Steps 8 and 9, Hard or Easy?

 

We're sitting with this for August and September...

Step 8:  Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

 

Step 9:  Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 

 

Koan: One day, while the Layman was meditating in his sitting hut, he suddenly cried out, “It’s hard, hard, hard! And I’ve put ten coats of linseed oil on this platform, -too!” 

His wife said, “Its easy, easy, easy! Just turn your eyes to the floor, lower your feet to it, and be on your way!“ 

Ling-chao said, “Its neither hard nor easy! The mind of the Patriarchs is in every blade of grass!“ (1) 

 

Case #51 -  Three Views of Hard and Easy 

 

 

(1) The Laymans daughter, Ling-chao, is referring to a line from the Third Patriarch s work the “Treatise on Believing in Mind" (Chin.: Hsin-hsin ming; Jpn.: Shinjin~mei) that says, “Though the Great Way is expansive, treading upon it is neither hard nor easy." Very little has been passed down about the life details of the Third Patriarch, Chien-chih Seng-ts'an (Kanchi Sosan, ?—606), who stood halfway between Bodhidharma and Hui-neng. 

Bill K.