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Heng Sure
March 29,1981
"... manifesting all types of spiritual power ..."
How broad is the mind? The mind contains everything, but we forget.
We forget the first shock of new experiences. We take for granted what only yesterday was inconceivable. The towns we pass through display spiritual powers at night. Every home lights a dim gray or pastel rainbow lamp; we see the shadows through the windows as we make camp like nomads on the road outside. The entire country joins in a celebration of invisible psychic magic. A national family comes together to experience the new religion of the world called "watching TV". Who says it's not psychic powers at work? Are the dancers and cowboys and newsmen and halfbacks inside that little box? Why do they wear white and grey faces on the old TV's, and flesh-colored faces on the new sets? Where do they go when the show is over? After seeing a movie, primitive peoples in New Guinea ran up and looked for the actors behind th screen. Finding no people, they concluded there were magical spirits in the "little black box."
My grandparents had no television. They had no notion that such a thing could be. Now everyone accepts TV as a part of life. The mind adapts very quickly.
Heng Ch'au
Wednesday
March 29, 1978
Bowing in cold rain. Tall fir and pines line the steep, rocky, Big Sur slopes that plunge straight down into the sea. Quiet,grey outside, lots of time and room to explore inside.
During our recitation of Gwan yin's name yesterday, I had an experience that the asphalt, grass, trees and stars, were our ancestors. The air, water, wind, and earth were the children to come, and yet there was no today, yesterday, or tomorrow. The entire substance of the universe wa one, without beginning or end, loss or addition. One boundless, ageless body where the many were the one, and the one was the many.
"Deep and wide and interfused, Vast and great and totally complete." -- Avatamsaka preface
It rocked me for a second, maybe because I couldn't fine a "me" in this picture. But something in the chanting, "Namo Gwan Shr Yin Pu Sa, Namo Gwan Shr Yin Pu Sa," made everything okay and turned my fear into a big smile.
"Messy Room"
Someone watching us clean up the car after lunch comments, "It must give you a certain amount of satisfaction to have everything neat and in it place."
I remembered our first night in LA Heng Sure and I shared a small ion the back of he temple. The master looked in after mooring recitation to see a veritable pig sty. Our clothes, bags and belongings were scattered and draped wherever they landed as we threw them.
"Keep your room clean and orderly," said the master. "A clean way place can cause someone to bring forth the mind for Bodhi."
Later in the Master's room, I noticed how peaceful and clear I felt. I observed the master had few possessions lying about. The room was orderly and simple, not clustered. There was a sense of expansiveness and room to receive people.
Why would a teacher bother with such a seemingly trivial matter as a disciple's messy room?
"Deal with the hard while it is
still easy.
With the great while it is still
Small."
-- Lao Tzu
Small habits and faults soon snowball into major character flaws. A sloppy room or appearance conceals a scattered mind. Left uncorrected while small and close at hand, this messy mind grows to become a major obstruction to one's karma in the way. It's an outflow. One's energy dribbles away into a thousand loose ends of a disorganized mind is unable to be still and quiet. To be successful in cultivating the way requires a fine and subtle maneuvering in the realm of cause and effect. Every step must be right. Each act, word and thought, cannot be a fraction off the mark. So there's a saying in Buddhism,
"Bodhisattvas fear causes, not results."
The result is included in the cause. The fruit is determined by the seed. Bodhisattvas know that what happens to them comes from the karma they create, so they tread with great care and do not overlook the smallest affair.
"Everything great must be dealt with while it is still small. Therefore, the sage never has to deal With the great; and so achieves Greatness." -- Lao Tzu
Another lesson: I'm greedy. I always need less than I want. I always want more than I need. Too much n brings regret later. Fear of too little brings worry before. Desire is a lot of suffering. The sutra says,
"With few desires know contentment."