Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘When I, a student of Dharma, look at the real form of the universe, all is the never-failing manifestation of the mysterious truth of the Tathagata. In any event, in any moment, and in any place, none can be other than the marvelous revelation of its glorious light.
This realization made our founding teachers and virtuous Zen leaders extend tender care, with the heart of worshipping, even to such beings as beasts and birds. This realization teaches us that our daily food and drink, clothes and protections of life, are the warm flesh and blood, the merciful incarnation of Buddha. Who can be ungrateful or not respectful even to senseless things, not to speak of human beings? Even though someone may be a fool, be warm and compassionate. If by any chance such a person should turn against us, become a sworn enemy, and abuse and persecute us, we should sincerely bow down with humble language, in reverent belief that he or she is the merciful avatar of Buddha who uses devices to emancipate us from sinful karma that has been produced and accumulated upon ourselves by our own egoistic delusion and attachment through the countless cycles of kalpas.’ (Torei Zenji’s Bodhisattva Vow)

This is a piece we used to chant occasionally at Zen Center, and I thought I would be including it in my upcoming class for context. I was thinking along some of the same lines for my Earth Day meditation at Within on Wednesday, though I expressed it more mundanely than that.