This week we’ll be exploring the far reaches of causes and conditions in all the ten directions………. Buddha fields that lie north, south, east, and west and northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest, as well as above and below. We experience our life and what lies in each of those directions, through the sensorium that is a human body. The dimensions of our mind and body awareness extend everywhere, whether we are noticing this or not. When you sit in zazen, you may be focused on your breath, on counting, on a memory, or thought of some kind like reviewing your plans, or becoming snared in emotions and their narratives…..and all the while the body is situated in the midst of the ten directions. We might even say that ten directions is a meager set of all the infinite directions that this body is centered in. The Diamond Sutra says that the nature of this body pervades across the ten directions”. The nature of life extends and pervades and emerges everywhere, continually, in all forms. Our body, our flesh is among these forms.
We say, Buddha Nature pervades the whole universe. What happens when we practice zazen, with this awareness? What happens when we practice walking meditation with this awareness? What happens when we practice ordinary moment by ordinary moment with this awareness? Buddha Nature pervades the whole universe. We have an opportunity to wake up in any direction that we’ve been unaware of or ignored. Practicing in all the ten directions, what can you discover?