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Heng Sure
March 28, 1978
"...up to and including accomplishing Great enlightenment beneath the Bodhi Tree."
Sheer cliffs, barbed-wire on the precipice, poison oak beneath the scrub oak and manzanita. We retreat to the Plymouth at sunset, meditate until sutra study time. Through the dust-covered window I caught "the flash of green" as the sun disc vanished below the waves.
The Buddha meditated on a heap of straw by the riverbank; the Bodhi tree has a fat, broad trunk and heart-shaped leaves that rattle in the breeze. After 49 days of still contemplation, the Buddha had overcome hallucinations, resisted temptations by demon-women, subdued the myriad states of mind and body. He looked up, saw a bright star, and his mind opened to great enlightenment. He knew everything. He would never again undergo rebirth.
Heng Ch'au
Tuesday
March 28, 1978
"I'm lost but really Movin'"
Cars and campers roar by at incredible speeds, losing control on curves. The frenetic pace of the world gets played out on the highway. Twenty-four hours day, non-stop, wheels spin and squeal and pound the asphalt outside as we people spin and pound our minds inside.
Bowing slows us down to a natural speed. We have learned wherever we go we are still in the same place, our mind. Fast or slow, LA freeways or in pinewoods, we never leave the world of our own minds.
A station wagon bulging with suitcases and screaming kids speeds by. On the bumper sticker it says, "I'm lost but I'm really Movin'"
"Boy, there's a lot more to that than there seems," says a park ranger who stopped to talk. "That bumper sticker says a lot. Running here and there, never finding out who you are or where you're going. We are all lost."
"All beings are on the dangerous road of birth and death; for example, it is just like a blind person who has no guide and mistakes a dead end road for a road with an exit. He enters a demonic realm where he is captured by bandits. He goes along with the demon's mind and abandons the Buddha's will. I should pull him out of this danger And difficulty and cause him to dwell In the fearless city of all-wisdom." -- Avatamsaka sutra Ten grounds chapter
Bicycles, cars, motorcycles, planes, trains, and roller skates, whiz and spin us into a thousand difficult directions, but the big wheel doesn't stop. We ride our little wheels in circles on the big wheel. Like the song says,
"Little wheels spin and spin, While the big wheel turns around and 'round."
A bicyclist stops to offer us water from his canteen. Hot day, hits the spot. I look down and notice his wheels have stopped, rare sight on this road. He stopped to given and ask about Buddhism. We are all trying to stop our own little wheels from driving us crazy, and get off the grinding big wheel. This is what the Buddha teaches to all bodhisattvas.
"Smashing completely all existence, the wheel of birth and death, Turning the pure wonderful dharma wheel, unattached in all the world, He teaches this to all bodhisattvas!" -- Avatamsaka sutra