seventh world of chan buddhism - Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun

CONCLUSION
I remember once being taught that in order for a thing to qualify as art it had to have
the power to arouse emotion, imagination, and reason. In addition, it had to be able to
survive. No matter how highly critics praised a "work of art" if it passed into obscurity or
failed to excite one generation as it had another, it very likely was never art at all. It was fad
or fancy, a piece of historical interest and nothing more.
To be worthy of our effort, a religious practice must also meet these four criteria. It
must constantly challenge us by stimulating our imagination, stirring our emotions, and
making us think.
And it must also endure. In the same way that a work of art stays in our minds long
after we are beyond the range of its sight or sound, so must a religious practice abide in us
long after our introduction to it.
Just as we need time to evaluate art, we need time to evaluate a religious practice.
Seventh World Chan is the study period. We learn about the Path. We practice the
techniques and calibrate our responses. Does Chan feel so right and get under our skin so
much that we are ready to commit ourselves to it for as far ahead as we can see?
If we do decide that we have indeed found a treasure, we can formally claim it as our
own. We can receive the Precepts. Simple or grand, it's a nice ceremony, an important rite of
passage. It's as if we go from courtship to marriage. Now we can participate fully in all that
Chan Buddhism offers. Now we are endowed with all of its treasures.
Then, like any other bride or groom, we turn our attention away from the outside
world and direct it into the sacred, private, interior chamber in which our "Other" dwells. We
have somebody else to worry about, somebody we enjoy pleasing, somebody who looks after
us in the most wonderful way.
We know where we belong. Where once we were isolated - a voice that no one
seemed to hear - we now have marvelous communion, not just during prayer and meditation,
but all the time and everywhere. We cannot fail to prosper because all we need is what we
are.
A Daoist would say that after such a marriage we are ready to engage the Valley Spirit
and then to begin to create the Divine Child... to complete the Orbit so that we can enter the
Empty Circle.
That's a nice thought to end with.
Reverend Chuan Yuan Shakya
CONCLUSION
S EVENTH W ORLD O F C HAN B UDDHISM
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