All That's Needed

Sunday morning, November 4, 2018

Through the space between leaves, the wisp of wind breathes the early fire from the sun through the mist rising off the damp earth, reminding the morning consciousness to awaken. All six elements are right here in the aspiration between worlds, inner and outer, East and West. All that’s needed for a new birth of love.

Near dusk, Nov 3

           S.H. Nasr’s chapter “The Wisdom of the Body” in Religion and the Order of Nature reviews the teachings for all major religions including an amazing section on Japanese Buddhism, pages 243-248.

"The six elements, (earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness) of Buddhist cosmology are the samaya body of Tathagata, samaya meaning the state in which metaphysical reality appears in phenomenal form, so that from that religous point of view the visible universe is the phenomenal form of the Buddha-body itself. In man’s ascending the ladder of perfection, the Buddha-nature descends to an ever greater degree into his soul and even his body. . . For Dogen, cultivation is in fact achieved through the body, and he goes so far as to say that in order to become rid of the illusion of self-centeredness, one must realize that the body does not belong to the rational consciousness. The body must be allowed to dominate over the mind so that man can forget himself and become authenticated by all things. [note references Yasuo Yuasa, The Body]