Dear brothers and sisters,

Below is Kasan Sweat – Story 64 in 101 Zen Stories – Zen Master Nyogen Senzaki compiled, anh Hoành translated and annotated.

Kasan Sweat

Kasan was asked to officiate at the funeral of a provincial lord.

He had never met lords and nobles before so he was nervous. When the ceremony started, Kasan sweat.

Afterwards, when he had returned, he gathered his pupils together. Kasan confessed that he was not yet qualified to be a teacher for he lacked the sameness of bearing in the world of fame that he possessed in the secluded temple. Then Kasan resigned and became a pupil of another master. Eight years later he returned to his former pupils, enlightened.

This is the story of Kasan but also the story of most of us – When we have “never met lords and nobles before”, are we “nervous”? When we have never met highest-ranking leaders before, are we nervous even just a little bit?

This is the story about the mind without discrimination.

Most of us have an attitude toward valued guests different from the attitude we have toward our friends and relatives. For example, when meeting a person with a high position in society, most of us would dress more politely, smile more, speak more positively, have more excited mood, stand or sit with a straight back, eat more politely… Meanwhile, when meeting our friends and relatives, we may have an opposite attitude: not caring about dress, face, or the way we speak, eat, sit, walk…

Why do we have those different attitudes?

Because we discriminate one person from another. More importantly, we discriminate ourselves from others.

And God, God has the equanimity heart. To the equanimity heart, nothing is lowly, nothing is high. “Lowly or high” is a charateristic of the human view. To God, all things are equal. All things are equal before God for all things are made through God (John 1:3).

The equanimity heart sees the self and everyone the same way. The humble and the proud, the truthteller and the liar, the people lover and the people hater, the selfish and the selfless… to an equanimity heart they all are the same.

Moreover, we all are Buddhas. The Buddha, and us, and “the lowly”, and “the noble”, the good, the bad and the ugly… are Buddhas – either in full Buddhahood or still in Buddha apprenticeship.

Visualizing people as Buddhas, our heart becomes the equanimity heart – The heart of love and calmness.

Visualize people as Buddhas.

Have a calm day.

Phạm Thu Hương