Six and seven figure in the title of this post…and the world is at ‘sixes and sevens’!
The meaning of this phrase has changed through time but currently ‘at sixes and sevens’ refers to a state of confusion, disorder or disagreement…
Thinking of climate change, fiscal policy, food supply, political alliances, the price of petrol at the pump, availability of ambulances, the situation in Sri Lanka, species extinction… just a few random examples …the world we inhabit is clearly changing very rapidly and heating up in different ways.
With this, the world we knew, what we once had taken for granted as ‘structurally sound’ and reliably so… is ever more obviously revealed as lacking inherent stability, loosely supported by a wooden wobbly wood-wormy scaffolding woven from beliefs, hopes, fears — founded in ignorance of how things actually are.
Without realisation of the dharma there is a driven-ness to behaviours. This is predicated on karma – previous activity performed while deluded as to the nature of the ‘self’ – and so what seems to be a freely chosen behaviour is really not so.
The Bodhisattva Vow, the subject of these two recordings, starts with a conscious intention which is so vast, so unlimited in scope, that if taken seriously, rattles at egoic-attachment and begins to shake our limiting self-beliefs.
This idea could provoke anxiety but taking this Vow as a path is a way that may eventually lead to a genuine stability, that of indestructible integrity…no matter what the circumstances!
In inviting association and alliance with, and support from, those who have trodden this path before us –some to its completion of realisation of Buddhahood – our lives can be immeasurably enriched with deepening profundity through practice… through engagement…
…and all the tensions of being at ‘sixes and sevens’ are resolved in the universal common denominator of 0, of emptiness or openness… as is explained in the perfection of wisdom of the Heart Sutra*.
Different paths lead up mountain Everest to the site of the (now non-existent) ‘Hillary step’, the once formidable challenge or crux faced by mountaineers just before the summit*….each path offers different challenges and a different appreciation of the mountain and it’s environment.
Just so different pathways lead us deeper into the dharma and to an appreciation of the rich variety of dharma teachings… all point towards the absolute – 0… which whilst underlying, non-dual, with everything… is beyond or without paths, fixed-ropes, striving or any thing.
*If you are looking to deepen your understanding of the Heart Sutra I can recommend Macclesfield talk 13 The Illusory nature of Experience which you can find from this index – audio and video available
and also the The Heart Sutra Emerson College 2014 audio recordings.
* The placing of fixed ropes diminished the extreme hazard of climbing this section;
it’s near vertical slope was destroyed in the 2015 Nepal earthquake.