WW Apr-Jun 2020 Singlpgs.Indd
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Water Wheel Being one with all Buddhas, I turn the water wheel of compassion. — Gate of Sweet Nectar The Buddha’s DNA by Wendy Egyoku Nakao I was looking at Iwasaki Tsuneo’s Heart Sutra painting in which he renders the kanji char- acters in the form of the DNA double helix. Reading Paula Arai’s accompanying text stopped me in my tracks. She writes: “With DNA being central to a code for life and the Heart Sutra a powerful code to enlightenment, Iwasaki proclaims that the code of en- lightening wisdom sung in the scripture is embedded in the very code of life, embodied in every living cell. His Heart Sutra DNA denotes the biological dimension of interbeing Reverends Egyoku and Duncan Ryuken Williams offer paper as it affi rms that the essence of enlightened wisdom is a cranes at the Higashi Honganji altar in memory of those killed by cellular reality and that the transmission of wisdom is a racial violence at a Tsuru for Solidarity event. fundamental life activity. We are encoded with the Bud- dha’s DNA.”1 coronavirus, is loose upon the entire world. In order to not Have you ever encountered something that resonated become infected, you must wear a face covering and keep so deeply that you were stopped in your tracks? You stood at least six feet physical distance from other human beings. still at the very spot you were when your entire being reg- Awareness of the breath has taken on a whole new dimen- istered a profound recognition of something you had not sion. Los Angeles scientist Lucy Jones says that the key fully known before. This resonance connects to a wisdom to not becoming infected with the coronavirus is, “Don’t that is already deeply imprinted in your being. As Arai says, share your air.” Roshi Bernie would often point out that you are “encoded with the Buddha’s DNA.” we are all breathing the same air. After all, there is no air boundary. Now air has become a danger zone, even more This felt sense of being stopped—of being claimed by alarming than air pollution, because you and I can actually silence and stillness—is well known to Zen practitioners. directly sicken someone else by “sharing our air.” You train yourself to shift to this quiet, not-knowing place (Continued on page 2) through which the very breath of life fl ows unhindered. You meet whatever you are encountering—however diffi - cult or challenging it may be—from this felt sense of slow- INSIDE THIS ISSUE ing down, stopping in stillness and quiet. You can actually 4 "In the midst of all activity, raise feel the breath fl owing in and fl owing out through your the Bodhi Mind" by Rev. Tom nose, your feet, through every pore of the body. Breathing Dharma-Joy Reichert is life—breathing enlivens the Buddha’s DNA. 5 We Are the Fabric of Bodhgaya by Sacha Greenfi eld The pandemic is such a moment of stopping, not just 6-7 ZCLA Statement of Solidarity individually, but also collectively. COVID-19, an airborne 8-9 ZOOM: The New Way to Practice 10 Innovation and Transformation by 1 Paula Arai, Painting Enlightenment: Having Visions of the Heart Sensei Mark Shogen Bloodgood Sutra, The Buddhist Art of Iwasaki Tsuneo. Shambhala, 2019, p.37. Zen Center of Los Angeles APR / MAY / JUN 2020 Great Dragon Mountain / Buddha Essence Temple 2581 Buddhist Era Vol. 20 No. 2 BUDDHA THE BUDDHA'S DNA (Continued from page 1) wired part of yourself that is driven to create an “other?” The part that all too willingly ignores the suffering of How are you breathing right now? Breathing is life fellow human beings? The part that wants only to protect itself—everything breathes. When George Floyd begged your own well-being at the expense of others’ well-being? for his life, he called out for his mother to save him from the full body weight of a knee on this neck and pleaded, Ground yourself in the Buddha’s DNA and acti- “I can’t breathe.” When you watched the cellphone video vate it. Buddha’s DNA is something that every person is of the life force being callously and nonchalantly squeezed completely endowed with. This means that, fundamentally out of George Floyd in eight minutes and forty-six sec- speaking, every person, without exception, is of equal onds, what stopped for you? What awakened within you? value. It is said that when the Buddha was born, he took What stirred in the very depths of your being? seven steps, pointed to the heavens with his right hand and to the ground with his left and declared, “Below the In the moment of his dying, all the countless life forces heavens and above the earth, the life force has been awak- of Black human beings who have ever pleaded “I can’t ened.” The meaning of this proclamation is profound: breathe,” catalyzed in the cries of George Floyd. All the every person is of equal value to all other persons. countless human beings who continue to be murdered for the color of their skin converged in the cries of George The pandemic and the murder of George Floyd— Floyd. What catalyzed within you—viscerally in your guts and of countless Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and People and bones—in that moment of witnessing the murder of of Color—reveal the deeply ingrained belief that some George Floyd? people are worth more than others. Awakening is an arrow shot deep into this entrenched belief and reveals it as fun- damentally false. And yet, it is thoroughly stamped upon “Every human being is of equal value.” your spirit, on your heart, and on your mind. It is deeply stamped upon the pernicious policies of the government Awakening has three important aspects. One aspect is and public institutions, upon the press and its narratives, the emptiness of the DNA itself—the life-force empty of upon those who create and carry out public policy. It is any fi xity, of any conditions. It is so fl uid that it can mani- stamped deeply into the cells of your being. For me, noth- fest as an eager child, a loving parent, or a cruel White man ing exemplifi es this more clearly than the callous noncha- arrogantly snuffi ng out a Black man’s life for all the world lance of George Floyd’s murderer’s hands placed casually to witness. Each person, though imprinted with Buddha's in the pockets of his police uniform while he puts the full DNA, is unique, each vastly complex and nuanced within weight of his knee on George Floyd's neck. The murderer the web of the dynamic interconnected relationships of carries out his action deliberately and intentionally because our lives, the One Body reality. he believes that George Floyd’s life is not worth saving. The second aspect of awakening is exemplifi ed by the How about you? Buddha’s DNA has no preference bodhisattva, the great archetypal being who clearly sees the and has nothing to do with who you like or dislike. But as empty essence of the life force manifesting in an infi nitely a person you may act as if your preferences matter, and vast array of forms. The bodhisattva sees that human be- therefore you may accept and defend systems of oppres- ings are shrouded in ignorance of their Buddha DNA and, sion based on the idea that not everyone is of equal value. therefore, works tirelessly to wake you up to your Buddha Or, at the very least, you do nothing to challenge and DNA and to relieve the suffering and pain caused by this change this way of living. The juxtaposition of pandemic ignorance. The third aspect of awakening is how you your- and the murder of George Floyd, which you have directly self awaken from this ignorance, claim your endowment witnessed, demands that you activate your Buddha DNA. of Buddha’s DNA, and actively put your life force to good use for the benefi t of others. George Floyd, a bodhisattva in death, may, indeed have “changed the world,” as his young daughter pro- How do you live the One Body reality? Can you state claimed. Now, it’s time to do your part and activate your out loud, with great conviction and determination, that, Buddha DNA. You are already encoded, so raise an “I want to activate the Buddha DNA that I am encoded unshakeable conviction that everyone, without exception, with. I want to know wrongs when I see them; to know is equally entitled to breathe. What are you doing to ensure the invisible caste system that drives our country; to know that this is so? Do your actions speak to the fact that every the disease of racism when I meet it in myself, and to person is of equal worth? Your actions will determine speak out when I see it in others; to recognize the systemic whether this is a moment of Great Awakening. May it be so. oppression which I habitually participate in without being aware of it?” How can you be awake and aware of the triggers within yourself whenever you encounter that hard- Roshi Egyoku is the Head Teacher and Abbot Emeritus of ZCLA. -2- SANGHA On Becoming a Dharma Holder During the months of May and June, Roshi Egyoku empowered four Each of us understand struggles of gain and loss, i.e., of her senior students as Dharma Holders: Myoho, Jitsujo, Kaigen, competition, comparison, approval, and condemnation.