Summer 2004 — Bussho

Mike begins his Bussho session with his unfinished modern interpretation of the chapter, rather than presenting a settled translation. He introduces fully manifesting existence as his experimental rendering of a recurrent Chinese/Japanese phrase and says that it is open to change. The phrase makes buddha-nature concern living as one is, here and now, not a quality gained by doing this and that or by rising through the ranks. It also makes the present person exceed the history, name, and interpretation that the conscious mind adds.

Mike connects the claim that no other world exists outside this Universe and no other present self exists with his observation that we are as we are, while saying that this does not mean we cannot change. He says intellectual recognition fails because the mind continually interprets reality through past experience. He treats “fully manifesting existence” as being as we are here and now, not an effect of random circumstances. It is neither the external, objective material world nor a universe centred on the individual’s existence.