The Zen Practitioner’s Journal Earth Medicine • Summer 2016 Mark Freeth MOUNTAIN RECORD (ISSN #0896-8942) is published quarterly by Dharma Communications. Periodicals Postage Paid at Mt. Tremper, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send address changes to MOUNTAIN RECORD, P.O. Box 156, Mt. Tremper, NY 12457-0156. All material Copyright © 2016 by Dharma Com mu ni ca tions, Inc., unless otherwise specified. Printed in the U.S.A. The articles included and the opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors, who are solely re spon si ble for their contents. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions, positions or teachings of Zen Mountain Mon as tery or the Mountains and Rivers Order. Cover image © by Niclas Rhein To arouse the aspiration for enlightenment is to pick up a blade of grass and manifest a buddha image, to take up a rootless tree and create a sutra. —— Eihei Dogen Vol. 34 No . 4 Summer 2016 Earth Medicine 4 Build a True Sanctuary, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei How do we take care of this great earth and every thing? 13 A Daring Compassion, Suzanne Taikyo Gilman Editorial 14 A Great Love, Thanissara Spiritual practice helps us to meet reality—including climate change—not hide from it. 24 The Thought of Enlightenment, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Bodhicitta—the wish to attain realization for the benefit of all beings. 28 Only Justice Can Stop a Curse, Alice Walker Turning poison into medicine through activism and a willingness to change. 34 Orchard Revival, Linda Shinji Hoffman Healing the earth where you live, with your hands, mind, and your whole body. 43 Life on Mars, poems, Tracy K. Smith 46 An American Land Ethic, N. Scott Momaday Know the land, your home, and get to know those who kept it sacred for you. 54 Icebergs and Shadows, Rebecca Solnit The real economy of nurturance and good is the one that can save us. 64 The Work of This Moment, Toni Packer Simple instructions to notice and live in accord with the moment. 66 The Most Amazing Challenge, Paul Hawken You are uniquely qualified, and the world is hiring. 72 Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer The gift economy is not just a dream—we are giving and receiving gifts all the time. 80 Arousing the Aspiration for the Unsurpassable, Eihei Dogen Scoop up valley water, or hold up emptiness, to build a stupa and create a buddha image. 88 Mountains and Rivers Order News News and Happenings, Earth Initiative, Sangha Reflections, Reviews, Affiliate Directory 113 Resources and Services Tormod Ulsberg Build a True Sanctuary Dharma Discourse by Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei Book of Serenity, Case 4 The World-Honored One Points to the Ground Introduction As soon as a single mote of dust arises, the whole earth is contained therein; with a single horse and a single lance, the land’s extended. Who is this person who can be master in any place and meet the source in everything? Case As the World-Honored One was walking with the congregation, he pointed to the ground with his finger and said, “This spot is good to build a sanctuary.” Indra, Emperor of the gods, took a blade of grass, stuck it in the ground, and said, “The sanctuary is built.” The World-Honored One smiled. 4 Verse The boundless spring on the hundred plants; Picking up what comes to hand, he uses it knowingly. The sixteen-foot-tall golden body, a collection of virtuous qualities Casually leads him by the hand into the red dust; Able to be master in the dusts, From outside creation, a guest shows up. Everywhere life is sufficient in its way— No matter if one is not as clever as others. 5 totaledcow his spot is good to build a sanctuary. Indra takes a blade of grass, sticks it T in the ground and says, “The sanc- tuary is built.” I’ve always liked this koan because there is something so clear and direct about it, something so good, though we shouldn’t underestimate its depth. In the poem, Hongzhi says “Everywhere life is sufficient in its way.” As we reflect on our world today and take in all the suf- fering around us, Hongzhi’s comment may sound like an expression of being unaware or indifferent. After all, how could anyone experience the world nowadays as being “sufficient”? But actually, what we see around us now—the intolerance, conflict, shortages of food and water—was true in Hongzhi’s time as well. It’s important to appreciate that these ancient masters lived in a real time and place and con- fronted great challenges in their societies. It was from within those challenging times that they practiced and realized the Way. Hongzhi’s words, “Life is sufficient in its way,” come from a place of enlightenment, although ordinary eyes would have per- ceived the world he lived in as insufficient, just as we do today. When we see injustice or suffering, we reject it. We see it as wrong, as something that should not be, and there is truth to that. Injustice and suffering should not be perpetuated or condoned. Spiritual prac- tice begins in the moment we no longer accept samsara; in other words, when we no longer accept our suffering and resolve to free ourselves from it. Our life is governed faith that there is another way. But what by forces we don’t recognize, shaped by is that way? To begin, we have to accept cycles that are invisible to us. And as long everything that seems unacceptable, inside as we are blind to them, we will never be and outside, so that we can meet it on the free of them. Waking up begins within the ground of reality. If we don’t accept it, then 6 Vic Damoses we can’t meet it, and this distance means awareness. There is no other door. Every we cannot encounter it, let alone examine other door is fantasy. and realize it. The Buddha taught that the In this koan, the Buddha says, “This spot only path that can bring us to liberation is good to build a sanctuary.” A sanctuary is is in this very moment. This place. This defined as “the innermost part of a temple.” 7 Adam Cohn So what does that mean? What is a temple? don’t necessarily think of as being alive—a What is the innermost chamber? What stone, a cloud, a stream—what is it that kind of place offers such refuge? Where do is speaking to us? What is hearing this we find it? Indra takes up a blade of grass within us? Dogen says that between ordi- and sticks it into the ground, saying, “The nary beings and enlightened beings there sanctuary is built.” In the pointer, it says, is a subtle communication—not through “As soon as a single mote of dust arises, the words and not through conveying meaning. whole earth is contained therein.” A speck Neither is it a secret message. But some- of dust is tiny; the whole earth is huge. How thing is being communicated. What kind can the earth be contained in a speck of of realm is this? Zazen is a doorway into dust? When we look with our eyes, when we this subtle communication, with all things, measure and assess with our usual tools, it is with the entire universe. Yet this kind of not possible. Clearly, the Buddha and Indra communication can be heard most deeply are not measuring, but are seeing things when things have been liberated of their with the Dharma eye, the penetrating eye thingness. of wisdom. Each and every thing is bound- “As soon as a single mote of dust aris- less, measureless self-nature appearing as es, the whole earth is contained.” Here, sound and form. Its form does not restrict the ‘whole earth’ appears as confused and its vastness; its vastness is in perfect accord at odds when the mind is cloudy, and with its form. We look up and see the sky the cloudiness appears to be in the dust. overhead, but how large is this sky? Enlightenment is to illuminate what we The verse says, “The boundless spring call dust, and realize each speck of dust is on the hundred plants.” This is the spring clear and bright. Now, within a single mote of enlightenment, the time of liberation, of dust, no dust. Where is the earth to be the season of no suffering, of no boundaries found then? “Because the world is not a in the mind. Here, everything is alive. But world,” the Buddha said, “we call it the what is aliveness? What do we see as hav- world.” When the self of ‘self and other’ ing life? Many of us might think of life as have been forgotten – freed of all existence being sacred, yet how do we actually relate and non-existence, then all things are seen to, interact with life? Often, not very well. as they are, radiant, vast and complete. Just think of how human beings treat one Hongzhi says, “With a single horse and another, how we treat our non-human crea- a single lance the land is extended.” He uses tures. So just because we believe something an image of his time—horse and lance—to is alive does not ensure we will take care of convey how large it is, as in extending it. Now, think about what this means for the nation through military conquest. For things that we don’t see as alive.