Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘I think right now you must have understood what “form is emptiness and emptiness is form” means in its true sense. Here you will understand Dogen Zenji’s difficult statement: “Time passes from past to present, from present to future, and from future to present, and from present to past.” If you really understand “form is emptiness” in its true sense, then in the time-bound world, you have this much freedom. Time goes from future to past, from present to past. This is an extraordinary statement. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. In this present moment there is past and future. That future exists in the present moment means that future passes to the present. Right now your future is right here [taps platform with his stick]. This kind of experience continues forever from Buddha to us, from us to our descendants, from you to your friend. And we will have the perfect relationship between us, something more than relationship. This is how you develop your character in the whole world, past and future.’ (from the Suzuki Roshi Archive)

We have been studying this talk from the first sesshin at Tassajara in the Monday group, taking three weeks over it, to cover each of the koan stories he brings in one by one. Form and emptiness are the backbone of all the talks from that week (this one is titled Genjo Koan no 4, but there is nothing in it about the Genjo Koan. One of the participants this week asked about the phrase “something more than relationship,” to which my best answer was that in the space of freedom where you are not hindered by time or space, a sense of self and other drops away, which transforms any meeting, encounter or relationship with those around you.