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Heng Ch'au
Tuesday
March 7, 1978
We spend the night on the car in front of the Irelans house, refusing an offer to stay on their mobile trailer.
Early AM we're back on the bowing road near Cambria. Blue skies outside, light hearts inside. The weekend with Shih fu at gold wheel was a real blessing. Of all the gifts the giving of dharma is the best.
"Good man, of all offerings, the gift of Dharma is the highest." -- Avatamsaka sutra "Universal worthy's Conduct and Vows Chapter"
Road Thoughts....
Broken down highways, broken down cars, broken down bodies. Impermanence is everywhere, and by it, we are all gathered in. the cars, the roads, our bodies, are all temporarily strung and glued together of borrowed elements that never take one shape for long. Mold and mushrooms eat the car's wood paneling; rust and friction eat the metal, the highway eats the trees; the storms ear the highway, and the earth eats the people.
The elements circle and recircle in change that is changeless. Without beginning or end we turn and return like motley pieces of metal in the junkyard, like the grains of sand on a beach.
Where did each one come from? Where will it go to? The self is false and too small for the big picture. The dharma realm is too mysterious and wonderful for words to grasp, and within it, it is always thus.
"Going and returning with no border. Movement and stillness Have one source; Embracing multitudes of Wonders, more remains, Overstepping words and thoughts by far: This can only be the Dharma realm!" --Avatamsaka preface
Nothing belongs to us. We have no home. Everything we have is on loan from the universe. We use what we need, no more, no less. Things come and things go and in time, so do we. When going and returning are the same, one becomes a Buddha, thus comes one.
Manu people stop to ask about the city of ten thousand Buddhas. "Is it open to everybody?" "Aren't Buddhists the ones who stand for world peace?" and, "why 10000?"
It's said,
"We are all together,
The many return to the one."
The Buddha is the true and original home of all living beings. All beings have the Buddha wisdom and happiness inherent in their self-nature. "Ten thousand" is a Chinese expression for "all" or a countless number. And so the city of 10,000 Buddhas is just another way of saying the true home of all living beings. It's a place where ten thousand living beings can become ten thousand Buddhas.
At the city of ten thousand Buddhas Ten thousand Buddhas are born. In ten thousand rays of light, its homes Are like ten thousand lamps. Ten thousand multitudes are of a single mind. Ten thousand generations' work goes on. All the ten nations Acclaim the city of ten thousand Buddhas.
The city is also a place to vastly benefit the world. The guiding principle of Buddhism is "no-self". No me and you, all are one. The world, the countries, the family, and the individual all go bad because of selfishness. Selfishness and greedy self-seeking ruin all under heaven. And so when the individual's mind is straight and humane, sincere and selfless, then the family , country and world come together again in peace.