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The Valley Streams Run Deepest Indigo

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KOAN:

There was a student who asked a teacher, the teacher was Dalong [long means dragon, dragon teacher] and the student said,
“This physical body perishes, decays. What is the imperishable, what is the hard and fast body of reality? What is the body that doesn’t decay? This physical body decays, what is the everlasting body of the real?”
And the teacher said, “Mountain flowers bloom like brocade. The valley streams run deepest indigo.” 

—Blue Cliff Record Case 82

Text February 5, 2021

The Everlasting Body Runs Deepest Indigo: Meditation for Troubled Times

John Tarrant

Koans
Dalong's Pure Everlasting Body (Ta Lung) (BCR82), I Vow to Set Endless Heartache to Rest, Sutra of Complete Enlightenment (BS45), The Land of Demons (EV42), The Valley Streams Run Deepest Indigo
Tags
brocade, compassion, covid, Dalung, delusive thinking, Four Boundless Vows, friendship, Green Glade of Meditation, intimacy, June 14 2020, modesty, poet Czesław Miłosz, poet Du Fu, poet Li Bai, poet Rilke, rakshasas, sunday talk, tumultuous times, writer Primo Levi
Category
Text, Transcript

It’s a very strong thing to be human, you can be subjected to all sorts of great forces. And sometimes you can win through, and sometimes you die. But we’re all of us doing that, all the time. So I was thinking about how good it is to love each other, to meet each other, and to make peace in our hearts. Sunday talk with John Tarrant, recorded June 14 2020.

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