Hakuin\u2019s Blind Men<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\u00a0<\/p>\n
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We\u2019re getting ready for the summer sesshin (a week of intensive practice) that starts on Saturday. Soon students will be packing their bags and on their way.<\/p>\n
In this year of blogging Hakuin, I think of this from Complete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn<\/em>, #332, \u201cHakuin\u2019s Baggage:\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cON THE AFTERNOON of the seventeenth day of the first month of the first year of Kamp\u014d [1741], I heard sounds of a commotion from the kuri [the monks\u2019 lodging quarters]. Upon inquiring, I was told that it was the porters bundling and tying up my baggage. It was being sent ahead to Kai province where I had been invited to deliver lectures. This perturbed me. \u201cI don\u2019t want them carrying all this heavy baggage up to Kai province,\u201d I said. \u201cGet rid of some things to lighten their load. Then I won\u2019t be embarrassed as Hua-yen was, but I\u2019ll still need to fear Yun-feng\u2019s words.\u201d All the bundles were unpacked and a search was made for articles that could be left behind, but I don\u2019t think they came up with a single thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is quintessential Hakuin \u2013 the teaching is embedded in daily life.\u00a0 The references here\u00a0to Hua-yen and Yun-feng, though, might obscure the point. Simply put (and I\u2019ll leave it to those of you who have the text to dig deeper into the references), both have to do with the embarrassment of carrying stuff when you\u2019re supposed to be living the simple life of the homeleaver. Hua-yen, though, also realized awakening when he spilled a drink he was carrying. Don\u2019t neglect that point.<\/p>\n
As you may know, heading into sesshin, we\u2019re often told, \u201cLeave it all behind.\u201d \u201cDrop it all at the doorway.\u201d \u201cForget your baggage and just sit, dropping body mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good advice. Hakuin, too, does not want to carry all his baggage or even have others carrying it for him. But when they go through his bundles to lighten the load, they find no extra baggage. It was all exactly as it should have been.<\/p>\n
Arriving at sesshin, or in this moment, we too bring just the right amount of baggage, just what is \u2013\u00a0 hurt or anger, joy or release, a broken love, financial concerns, worry about our body, and\/or anxiety at what will happen next. Examining my baggage, friend, I can also report with some relief that there does not appear to be anything extra at all.<\/p>\n
So we can sit in peace together and go on with our stories.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 We\u2019re getting ready for the summer sesshin (a week of intensive practice) that starts on Saturday. Soon students will be packing their bags and on their way. In this year of blogging Hakuin, I think of this from Complete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn, #332, \u201cHakuin\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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