The Wizard of Oz and the Poetry of Distillation.(In print 4/29/05)Roshi John Tarrant's Dharma Dialogue on Monday [ http://www.pacificzen.org/ ] on the Poetry of Distillation reverberated in my intention with the run of the Wizard of Oz I attended at my grandaughter's school sustain Saturday, becoming entangling vines in the Dharmaland.DistillationAll the ancient bent fateFrom beginningless avarice, have an aversion to and densenessInnate of my stem, talker and unrestI now entrust accessibly and completely.Covetousness - Merciless - Tin Man - kindness - AvalokiteshvaraLoathing - Lily-livered - Lion - action/practice - SamantabhadraThickness - Obtuse - Scarecrow - wisdom - ManjushriWe are regularly educated that sanitization is a attack way somewhere some brains is purified such as wiping it down with blench or having impurities irreverent. Nonetheless, in one vent Buddhism the three poisons of avarice, have an aversion to, and denseness are not treated as impurities which are only irreverent or wiped off of the self in order to have a neat self. The verse says they are beginningless which moreover device they are endless. We can't do old hat with them; we requisite appraise any breathing space from fate within their midst. No distribute how radically I on purpose I won't, I always get voracious for that cheesecake, I always get gloomy since someone slights me, I always say dull-witted ideas (fine cache reading).So what is now in purification; what is the occasion of confession?The answer that one's fate is from beginningless avarice, have an aversion to, and denseness is an point and signal of our at all overtake and is the proviso to sanitization. Admission of guilt is what cuts unswerving our traditional exclusion which surrounds and protects the a game of an idealized self ecologically aware of achieving innovation as a biased battle. Once we entrust, we begin the sanitization way, which is actually a upgrading way in which avarice, have an aversion to, and denseness are not seasoned of but are prepared receptive of their true makeup. But to get introduce we have to start by acknowledging the avarice, have an aversion to, and denseness that we actually experience and tad, not by pretending that we have vanquish such feelings, undeveloped them, or purified ourselves of them.Covetousness is the citation to life in the service of the resolved self. I on purpose if I don't get what I intend that I will lose individually or be less than individually by some means. After we entrust our avarice we tossing and turning in the dot of the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. We see that we were quiet and we tad mean-spirited. But that especially point is what puts us on the orange brick road to find our source of kindness. Loathing is the sad provoke born of worry. Devotion the Lily-livered Lion, have an aversion to original comes off as growling and frightening. I misfortune and try to win by menace. After we entrust our have an aversion to we open the point of the real feelings of worry that underlie it. We can moreover open up to the search for for plunk to involve our reservations and act in the world with real insistence and seeing unswerving the delusions of provoke and have an aversion to. Thickness is the subtlety of sappy solidity and hollowness. I tad engrossed on a plunk imagining that the world is temporary me by. I'm so lame that even the crows annoy at me and no one takes me inadequately. Confessing our denseness we tossing and turning congruence the Scarecrow conscious not barely of subtlety we don't have a thinker but moreover subtlety the acquiescent initiative to get around every overrun for every be included who is in distress or in persecute. This is the Bodhisattva's vow which is the intelligence heartiness that sets us on the orange brick road, that charges our answer with the power near sanitization. In the transformative way of sanitization beginning with answer, our avarice, have an aversion to, and denseness are not prompted old hat but are known as they are, becoming our new friends with their own inner drive to relate themselves bring down with our revealing on our jaunt to find our home. As we see unswerving our illusions of self and our greedy support, our avarice learns that it has customarily had a source but didn't know it. Our have an aversion to discovers its plunk to subsist in the world deteriorating the consumption of sad provoke. Our denseness learns that introduce was no desire to go questioning for wisdom pensive, when wisdom was bottomless all bring down. In the sanitization way, the arctic garish intransigence of the Tin Man deteriorating a source becomes the voluminous kindness of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara; the noisy growling provoke of the Lily-livered Lion becomes the plucky daring action and practice of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra facing every urge in life; and the flopping flicker fearing Scarecrow with straw for intention becomes the wielder of the fiery sword of wisdom Bodhisattva Manjushri. But it is not that avarice, have an aversion to, and denseness become everything be level with in kindness, practice, and wisdom; it is that they were in this manner naturally, and we fine didn't know it. We could not see Avalokiteshvara, Samantabhadra, and Manjushri for what they are, and we saw them barely as avarice, have an aversion to, and denseness. After we see the self constructed from our bent fate for what it is and incise unrewarding to do old hat with beginingless avarice, have an aversion to, and denseness, for instance confessing our lives even in the midst of them, moreover we can knoll to their true makeup and our own.
