"Inches"

Bowing on highway shoulders as narrow as our own shoulders. Ice plant ledges on cliffs that drop straight into the sea. Weekends bring fast and frantic traffic racing by inches from our ears. Inches, everything begins small, in inches and first steps. There's an ancient saying,

"The journey of a thousand leagues
begin with what was under the feet."

The first step reflects the first thought. It is so important to start out with a straight forward mind and pure intent. Because, if one is

"Off an inch at the beginning,
Off a thousand miles in the end."

If there's as little as an inch's worth of selfishness or crooked motive, the effort own succeed. Why? Because the virtue within one's heart is insufficient to carry it through to completion. The one inch of thought off at the beginning is the "thief among the virtuous" and robs the accomplishment. Without virtue nothing survives.

What steals and depletes one's virtue? Seeking and the mind of greed. On our last trip to gold wheel temple in LA the abbot said,

"At the place of seeking nothing
there are o worries. That is, in cult-
ivation you should not seek to become a
Buddha, or a bodhisattva, or to certify 
To the 4th fruit of Arhatship, or to have 
Great wisdom, or to get enlightened.
Don't seek anything. In the very act of 
Seeking, you are adding a head on top of
a head; you are riding a donkey looking
for a donkey.

"In cultivation seek nothing, just cultivate. It's just like eating, sleeping, and wearing clothes. It's a necessity, that's all,"said the master.

Someone wonders, "Well if you don't seek for enlightenment or Buddha hood, you'll never get them, right?"

The Abbot: "Cultivate every day, day and night the same....Work in this way and when you have reached the extreme point, without seeking enlightenment, you will be enlightened. Without seeking to become a Buddha, you will become a Buddha. Without seeking to become a Boddhisattva, you will certify to the tenth ground. So, when the effort arrives, one's success is naturally attained.

You don't need to seek. Seeking is just greed, just false thinking."

"Contemplating the Sea"

"Going and returning with no border
Movement and stillness have one source."
		-- Avatamsaka preface

(Reflection I):

The sea moves in waves, in tides, to clouds, then rain, toe the earth then to rivers and back into itself. Constantly moving, it is always still; always still yet constantly moving.

In meditation, although the body and mind are still, there is warmth and increased circulation. The body is still outside bit inside it is very much alive. Inside the mind is fixed yet its state expands in cast measure. Although the body moves through the world, the mind is still. It is unmoving "in the face of the ten thousand affairs."

Seeking stillness is to be like a corpse or log of wood. Trying to be moving continually is frenetic. Simply do not attach to movement or stillness his is to be in harmony with the natural. Movement and stillness do not fight and oppose each other. The sea is like this.

"Going and returning without border" is the natural enduring circle of change. The entire universe is in a continual state if flux; yet it neither increases nor decreases. The sea speaks this dharma and tells us how to regain our true selves: let go, release your hold; produce the mind that is nowhere attached."

"It is like the water in the ocean
Which has a unified nature,
And waves by the millions, each one
different,
Yet the water itself has no such
difference;
And all Buddha dharmas are the same."

All living beings in the world are like the "waves by the millions, each one different." Yet the nature of living beings has no difference. Like the water in the sea, all beings are one substance, their dharma body is the same.

"The dharma nature pervades all places,
All living beings and all countries.
It exists throughout all times without
	Remainder,
Yet it has no shape or appearance
	Which can be got at."
		-- Avatamsaka Sutra

"The Little Men"

Eric, the part ranger from Hearst castle, stopped by today advising against the overland route.

"It's just too dangerous. The roads are primitive, hard for jeeps, even." He said.

"At first everyone warned us to not take highway 1.now everyone is telling us to take it. We are learning we can't get attached, got to let things happen naturally, on their own," I said.

"Boy I know that feeling," Erik nodded in agreement.

He sat and watched the bowing and then cane to say good-bye.

"The castle is garbage workmanship, really. Good for vampire movies. I world nights and meditate in the boss's office. It 's as good as any place I guess.... living in the country is nice, but you pay through nose. It's a small town, but it has a huge, thick grapevine. There's been quite a response to you monks." He said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Everybody knows where you are each day and what you do. In fact, you've got a nickname, did you know?"

"No."

"Yeah. You're called 'the little men'" smiled Erik.

"Little men"? I asked.

"Yup. I don't know where it started, maybe the waitresses. People say: 'I saw them! I saw the little men bowing outside my door this morning! "It's in all the papers and gossip corners." Erik noted. He went to his truck and brought back a lantern and some kerosene as an offering.

"The response has been real positive. A yoga people are appalled, a few Baptists are turned on, and a few are worried about the cowboys getting you. But I don't think you'll have any problems with anyone." He said.

"In a way we are the cowboys, the waitresses, the fishermen, and tour guides. Buddhists don't see themselves as separate or different from others. We are everybody, everybody is us. There are no problems except the ones we make for ourselves." I said.

"Disciples of the Buddha, the Bodhi-
sattva, Mahasattva protects and transfers
to those who are not his family and 
friends equally as he does to his family
and friends without distinction. Why?
Because the bodhisattva has entered
Into the level and equal nature of all
Dharams. He has no thoughts of any 
Living beings not beings gamily or friends."
			-- Avatamsaka Sutra

"That's really how it is, isn't it? I like that. It rings true" said the ranger.

He folded his hands and 1/2 bowed.

"Take care. I wont be seeing you again probably. Good luck."

Big rainstorm all night clears in time for A.M. bowing.