Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 07/29/2022
From the the Sutra of Hui-Neng (The Platform Sutra of the 6th Ancestor), Hui-Neng himself describes his realization: “I thought there was an I who sees and hears. That was a great mistake. It’s only a sound perceived with a mind resting in no place. Now I understand there is no birth or death. This wide open state of mind is my original mind. The mountains, the rivers, the sun and the moon are all me.” Shoan brings up this fundamental teaching of “no-self”… OK. So, there is no self. And yet here I am. How do we hold these “two truths”? And our sense of identity… How does it come to us? And why does it often become such a seemingly unresolvable entanglement? Shoan encourages us to be mindful and patient and to hold our stories loosely.
