In the pot, sun and moon shine eternally

This poem is from the sixth section of the Records of Master Kido. Among the ancient Chinese writings there's one called Gokan no sho in which we find the Hojitsu Hen, and in that we find the Shicho Boden. This story is from there.

There was an old man in a small town who operated a pharmacy whose medicines always worked quite well. In the store there was a big jar of medicine, and that medicine would work for people with a headache, or a stomachache, or a backache, or a cold. No matter who came and no matter what their problem was, medicine was given from that jar, with excellent results.

Everyone in town trusted the man and his medicine implicitly. But no one knew where he lived. In the evening people would see him closing the shop, but no one ever saw where he went. He would wait until no one was looking and then hide himself in the large jar that held all the medicine. Finally, one of the town's officials, who lived nearby, noticed this.

The next day, the official went to the old man's store and greeted him with great respect. He gave the old man sake and rich foods. The old man realized immediately that the official knew his secret and asked him why he had come.

The official said, "You are one of great good will. I will return tomorrow morning. Please ask me again then."

The old man understood and said, "You want to go into this big jar, don't you? Well, if you do want to do that, I will help you. Hold my kimono and close your eyes, and then you can come with me."

The official did as he was told, and suddenly his body seemed lighter. The old man then told him he could open his eyes.

When he opened his eyes, it was as if he were seeing a different world! How huge and spacious everything was! He saw an enormous house and a great garden filled with flowers and trees with ripened fruit. In the lake many fish were swimming, and the many rooms of the house were all filled with treasures. It was such a rare and special state of mind that he forgot about the passing of time. Although he had always been chased by his work and by time, it all seemed like a lie and was forgotten.

He wondered how this could be. Because the old pharmacist could read his thoughts, he answered without prompting, "I am a person from an enchanted land. I am not a person of this world, I am from the world of hermits and sages. Because I made a mistake, I was sent down to Earth. Now I have been forgiven and can return to the world of gods and heavenly beings. It's time for me to return here now. I saw your heart of good will, and I wanted to show you a little corner of this heavenly realm, but this isn't a place you can stay. Let's drink a cup of sake together and then say farewell."

The official drank the sake and felt a little woozy. When his head cleared, he found he was back in his office. He thought he had been gone only a few hours, but it had been several days.

In the pot, sun and moon shine eternally.

He knew that the world in the pot was beyond time and space, an absolute world within our mind.

Eisai Zenji wrote of this hugeness:

Oh! Great all embracing Mind!
It is impossible to measure the height of the heavens,
yet the Mind is above the heavens.
It is impossible to measure the thickness of the earth,
yet the Mind is below the earth.
The sun and the moon shine with a great radiance
yet the Mind is the source of that radiance.
Within the Mind, the four seasons open in their sequence,
Within the Mind the sun and the moon move.
All of the ten thousand things exist within that great Mind.
Oh! Great all embracing Mind!

The astronaut Russell Schweickart described a moment during a space walk when he was able to just be there. He said, "Those two or three minutes, I remember so well. It was not the usual view from the narrowly framed window of the spaceship."

He said that there was nothing to limit his view, only huge and infinite dark space. He was traveling across this space at the rate of 17,000 miles per hour, and this universe was totally silent. This great speed and huge silence were such a new experience, that he heard a voice asking, "Why are you here? Are you the best person for this? Do you have superior ability or have you worked so hard that you were chosen by God to have this precious experience on behalf of everyone?"

He said that he knew the answer to all of those questions was "no." Then why was he there? "As I thought about this, suddenly the earth, a deep blue spinning globe, came into view way below. At that moment I suddenly understand. I am one person representing humankind who has been given the job of touching the universe directly." Realizing this, he looked deeply at the earth. "I am one of the people of that planet. They are all human, just like me, but they are not me. We take this knowledge for the people that are to come after. Without thinking more I was deeply humbled. I felt the huge responsibility. I was a small part of the whole life of the earth. I had the responsibility to take this experience to everyone on earth. Thanks to that, my relationship to the life of the whole planet has changed completely. This very precious change happened because of my experience of being in the universe."

He was one of the astronauts who flew Apollo 9, and he experienced this state of mind when as he was on his mission into space. We can't become aware of something that has never existed. Anyone who is born comes to this life with the same mind. But we get overwhelmed with the static of our ego and the weight of our small self. At least once, our tangled ideas and ponderous mental activity have to be swept away, or we can't know this precious place. Because the mirror of our pure mind that we've been endowed with since birth is immeasurably huge, an infinite universe can be reflected there. Everything from the eternal past through the limitless future can also be held there, and in that way we are infinite.

To realize the source of this true mind and not be moved by anything is zazen. We can realize this absolute power within our own mind.