Sickness and Medicine (BCR87)
KOAN:
Sickness and medicine are in accord with each other. The whole world is medicine. What am I?
—The Blue Cliff Record, Case 87 (Yunmen)
Audio Excerpt: The Beautiful & Terrible Coexist in Our World
Summer Sesshin: Excerpt from a longer Friday morning talk on master Ma, sickness and health.
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, Moonlike Beauty
Allison relays a story of an encounter between Manjushri and Vimalakirti. Manjushri, among the 32,000 bodhisattvas sent by Buddha to Vimalakirti’s sickbed, asks, “How do bodhisattvas enter the gate of nonduality?” The response is an intimate silence. Allison’s story includes the karmic path that his daughter, Moonlike 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.