May 2022

Dear Friends,

What happens when we take up a point of view?

We crop the picture. We cut out the parts we don’t like, don’t understand, or don’t want to look at. Of course we do this partly out of necessity because it is impossible that all of a moment’s world can be in the viewing frame. After all, a newspaper can only hold so many stories, even online. But, as Zen students, we should continuously ask and challenge ourselves, “Is that all?” This is our way of keeping the image open for all that we cannot see and cannot know. Usually we call this “Don’t Know Mind”. While we might hold a point of view, we can (and should) also hold an open space for the wide view.

Consider that whatever you see (hear, taste, smell, touch, think) is a cropped picture, like this one here. Acknowledge that a brief news article about one of the many concurrent wars, is a snippet of information, true in a provisional and limited sense. And, bring forward into the vast capacity of your mind and heart, that the whole picture—the one that runs all the way to the edgeless edges of the cosmos—is also true. Only by attaining these two truths simultaneously can our intuitive insight occur and conflicts be resolved.

Mumon’s commentary on the famous kong-an, “Why does Bodhidharma have no beard?”, goes as follows: Practice must be true practice. Enlightenment must be true enlightenment.

Yours, in the picture frame with you,

Jeong Ji