Tuesday night February 16, 2021, we welcome Charles Edward Cloutier IV into the world. His Grandad, Hokashi Charles Edward Cloutier II, loving opens a celebration of life for us all to enjoy.
I begin by asking we explore the idea of love and kindness through the third verse of the Metta Sutra: "He would not commit any slight misdeeds that other wise men might find fault in him. May all beings be well and safe, may their hearts rejoice."
We are provided insight by the Sutra verse through the request by Hokashi. Now I ask we look at another verse, this from the Lotus Sutra:
"The unsurpassed, deep, profound, subtle, wonderful Dharma, In a hundred thousand million eons, is difficult to encounter; Now that I've come to receive and hold it, within my sight and hearing, I vow to fathom the Thus Come One's true and actual meaning."
The first part of the Lotus Sutra verse speaks to what a Bodhisattva does not do and the second part to the actualization of living loving-kindness. The opening verse from the Lotus Sutra proclaims at some point one may experience impermanence while showing it coexistent with interconnectivity and metta. The love for a newborn can do this by signaling continuity at the social and long-time frame, beyond us, level--shin.
Shin can mean heart or mind but think of it as less than two. Here, The meaning is heart-mind, not heart, nor mind...
Tonight we welcome a beloved successor. By doing so with loving-kindness (heartfelt), each of us is offered a peek into the Great Meaning...
May all beings, be well, and safe,
Sangaku