Words From the Teachers - November 2024

Dear Sangha friends,

We are now in the middle of our 2024 practice period and our exploration of the Avatamsaka Sutra, and we are weathering the storms of the season--atmospheric and political. If you have been following the practice period talks, you will know that one of the key themes of this sutra is the unity or interbeing of all things, beautifully described in the image of Indra’s net, a multi-dimensional net with a facetted jewel at each node reflecting all the others. Indra’s net depicts the reality that we and all things are completely, and intricately interconnected throughout time and space. Think of our high school lessons on ecology writ large.

Within this net of infinite relationship our bodhisattva path includes embracing our distinctiveness and finding our own gifts, capacity and calling. The sutra teaches that each of us has unique offerings to give the world. In a recent talk Kate told us about the young pilgrim, Sudhana, who appears in the last chapter of the sutra. Sudhana visits many different teachers: monks and hermits, laypeople, men and women, night-spirits and bodhisattvas. Each one offers Sudhana a different insight, spiritual power, or other benefit.

When Sudhana visits you what will you offer? As we continue with the practice period, please consider your own offerings, large and small. We each have something to offer and practice period is a good time to reflect on that.
Our troubled world needs every single offering. Each one reflects outward and onward beyond what you can ever know. 

Warm bows,
Myōshin Kate and Shinmon Michael

(photo by Denis Fafard)