Six Notebooks

Not giving rise to the concept of killing…

I turn the light inward…

Turn the light inward…

The light…

Inward…

We ask not so much what is wrong with the world but

What needs to be changed in me and my attitudes…

Turn the light…

Inward…

Katagiri Roshi, Dainin Katagiri Roshi, Deep bows,

Ken Ford often repeated,

Katagiri, deep bows, would say

Fold the sweater

If you don’t fold the sweater

You are killing the sweater

Not giving rise to the concept

Is taking up the precept of

Katagiri Roshi, deep bows, bringing the dharma

To me through the teachers

Often said, according to Ken Ford

Do not kill the sweater

Self nature, Bodhidharma who sat nine years facing the cave wall,

Deep bows, said self nature is subtle and mysterious,

And when the emperor asked, Bodhidharma said

Nothing Sacred, and fled

Before the emperor could lop off his head

Sat nine years facing the cave wall,

Bought the dharma to the teachers of me teachers’ teachers

Self nature is subtle

And mysterious

To not give rise to the concept of killing

To not kill even a sweater, freshly washed

Or recently worn

To not kill even the sweater

Is to give rise to

The precept of not killing.

 

PWS 2023.10.23