Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Hua Yen describes the world as being a fourfold realm, and the Chinese characters for these realms are the same ones Shitou uses, translated here as “the entire world.” The teaching of the fourfold realm is quite complex, but in practical terms it can be boiled down to the fact that each thing is intimately connected to every other thing, each thing is an expression of the interdependence of everything else, the whole universe is an expression of each individual thing, and each thing is exactly itself. In other words: everything is interdependent; you are just the universe expressing itself; your actions have infinite impact; and each thing is simply itself, you are you.’ (Inside the Grass Hut)