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Heng Sure
March 21st, 1978
"Following all Buddhas in study," begins with filial respect to parents. There were several senior citizens' homes in my neighborhood. What somber, unhappy places they were. Sometimes we'd chase a football onto their lawn; we'd see a pale, grey-haired head peek at us fro, behind a Venetian blind. Otherwise, the homes were as still as tombs.
Few of my friends had grandparents at home, yet visits with the old folks on Christmas and thanksgiving always gave delight.
This evening at sunset I scrambled down long, steep, gravel ramp to do standing meditation on the beach. Our Plymouth sat high on the cliff above. Facing west I saw a towering statue; a stone figure at tide's edge. It looked like a bearded old fisherman leaning back in a rocking chair, smoking a pipe. The slanting sun gave him an uncanny reality. He looked at peace, at home-a silent, venerable elder. How incomplete our lives would be without old people.
"Be respectful. Cultivate the way with diligence-this is filiality. If you don't cultivate, you have no way to repay your parents. Don't do evil and don't have false thoughts. In this way you are being a good child and your parents invisibly receive a response with the way. In general, faithful believers in the Buddha dharma must be filial. Being filial to one's parents is being filial towards the Buddha.' -- Master Hua
"Contemplating the Sea"
Heng Ch'au
Tuesday
March 21, 1978
Reflection II: I never went slow enough to experience the ocean's tides. Twice daily the high and low tide cycle repeats itself. Yet within this set rhythm there is continual change. No two tides are exactly the same. They change a little everyday, as does the constantly eroding and shifting shore they wash against. We live in a mystery. We can feel it, but never fathom it. Everything is like this-planets, galaxies, our lives. We only see the small and close at hand, an eye-blink glimpse of he boundless wonders within the dharma realm.
We are like children trying to hold the sea in a Dixie cup. Beyond our limited senses and small minds are worlds of mysteries and unimaginable universes. We lose sight of them, but we never forget. Some part in each of us is drawn to the sea and stars. We gaze at them in a silent wordless recognition of yet another world beyond and another realm within. We all contemplate the sea. The sea of just our minds.
"Deeply enter the sutra store And have wisdom like the sea."
The Avatamsaka sutra is the record of all this measureless worlds within worlds that are beyond our ordinary senses, but always in the haunt of our souls. The sutra is our autobiography, family album, and cosmic history book all rolled into one. It includes all time, all space, and all dimensions. It is,
"Deep and wide and interfused, Vast and great and totally complete." -- Avatamsaka sutra-preface
Last night I had to stop reading the Avatamsaka. I couldn't physically and mentally absorb it all. It was imply too rich and profound.
In the sutra, the pure youth Sudhana (good wealth bodhisattva) journeys to the south in his search for spiritual advisors. He comes to a country called gate of the sea and meets the Bhikshu named sea cloud. Good wealth bows to him and circumambulates respectfully. Then with folded hands he sincerely requests instruction.
Bhikshu consents and says,
"Good man, I have dwelt in this country called gate of he sea for twelve years. I have always regarded the sea as my state. That is,
I contemplate how the sea is vast, great and measureless. I contemplate how the ocean is extremely deep and hard to fathom. I contemplate how the sea grows pro- gressively more vast and deep. I contemplate how the ocean is uniquely And wonderfully adorned with limitless Treasures. I contemplate how the sea collects he Measureless rivers. I contemplate how the colors of the Ocean's water are different and in- Conceivable. I contemplate hope the sea is the home Of measureless living beings. I contemplate how the ocean can accept And hold all kinds of big-bodied Creatures. I contemplate how the ocean can hold All the water that rains from the great Clouds. I contemplate how the sea neither in- Creases nor diminishes." -- Avatamsaka Sutra "Entering the Dharma Realm" Chapter 39
The Avatamsaka and our minds are basically the same. The sutra reflects and reveals the sea of wisdom within our minds the way a light shining on a crystal jewel reveals its deep brilliance and dazzling facets. The "Sea" in the sutra us the self-nature, the awakened mind. It is our original home and natural state. When we contemplate he sea we are, in a place past words and thought, contemplating the source of our own minds: the Buddha's wisdom.
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