A Newborn Baby

“A newborn baby...is it born with all six consciousnesses.”

My first art teacher said, “A work of art is finished when none of the original idea remains.” I think it is the same when working with a koan. Initially I was thinking of a new born baby, not realizing that was me, being reborn over and over again. And then I was hit over the head with “no consciousnesses” in the Heart Sutra. Finally I remembered a line in “Hsin Hsin Ming”: “Don't get tangled in the world, don't lose yourself in emptiness...”

No Beard

“Why has the Western Barbarian no beard?”

How am I when the other is wrong? Yesterday someone was driving the wrong way on a one-way street. How might I have responded? Was I “pulled by karma or led by vow”?

Hanging from a Branch

Kyogen said, “It’s like a man up a tree, hanging from a branch with his mouth; his hands cannot grasp a bough, his feet won’t reach one. Under the tree there is a man who asks him the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West. If he does not answer he will lose his life. What should he do?”

How hard it is to accept one's condition—or the condition of the world. It is much easier to blame others or to come up with a clever solution. As I sit, I realize that “this is it!”

In a Dream 2

“How do you answer if you are asked, what is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the west, by someone in a dream? If you cannot answer it the teachings of the Buddha are worthless.”

Every week I'd complain to my dad about some injustice or irregularity in my life. He would always divert the conversation to something more interesting.