Teachings

From the still silence of a single, small seed, come plants, trees, humans, and animals. From a plant seed first comes a tap root, reaching down into the cool dark earth. Here the root gathers water and nutrients to sustain the plants growth upwards towards the sun. The leaves of the plant in return help strengthen the roots to grow further. Did you know that the roots of a cereal rye plant grow 3 miles of roots a day in good soil? In a single season it grows 387 miles of roots and 6,603 miles of root hairs. For a stationary creature, it sure gets around!

There is a famous koan in our Zen tradition about Bodhidharma meeting Emperor Wu. This strange fellow from India blows in on a large Dharmakaya wind and presents himself at court. He must have cut an odd figure in his ragged robes and sandals amidst the formality and finery of the Emperor’s palace.

The first teaching Buddha gave after his enlightenment was the four noble truths. He gave a new meaning to the word “noble”. Until that point this word had been used to describe the upper-caste Brahmins in India’s caste system. So Buddha was suggesting someone was noble, not because of their social standing, but because they could open to the truth of suffering. He was suggesting that nobility came from within your own broken heart.