Description
The Covid lockdown prompted hoarding, a contagion of “not enough,” but there are subtle ways our responses change and generosity appears. Without withholding anything, we allow even “disaster” to unfold as a project of the universe in flow and at play.
Summary
Tess Beasley begins her talk with the below quote from Marie-Louise von Franz, underscoring that our way of holding the bodhisattva vows as koans is not about adhering to the rules, but discovering the appropriate response one moment to the next.
I vow not to steal.
(Verse: From the very beginning, nothing has been withheld.)
The Covid lockdown prompted hoarding, a contagion of “not enough,” but there are subtle ways our responses change and generosity appears.
Without withholding anything, we allow even “disaster” to unfold as a project of the universe in flow and at play.
“It is a paradox. The task is to decide, each time, with your own conscience, what is meant this time. And for that one has one’s own dreams.
“General rules can only state a paradox, and in the actual individual situation there is no paradox. There is just one line: now I must act against all the rules; the next moment, I must not get contaminated. In the real situation it is something unique which has to be decided from one minute to another.
“If you take this attitude, life becomes a constant ethical adventure. This is why we are annoying to people who try to learn from us. We have no rules of behavior. Absolutely none. One has to keep one’s ears open and listen all the time to know that the innermost order of the Self at this minute is to do this, and the next moment not.
“But when moving in general commentaries, I shall always contradict myself – with honest conviction!”
—Marie-Louise von Franz
Tess Beasley gives a dharma talk in Tuesday Zen on May 26th, 2020