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<\/a><\/div>\nIn Zen there\u2019s a basic assertion that among many other things we human beings (and the whole blessed rest of things from atoms to galaxies and all in between) have two faces, kind of like the god of January and of gates, the divine Janus. One face, aspect, dimension is how we are who and what we are, you and me as discrete and real and precious, and, oh yes, passing. And, then, at the very, very same time, we also have another face, facet, dimension where each and every blessed thing (including you and me) are joined, so closely, so closely that we can say we are one. <\/p>\n
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The project in Zen is to see now the separate, now the one, now the separate arising from the one, now the one manifesting within each separate, etc, etc. It\u2019s a rather lovely, well, often lovely dance of the real. Alan Watts the popular spiritual writer from my childhood referred to this process as the universe playing peekaboo with itself. A big part of the spiritual enterprise is getting into the flow, seeing the separate, seeing the one, and then figuring out how to live within this dynamic way things are.<\/div>\n
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Out of this, let me offer as an assertion and an invitation, a koan. It comes from a twelfth century collection called the Biyanlu<\/i>, most commonly translated as the <\/span>Blue Cliff Record<\/i>. Case sixty-one. The relevant part for our purposes goes:<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cFengxue gave instruction, saying \u2018If one raises a speck of dust, the nation prospers. If one does not raise a speck of dust, the nation perishes.\u2019\u201d The koan goes on a little, but I\u2019ll stop with this. It\u2019s more than enough. Fengxue Yanshao was born at the end of the ninth century, and became one of the great Zen masters of his era. And stories of his teaching or encounters with him are the stuff of quite a few classical koan. And this is a pretty good example of why.<\/div>\n