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September 27, 1979
In the mountains, 15 miles
West of Ukiah
Dear Shih Fu,
These are some reflections from a couple of days bowing, Thursday, September 20, 1979:
We leave the quiet, solitary mountains and enter the Boonville area. Shaved our heads and ate lunch under some cool redwood trees in a small county park outside of town. The last few days we've been bowing on a steep downhill grade. It takes a little practice to keep from sliding downhill while in a prostration. The sash and robe get caught under our heels and trip us up now and again.
Really happy. I don't know why. I don't want anything. Just want everyone to be happy. At the end of the day all the traffic stops and it's very still. As we passed under an oak tree, the only sound was the falling leaves. Each leaf is different and yet gladly they all return to the one. For all our differences we people are the same. I found myself getting lost in the layers of truth and wisdom of these simple words,
Strange, indeed. Strange, indeed. Strange, indeed. All living beings have The Buddhanature, and all can become Buddhas. It's only because of false Thinking and attachment that they don't attain the fruit. -- Shakyamuni Buddha
In over two years of bowing, two things clearly stand out: at heart, we are all the same, the faces and reactions of all the people we have met on this trip. Some say it with words. Some can't find the words, but find other ways to say it…like a farm family handing fresh vegetables and cold water over their front-yard fence on a hot summer's day with a simple "thank you"; or flowers and incense placed on the roadside with a note, "We are all with you"; or a map and a bag of fruit sitting on the car at the end of the day; or a little child giving his allowance money; or a big smile and a wave from a passing logging truck driver. Or in this conversation with a newsman walking with us on Mt. View Road:
Reporter: "…I don't know, maybe I'd be a lot better person if I put down my house and cars, wife, and kids; if I just said goodbye to my job and money and all of it…but…"
Monk: "You don't have to do that to be a Buddhist. Just do good wherever you are. If you are a father and a husband, be a really good father and husband. You don't have to be a monk or a nun. Anyone, anywhere an cultivate."
Reporter: "That's nice to know. So I could still do it as I am?"
Monk: "Yeah, sure. In cultivation, everything is voluntary…"
Reporter: "But if you didn't follow the rules-you know, by keeping the precepts-then that wouldn't really be being a Buddhist, would it? I mean, what's the point if you don't really want to practice. You'd just be like a lot of other religious people who say one thing but do another… like killing, for example. Buddhism should be different, I feel. I mean, what you have that's really unique is that you actually go and do it! That's rare."
We walked on quietly for a while. Then he said, "You know, the longer I think about it, the more I see you've got something here, with Buddhism. It makes a lot of good sense of you stop to look at it. But isn't it back-breaking work?"
Monk: "Not if you follow the rules and you are sincere and single-minded. Then it's easy. Doing what you don't want to truly do is what's back-breaking."
Reporter: "Maybe so. Sometimes, when I'm really absorbed in my writing and photography…hot on a good story, I can go for hours without a break and never notice. It stops being work and becomes the same as, I don't know, the same as no work…Well, anyway, I like to jog and have naturally pretty much stopped eating meat. Don't miss it and feel a lot better all around. I ate a vegetarian mean once about five years ago-it was at your monastery, in fact, in San Francisco, I believe. It was delicious! Research scientists have found cancer-causing agents in even deer meat now. …"
He watched the bowing for a while. He wanted to stay and cultivate. He asked to see the Avatamsaka Sutra and wanted to know what it was about.
"What are some of the things it says, and could I look at it and touch it? Is that permitted?" he asked respectfully. Maybe he saw himself cultivating on the highway and using his journalistic skills, to write pieces steeped in the Avatamsaka for the betterment of mankind that came from his heart and not from the pressure of deadlines and a paycheck.
We have met so many people like this man who have the same wish and are nearly bursting with the urge to "put it all down and really go and do it." All these people feel like our family. We hope hey all have heir wish come true.
The Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, equally contemplates all beings just as if they were his own child. He wants to cause them all to get a body, which is purely adorned, and to accomplish the world's supreme peace and happiness, the happiness of the Buddhas' wisdom, and peacefully dwell in the Buddhadharma, thus being of benefit to all beings. -- Avatamasaka Sutra Ten Transferences Chapter
When the nature is in samadhi, the demons are subdued and every day is happy. False thoughts not arising, everywhere is peaceful. When the mind stops and thoughts are cut off-that is true nobility. With selfish greed ended forever-that is the true field of blessings. -- Ven. Master Hua
The reporter took off his sunglasses and reached out with a big handshake. "Today I've been really convinced of something, but I couldn't say exactly what. You folks are regular, on-the-level. Take care, good trip."
Peace in the Way,
Disciplie Kuo T'ing (Heng Ch'au)
bows in respect