Nature and then gives the whole thing back again.    

I’m convinced that Dogen didn’t write the Shobogenzo alone even if he isolated the whole time. Eihei Dogen, the author of each of those words and phrases and each character on those pages also included the roofers of the day and so on.

A mistake in practice I make over and over, is to try to do and be it all.  I wasn’t bad a most if it, I struggle with the most basic practice we do, zazen.

I have physical limits I’ve wanted to cure “so I can practice” which is the fundamental mistake for me. It turns me away from just the reality of right now.

The first words of the preface to picture one of “The Ten Oxherding Pictures” it says: 

“Til now, the Ox has never been lost.” 

Now, is when “I think” and usually I think something should be different than "what is."

Practice is being ourselves. It’s the “Becoming” of this moment. I’m not sure where I’ve heard that term “Becoming” but it totally fits. We’re always just Becoming and we can choose to be it. 

Or, as the conclusion of the verse from the tenth oxherding picture says:

“With no display of magic powers.

You make withered trees burst into flowers.”  

Love, Daikan