The teachings are for our sake, yours and mine. Flowers,
water and bowls expound the Dharma for our sake. We, in
turn, mutually expound the Dharma and exalt the Dharma
for the sake of flowers, water and bowls.
This mutual assistance of raising up the Dharma is how
Dharma work is. There is no limitations because Dharma
work cannot be measured or grasped. Measuring and
grasping disturb the mind.
Flowers, water and bowl help us cutoff disordered thinking.
Disordered thinking and crazy thoughts are defiled. They come
from measuring and grasping.
Dharma work is infinitely numberless and universally performing.
We wonder what the characteristics of realization are and what
are the causes to realization that lead to self-awakening. The promise
of cause and effect is inescapable. If we put a finger in a pot
of boiling water, the finger is burned. This is the nature of cause
and effect. The teachings follow this law.
If we put our mind on the non-essential, we cycle endlessly in
suffering. And we are not blessed with realization. The non-essential
is when we are given over to likes, dislikes and indifference. These
non-essential characteristics are not causes for realization.
We need to investigate. When we feel sick or downhearted or
sad or lonely or the despair riffs appear notice what characteristics
are in the mind. The non-essential likes, dislikes and indifferences?
Was there something unpleasant? Something unlikable. Something
unfair? A wish to be somewhere else? Wanting more of something
that is all gone?
The self-ego is charged up by these characteristics; they are not the
causes for realization. We must be able to work with them skillfully.
It takes a trained mind to be able to put the mind on the essential, to be
able to realize the Dharma work of flowers, water and bowls; the
blessings that are never apart from us right where we are.
