Dai Shin
Vows are empty
They cannot be seen, tasted, smelled, touched, or thought.
My vows vows provide form for my life.
Perhaps they are the cause and I the effect…
and that this is why I received them.
Dai Shin
Great Heart
In 1980, my fellow massage therapy students named me Pure Heart. In 1998, Thich Nhat Hanh gave me the name Deep Understandingof the Heart. In 2003, Hilbert Roshi named me Great Heart, Dai Shin. Great does not mean good, but refers to spaciousness, vast space. Shin means heart and mind, just one word for both. For me, Dai Shin is not a name. It is a path.
All I can say is that following my heart has been the only way I have survived this life. It is also the way I have made al of my mistakes, and the way I have found all of my joy.
The greatest lesson on this path is discovering the capacity to hold both vast pain and vast joy in one heart. Indeed, two sides of one coin, inseparable as the day is from the night.
Gate gate paragate, parasamgate, bodhi svaha.
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