Only a few short weeks ago, the Zen Center of Las Vegas, while adhering to strict CDC guidelines, slowly re-opened it’s doors on Sunday morning for formal practice after a three month hiatus.
Sincerest efforts for individual safety as outlined by the CDC were adhered to with each practice session.This not withstanding, and due to the recent spike with infections in the southwest United States, the Chaiya Meditation Monastery understandably felt it necessary to suspend any and all public access to the facility.
The health and safety of the sangha is after all, the first priority as it should be. In it’s truest sense, we are not unlike other “brick and mortar” establishments such as restaurants, retail shops and other business entities. The decision towards health safety in the time of a 100 year global pandemic reminded me of a teaching that I would like to share with you this week.
“Straightforward mind is the place of practice.”
One day as a monk was leaving the city, he met the great lay Buddhist teacher Vimalakirti who was just returning. The monk asked “Venerable sir, where are you coming from”? Vimalakirti simply replied that he was coming from the dojo, the place of practice. The monk found this answer a bit puzzling since there was no dojo that he knew of outside the city. He asked Vimalakirti to explain. Vimalakirti answered, “If you think that a dojo is a place or a building, that is a problem! If you think of it as some building that you can enter or leave, then the essence of your mind will be always changing.The Buddha emphasized that we must continually actualize the dharma wherever we are.”
Concomitant with Vimalakirti’s answer, the Chaiya Meditation Monastery is simply form and location. Last week in elucidating the Heart Sutra “form is emptiness, emptiness is form” was quoted.
All over the world, many sacred sites exist in various countries, traditions, and lineages. Many devotees make long pilgrimages to visit these holy sites. But I ask you,”Where is the living Buddha?” When we are completely present to this moment, we are with the Buddha no matter where we are.
In this time of uncertainty, in the midst of a global pandemic, any grounded sense of a separate ego entity while navigating life’s ups and downs is truly tenuous. All of us are experiencing Covid -19 from individual perspectives.
Zen Master Seung Sahn used to say, “Bad situation is good situation. Good situation is bad situation.” What can we learn about our own impermanence in these precarious times? How do you maintain still body, still breath, still mind? Seung Sahn Sunim also said “Everybody’s outside job is different. People are trained according to their talents as teachers, doctors, clerks, business associates, artists, technicians etc. – all requiring different skill sets. But everyone, he continued, has the same inside job which is, How may I help you?”
Even in the face of uncertainty, let us all practice hard and endeavor to exemplify “Great Love, Great Compassion, Great Bodhissatva Way” as we daily face both the personal and global issues of this pandemic.