Mokugen Kublicki, Rev. Master

This article is dedicated to the memory of my beloved brother Kris, who passed away 4 April, 2020.

At a funeral service it is traditional to place a painting or photograph of the deceased on the altar – a likeness that shows us the life and brightness of the deceased, reminding us of the True Person, the True Reality. From the heart of Great Compassion, especially at such a poignant time, a gateway for a clear heart and mind is offered both to those who remain alive and to those who have died.

Achievements and contributions of a lifetime can be remembered and appreciated. The big moments and the seemingly insignificant, but equally precious, moments of a person’s life can be reflected upon. Equally, difficulties of life are not glossed over. Reflecting upon oneself and other, and contemplating the nature of things, the flotsam and jetsam of a lifetime’s ups and downs can be recognized, appreciated and let go of… offered up on the stream of impermanence, and on the stream of compassion. Allowing these things to fall away, or just be, the veils of memory and feeling can waft away on the pure mirror of existence.

Reassuringly, when all else dissolves away, Truth and Love remain on the bedrock of our interconnected hearts and of existence itself – the ‘Eternal Pure’. Looking with a clear gaze of the eye, whether together in life, or at death, or in a photograph, we can see universal Truth and loving kindness shining forth from everyone and everything around us: Buddha bows to Buddha with awe and gratitude.

We instinctively turn to this Essence when that which is important beckons to any of us – when we wish to fully rest our being in truth and reality, in our True Nature. In life and in death, in life’s uncertainties and changeableness, in our own frailties, in illness and in the complexities of pandemics, the Dharma Door is being endlessly offered. Within all difficulties and upheavals, and in the reminders of the Four Sights of birth, disease, old age and death, simultaneously echoes a clarion call of the heart to anchor ourselves in the true refuges of Compassion, Love and Wisdom. It is a blessed relief to do so.

Great gratitude and appreciation can well up from this limitless ocean of True Pure Nature – no matter what the circumstance. When we realize that we cannot take things for granted, when we are faced with sickness or death – all these events and appearances that shake us so that we teeter and wobble can simultaneously help us to relax and fall into the great compassionate arms and anchor of the Eternal Pure.

The Dharma Door is to be found in this present moment, this present opportunity. In this selfless moment of a clear eye is the blessed relief and truth that we do not need to add to the Perfection that IS. We can gratefully bow and entrust ourselves to It.

In all the most important moments of life – a birth, a death, a celebration, a milestone, a joy – we instinctively, and from our very own intrinsic, True, and universally-shared Nature, do not wish to cloud the essence of that which we know to be real and significant, and a precious Dharma Door. Distractions, internal and external, can be seen for what they are: irritations and not real comforters or solutions. The endless list of justifications and unhelpful stories that we tell ourselves and others can dissipate and dissolve into the ephemeral chimera that they are. Our future stories have not yet come to be, nor may they ever; and the past is gone. So, held within each and every moment of being–even the most seemingly insignificant – is the same benevolent opportunity to forget the small self and dissolve into the Ocean of gratitude – whatever the circumstance. Gateways of the Dharma are infinite and limitless!

By looking up, whatever we find before us, or wherever we are, no matter how bright or difficult may be the circumstances, we can find the golden thread of the Eternal Pure. By looking down, or fearing, or disparaging, we miss what is true. When looking up with an open and Preceptually-true heart and mind, the profound change of perception and deeper insight opens us to the value and meaning of even that which we felt was of little or no use, or that which we feared. ‘All-acceptance is the Gateless Gate’. We do not need to weigh or judge or complain. Here, we recognize the many blessings that abound. Being still in the heart of Buddha Nature, that which is eternal endures, and that which is transitory and useless to cling to, can fall away and dissolve.

In our humanity we often understandably wish both to avoid suffering and to have the fruits of spiritual life. If, however, we cling only to the seemingly bright, and fear and avoid pains and difficulties, we create a disharmony in ourselves that stands in the way of the understanding and healing of those very pains and difficulties. By turning away or rejecting, we miss the opportunity to find the resolution of our questions and confusions in the acceptance of all within the pure circle of sunyata (Immaculacy). Herein, the greatest loving compassion is to be found that heals with the wisdom of Dharma. It is by not turning away from or avoiding the reality of the Four Sights that we experience what Reverend Master Jiyu called ‘Eternal Life.’ Although we generally view the moon as a disc illuminated by the sun, the whole of the moon includes that part of it which is in shadow and faces the rest of the benevolent universe! The whole is Eternal Life! It is the greatest joy to find the Buddha within both birth and death, and to realise that the Eternal Pure and our transitory existence never were in opposition to one another.

In death, as in life, a great opportunity is offered to open the heart fully, let go of the self, and ‘slip into the shining sea’¹ of the Love of the Unborn. By not turning away from the presence of suffering or death, and by not turning away from any moment in which we feel self to be dissolving, the heart opens wide in gratitude for Great Compassion, Great Love and Great Wisdom: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the death I shall fear no evil…”² We can rest in confidence that Great Compassion will continue to aid us, our loved ones, and all sentient beings, and that this help will be present both in life and in death.

Although as individuals we have our own responsibilities and our own contributions to make, we are part of an indivisibly, greater, infinitely compassionate Whole. By extending generosity of spirit and opening our heart, not excluding the deepest pains and the suffering of ourselves and of all sentient beings, we can find, and anchor ourselves in, the Compassion, Love and Wisdom that eternally reveals Itself in the workings of the entire universe for the benefit of all.

Notes

1. 1. Sir Edwin Arnold. The Light of Asia, (Several publishers)
2. 2. Psalm 23.4. King James version of the Bible.

This article is available only as part of the Summer 2020 Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives.  

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