Toni Morrison, the Nobel Prize-winning writer, teacher, and all around amazing human being passed away on August 5. She is easily one of my favorite authors. Her books are difficult and thorny, and play constantly with the dichotomy of beauty and ugliness (and the way beauty is often a very part of ugliness and vice-versa). Anyhow, I was reading a retrospective article today which mentioned the following quote from Ms. Morrison:
Obviously Ms. Morrison was not speaking of the Buddhist idea of "freedom", and in context was speaking to those who had received a formal education and the power that often comes with it. But one of the things I've always loved about her is that she often also spoke to a larger "spiritual" point while speaking of the practical. I'd like to think this is one of those instances.
If you are free, you need to free somebody else. This has just been resonating with me all day. When we chant the four vows, we vow to free all sentient beings. As with many things in Zen, there is an absolute and relative side to this vow. In the absolute sense, when there is difference without separateness, freeing ourselves IS freeing all beings. Clarifying the nature of our existence allows us to experience the awakened Buddha Nature that has always been. Every being you meet is Buddha. But in the relative sense, we live in a world filled with greed, hatred, and ignorance, so how do we "free others"? This is a deeply personal question, but I think for many of us, we opt for simple kindness and gratitude (and #lending-a-hand wherever possible).
For this foolish person, there is a lived experience of just knowing that every being is expressing the great mystery fully and completely without ever meaning to. I think every being we meet is 'secretly' Buddha, but they just do not know it because of their suffering. In this sense, "freeing" beings becomes like falling off a log (or as an ancient Buddha said - "like a sleeper turning to grasp the pillow").
But how does this manifest for you personally? You are a Bodhisattva, and you are "free" today (really!). How can you "free" somebody else? Only you can answer, and it is the work of the rest of this life (and many future lives if you believe as such).
Gassho,
Sekishi
#sat #lah
I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.
If you are free, you need to free somebody else. This has just been resonating with me all day. When we chant the four vows, we vow to free all sentient beings. As with many things in Zen, there is an absolute and relative side to this vow. In the absolute sense, when there is difference without separateness, freeing ourselves IS freeing all beings. Clarifying the nature of our existence allows us to experience the awakened Buddha Nature that has always been. Every being you meet is Buddha. But in the relative sense, we live in a world filled with greed, hatred, and ignorance, so how do we "free others"? This is a deeply personal question, but I think for many of us, we opt for simple kindness and gratitude (and #lending-a-hand wherever possible).
For this foolish person, there is a lived experience of just knowing that every being is expressing the great mystery fully and completely without ever meaning to. I think every being we meet is 'secretly' Buddha, but they just do not know it because of their suffering. In this sense, "freeing" beings becomes like falling off a log (or as an ancient Buddha said - "like a sleeper turning to grasp the pillow").
But how does this manifest for you personally? You are a Bodhisattva, and you are "free" today (really!). How can you "free" somebody else? Only you can answer, and it is the work of the rest of this life (and many future lives if you believe as such).
Gassho,
Sekishi
#sat #lah
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