Those who donated to our crowdfunding Indiegogo campaign last fall are getting daily e-mails this month as a thank-you and part of the May Sit. We wanted to share these with everyone, though they are a day or so later. This was the May 5 offering.

The first text in italics is from Cultivating the Empty Field by Zen Master Hongzhi, translated by Taigen Daniel Leighton with Yi Wu. The commentary following it is from one of the teachers at Dharma Rain Zen Center.

All dharmas are innately amazing beyond description. Perfect vision has no gap. When self and other are the same, mind and dharmas are one. When you face what you have excluded and see how it appears, you must quickly gather it together and integrate with it. Make it work within your house, then establish stable sitting.

“Dharmas” are the forms of the world – the endless and diverse things. Hongshi calmly notes that the billion pieces that make up our daily life are amazing beyond description. Often we don’t see this; but our perfect vision does. When we see clearly, every single thing in front of us is precious, unique, complete. Most of the time, we cut ourselves off; we don’t see clearly, and what we do see, we often don’t accept. Simply face it: face the world. Face this moment and everything in it. Gather it to yourself – as yourself. Bring it home. Make the world, and the things of the world just as they are, your life. Today, notice the things you turn from. Notice what you do not want to face, and look directly.