Case 53 never ends, yet we turn to Case 54 ... Ungan's Great Compassionate One ...
Whenever I offer a talk about Kannon, I like to say that -our- human hands and eyes ... yours and mine ... are the hands and eyes of Kannon. When we act gently, reaching out to help our fellow sentient beings we see in need, our reaching is Kannon's hands brought to life. We bring a drop of Compassion into this world, making Kannon real. (Likewise, when our hands pick up a weapon in anger or clutch with greed, one might say that we embody evil, bringing a drop more ugliness into the world, we make that real).
But perhaps the twist in this Koan regarding "all over the body hands and eyes" and "throughout the body are hands and eyes" touches on another kind of "Compassion" that fills this universe, a kind of "Big C" Compassion which transcends and holds both small human judgments of "compassion and ugliness" and all human doings. It is as the Big "P" Peace I sometimes mention, which holds all worldly human mental categories of "peace" and "war", and all the countless broken pieces of life both round and sharp. It is also something like the Big "G" Gratitude I sometimes mention, both for the events and people in life that we are grateful for and those we are not!
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: gratitude & Great Gratitude
This is a kind of Compassion to rescue the "sentient beings" which rescues the same in part by experiencing that there were never ever any separate "sentient beings" in need of rescue from that start, nothing in need of doing or adding!
As the Preface sings, nothing in the ten directions (everyplace) to call "obstructed", all bright light, the world functioning marvelously. (I am not so crazy about the translators use of "supernatural" here ... and looking at the Chinese Kanji 一切時妙用神通, I would prefer something like "sacred, miraculous powers" although a literal translation is "supernatural". It is much as the appreciatory verse sings, "spring follows the rules ... the moon traverses the sky")
But at the same time, both kinds of Compassion and compassion are necessary in our Buddhist Practice because, dream "sentient beings" or not, there are dream hungry mouths to feed and sick patients to be ministered too. Our doing so should be as natural as reaching for a pillow in our sleep, reaching out to comfort a crying child. Both aspects of Compassion/compassion must be realized and made real in our Practice.
Suggested Question: How can and do we realize these hands and eyes of Kannon?
Gassho, J
SatToday
Whenever I offer a talk about Kannon, I like to say that -our- human hands and eyes ... yours and mine ... are the hands and eyes of Kannon. When we act gently, reaching out to help our fellow sentient beings we see in need, our reaching is Kannon's hands brought to life. We bring a drop of Compassion into this world, making Kannon real. (Likewise, when our hands pick up a weapon in anger or clutch with greed, one might say that we embody evil, bringing a drop more ugliness into the world, we make that real).
But perhaps the twist in this Koan regarding "all over the body hands and eyes" and "throughout the body are hands and eyes" touches on another kind of "Compassion" that fills this universe, a kind of "Big C" Compassion which transcends and holds both small human judgments of "compassion and ugliness" and all human doings. It is as the Big "P" Peace I sometimes mention, which holds all worldly human mental categories of "peace" and "war", and all the countless broken pieces of life both round and sharp. It is also something like the Big "G" Gratitude I sometimes mention, both for the events and people in life that we are grateful for and those we are not!
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: gratitude & Great Gratitude
This is a kind of Compassion to rescue the "sentient beings" which rescues the same in part by experiencing that there were never ever any separate "sentient beings" in need of rescue from that start, nothing in need of doing or adding!
As the Preface sings, nothing in the ten directions (everyplace) to call "obstructed", all bright light, the world functioning marvelously. (I am not so crazy about the translators use of "supernatural" here ... and looking at the Chinese Kanji 一切時妙用神通, I would prefer something like "sacred, miraculous powers" although a literal translation is "supernatural". It is much as the appreciatory verse sings, "spring follows the rules ... the moon traverses the sky")But at the same time, both kinds of Compassion and compassion are necessary in our Buddhist Practice because, dream "sentient beings" or not, there are dream hungry mouths to feed and sick patients to be ministered too. Our doing so should be as natural as reaching for a pillow in our sleep, reaching out to comfort a crying child. Both aspects of Compassion/compassion must be realized and made real in our Practice.
Suggested Question: How can and do we realize these hands and eyes of Kannon?
Gassho, J
SatToday
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