Category Archives: Eastern Teachers

Teachers primarily of Japanese, Chinese, Korean cultures

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Aung San Suu Kyi released

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The world woke up to this amazing news that Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest today in Rangoon, Burma. Born  in 1945, the daughter of one of Burma’s iconic leaders, Bogyoke Aung San, she has enthralled the world with her determination, fortitude, and courage.  Her political will has been fired by her father’s spirit and perhaps not the least by his assassination.  After refusing to leave Burma, she suffered the loss of her beloved husband, Michael Aris, to prostate cancer and has been separated from heer sons for two decades.  The National League for Democracy, lead by Daw Aung San, won its first election with a landslide however the military rulers refused to acknowledge the victory, instead, placing Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.  In 1991, Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and has been the focus of other Peace Prize Laureates who have appealled for her freedom.  Although she was released from house arrest,  after a violent confrontation that threatened her life, she was again place under “protective” arrest.  Despite her incarceration, Suu Kyi has fought valiantly for the freedom of the people of Burma.  Today she is free.  For the moment.

May her relentless practice light our way in practice.

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this very place

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Hakuin’s Song of Meditation

transl. by Stephen Addiss, from Zen Sourcebook

All living beings are originally Buddhas, just like water and ice:
Without water there is no ice, and outside living beings there is no Buddha.
Not knowing how near it is, people seek it outside themselves – what a pity!
Like someone in the middle of water crying out in thirst,
Or the child of a rich man wandering around like a beggar,
We are bound to the six worlds because we are lost in the darkness of ignorance;
Following dark path after dark path, when shall we escape birth and death?

…

Boundless as the sky, radiant as the moon is the four-fold wisdom,
At this moment, what do you lack?  Nirvana is right in front of you,
This very place is the Lotus Land, this body is the body of Buddha.

And Hakuin’s final words on practice:

“Don’t just stand there watching; get going!”*

Thank you for practising,

Genju

*from Cleary, Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record, 27.  Quoted in The Sound of One Hand by Addiss & Seo