Zen corners

Case:

Thich Nhat Hanh said, "There are enough Zen centers. We need more Zen corners."

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Commentary:

This comment occurred in Thich Nhat Hanh's retreat center, Plum Village in France, in 1984, during a discussion of the institutional and ethical issues in Western Dharma centers. In Asia a place for practice might be called temple or monastery. In America it is more apt to be called a Zen or Buddhist center.

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Case #89 in Blue Cliff Record:

Ungan's Hands & Eyes

Ungan asked Dogo, "How does the Bodhisattva Kanzeon use all those many hands and eyes?" *

Dogo answered, "It is like someone in the middle of the night reaching behind his neck for his pillow."

Gan said, "I understand."

Go said, "How do you understand it?"

Gan said, "The whole body is hand and eye."

Go said, "That is very well expressed, but it is only eight-tenths of the answer."

Gan said, "How would you say it, Elder Brother?"

Go said, "Through the body, the hand and the eye."

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Verse:

The exact center is everywhere.

The whole universe is a collection of corners

If you corner the market with centers

You may lose the open field.

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*Bodhisattva Kanzeon can be depicted with a thousand hands, and an eye in each hand.

This is by Michael Wenger, and appears in What Book!?, an anthology edited by Gary Gach. (pages 166-167)

Submitted January 06, 2020 at 12:59AM by dylan20 https://ift.tt/2sDeaj7