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"IN NAME ONLY"
Bowing gradually opens and reveals the natural, middle way. Study and practice mutually respond. It's a whole different world bowing throughout it at less than 1 mile per day. Or is it us whom ht bowing changes and not the world at all?
The Avatamsaka says the nature of all is basically still and empty. In the verses of praise in the Shyama (heaven) palace chapter, forest of strength bodhisattva receives the Buddha's awesome power and contemplates everywhere. He sees that all living beings, the five Skandhas, and all karma "has the mind (thoughts) as its basics." Yet, the things of the mind are just like illusions, the world around us is the same. So he says,
"What then is the world? What is not the world? World and non-world are merely Different names. The dharmas of the three periods Of time and five Skandhas, When named, bring the world into being. When they are extinguished the World is gone. In this way they are just false Names." -- Avatamsaka sutra, Chapter 20
On this trip we have learned that the "world" is made from your minds. Within seconds it can totally change according to how we change. Everything we see is a projection, a filtered selection of our thoughts and feelings. A bicyclist rolls to a stop and says,
"I envy you. You get to see and enter worlds most of us never knew existed. What a great way to see the world!"
What would we see if the mad chattering, busy mind stopped and entered perfect stillness? No more filter, no more projection, no inside or outside, no boundaries at all? When all the false names are extinguished and the world is gone, what is that experience? The sutras say just that is enlightenment.
"When the mad mind stops,
the very stopping is Bodhi."
-- Shurangama sutra
"Which world?"
"Yes, but why do you leave the world? I mean, you leave home and just withdraw totally from the world, right?" asks someone.
Wrong. A monastery is not a place to withdraw from the world. The monastery is a place to transcend the world. It's a place to deeply enter your true nature and put down the false.
Besides, which world do we leave? There are millions of countless numbers of worlds. The avatamsaka says there are,
"Lands in variety beyond thought,
Worlds without limit."
Each person's world is different according to his thoughts and karma. In thought after thought, life after life we are constantly leaving and entering worlds, birth, old age, sickness and death are worlds. The ten realms from hells, animals, and ghosts up to heavens, bodhisattvas and Buddhas, are all distinct and different worlds. There is the triple world of desire, form and formlessness. The past, present and future are worlds. Some people live in the past; others in the future. There is an Indian tribe, which has no past or future tense in their language. They only live in the present.
All worlds are made from the mind. Within a single thought one world is created and another left behind. For example, crying, we fall into a dark room (world); laughing, we enter a young world. The world isn't fixed. There isn't just one world.
We eat, sleep and wear clothes, so we are in this "world." This world is very dangerous and sticky. It's hard to leave even when you want to. Who of us is truly free to come and go at ease through the world? When we die which world will we be reborn in? Who of us can say?
When monks and nuns arise in the morning they silently recite this verse s they leave thier room,
"As I leave my room I vow that all liv- ing beings will deeply enter the Buddha's Wisdom and eternally transcend the trip- le world." -- Vinaya for Daily Use.
We don't wish to leave the world and get away from people. We wish that all living beings forever transcend the world of suffering and together enter the real world.