Organ Mountain Zen



Monday, July 27, 2009

To Toe or Not to Toe

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

This past weekend just before it rained, I walked our property line at the Refuge. The air was delicious climbing the mountain side through alligator pine and oak. Small blue, yellow, and occasional orange flowers were there under the yarrow and would peak out once in awhile. I tripped over a fallen branch hidden in the grass. Dharmas are everywhere.



In Case 23, Think Neither Good, Nor Not-Good, we read the story of the Sixth Patriarch and his being chased down for the Dharma. "Think neither good nor not-good at this very moment, what is your true nature?" asks Hui Neng of Myo.

We often say everything changes and believe this "everything changes" to be apart from 'everything changes.' My bleeding toe, once whole, is dharma. My whole toe is dharma. Tripping is dharma. What is my true nature?

Both process and non-process are empty. Creator and creation are one: suchness and thusness, teaches Senzaki, on this point (Senzaki, Nyogen, Eloquent Silence, pp.119-120). Both are neither good or not-good. Both are.

Whole toe,
bleeding toe:
stars falling
from the sky
do not.

Be well.

1 comment:

  1. My mother used to yell "Put your shoes on!" at us kids. We never listened. My sister cut her foot open on a piece of broken glass one day. After that, shoes were often seen flying through the air. It proved wise to duck and miss one of those projectiles.
    Hope your toe feels better.
    Cheers,
    ed

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