How Will We Respond?

Lat night, as I sleep, my mind kept returning to something my teacher, Genjo Marinello Osho has said. It was the words, "Clay Buddha's cannot pass through water." It became something of a mantra, within my mind.

This morning as I sat in Zazen, I clearly remembered a specific part of the teisho, "Three Turning Words," given by Genjo Osho. He had said, "We must dissolve completely and yet we are so attached to our ideas... the practice... the form or Mu... or Buddha... or Dharma... or Tao... or [the notion] our own effort will save us... or our own idea of self. We cling to it so tenaciously.

How can I save myself? you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't. you can't save personality. you can't save this body. you can't save your conceptualization of Tao or Dharma or Buddha nature or God or Spirit or ground of Being. Nothing can save us. One of the first things that we realize when we sit is that we are just clay Buddha's. And if we can really realize that completely, then the divine light illuminates Heaven and Earth. That's It! All done! Dissolve completely! The entire instruction manual can be summarized as dissolve completely! Let it all go! Then we're free to make use of each breath, each step, each action... Whole heartedly, with an unfeaful caring attitude, without concern for right or wrong or better or worse future or past... all we have to do is dissolve completely."

In the past, I found myself, always seeking out the right or perfect answer to situations. It was all over my life. It was with my Zen practice... my family... my work... friends... After a time, I realized that there wasn't any so-called "perfect" or "grand" answers. There's just been being propelled forward by a motivation and intention. There is just unifying and being fully engaged in the moment.

I've been encouraged by my teacher to make everything a source of teaching and learning. To do that, I have to be able to drop and dissolve the "baggage," that lives within my mind. That can be extremely tough.

How will I handle and respond to requests, throughout the day? How will I respond when the phone rings? How will I respond when I'm feeling the frustration? How will I respond when I feel like my time is being wasted? How will I communicate, when it seems like people aren't listening? How will I respond when I'm cut-off in traffic or someone swipes my parking space? How will I respond when I look into the faces of my kids, knowing on one clear and distinct level that someday my life will end and I will be separated from knowing them as I know them now?

If we untie a balloon filled with air, it will naturally release and empty. If we remove the cap from a bottle of water and turn it upside down, it will naturally drain, completely. If we put a clay Buddha is a pool or water, it will naturally dissolve, leaving no trace of the prior form. If we sit in Zazen, overtime the ego will dissipate like fog evaporates under the light and temperature of the sunlight. And that's the moment we are fully being the so-called, "Truth."

When we reach that moment, will we need a right answer then? When we reach the point of dissolving, how will we respond to situations that baffle us? If we practice the Way of Zen, we can surely know.

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
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