On the Tips of the Hundred Grasses

Just back from walking Bodhi and shooting this, reminding me of a favorite Zen story. It was cooking beneath the surface because it comes up in the first Keep Me In Your Heart Awhile Webinar (btw, there’s still room – begins on 8/15 so register soon). It goes like this:

Layman P’ang cried out, “Difficult, difficult, difficult, like trying to scatter ten measures of sesame seed all over a tree!”
“Easy, easy, easy,” returned Mrs. P’ang, as would any true Zen partner, “just like touching your feet to the ground when you get out of bed.”
“Neither difficult nor easy,” one-upped Ling-chao, their dutiful daughter, going beyond her parents, “on the tips of the hundred grasses, the Ancestors’ meaning.”

What is on the tips of the hundred grasses?

“All dharmas as they are, are fully experiencing one dharma,” said Bokusan.

Firewood is just firewood. Ash is just ash. Fear just fear. Joy just joy. So simple. And so easy to slip off.

“If you want to take care of everything by fully experiencing one dharma, disrgarding its context, that is ignorance of one dharma,” said Bokusan.

A very important point. With each thing just itself, ignoring the context, lots of damaging behavior has been justified. This is pseudo Zen. Firewood also has a before and after. The full presentation of NOW arrives in context, including our personal stories.

I turn again to Izumi Shikibu:

Watching the moon
at dawn,
solitary, mid-sky,
I knew myself completely,
no part left out. (p. 89)