Sickness and Medicine (BCR87)
KOAN:
Sickness and medicine are in accord with each other. The whole world is medicine. What am I?
– Blue Cliff Record, Case 87 (Yunmen)
Audio Excerpt: The Beautiful & Terrible Coexist in Our World
Audio- Excerpt from longer Friday morning talk on master Ma, sickness and health at Summer Sesshin.
‘The Whole World Is Medicine’
PZI Zen Online: Jon welcomes far flung participants on zoom and remembers the original Earth Day walks and festivities and all comment on vast implications of Yunmen’s koan. As recorded April 27th.
Vimalakirti & His Daughter, Moon Like Beauty
Allison relays the story of the encounter between Manjushri and Vimalakirti. Manjushri, among the 32,000 Bodhisattvas sent by Buddha to Vimalakirti’s , and asks him on his sick bed: ‘How do the Bodhisattvas enter the gate of non-duality?’ The response is an intimate silence. Allison’s story includes the karmic path that his daughter, Moon Like Beauty bore on her way to enlightenment.
How is it that Sickness & Medicine Heal Each Other?
The dark things shine as brightly as the bright light – and we don’t need health to shine.