Two Arrows Meeting in Midair
A Journey Through Sandōkai
Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
Contents
COME AS YOU ARE
2. ONE JEWEL, MANY FACETS
3. TRANSCENDENT RADIANCE
4. THE COSMIC SYMPHONY
5. THE MASTER'S VOICE
6. THE ELEMENTAL EMBRACE
7. JUST TO PRACTICE IS THE WAY
8. ALL IS SUCHNESS
9. JOURNEY ON FREELY
10. LET IT BE
11. LISTEN AND BE HEARD
12. COMING HOME
13. DO NOT SQUANDER YOUR LIFE
Preface
Every morning in Sōtō Zen temples around the world, before the sun has fully cleared the horizon, voices rise together to chant the Sandōkai—The Harmony of Difference and Equality. Composed in eighth-century China by Sekitō Kisen (Shitou Xiqian, 700–790), a direct dharma heir of the Sixth Ancestor Daikan Enō, these forty-four lines of five-character verse remain one of the most luminous and essential tapestries in our lineage.
Sekitō lived his life on a flat rock high on Mount Heng, looking out over a world fractured by competing philosophies and sectarian rivalries. His response to that division was not another manifesto, nor a retreat into blank uniformity. Instead, he offered a living vision of reality in which the absolute and the relative, unity and diversity, light and dark are seen not as enemies to be reconciled, but as partners in an intimate, unending dance. Like a box and its lid, they fit together seamlessly. Like two arrows loosed from opposite sides of a valley, they meet point-to-point in midair—Right Here, Right Now.
Yet because we chant the Sandōkai so frequently, its words can easily wear smooth in the mouth. We risk treating Sekitō’s verse as either a lofty philosophical treatise to be dissected by the intellect or a liturgical lullaby we recite on autopilot. It is neither. The Sandōkai is a map of the zafu and a mirror of our ordinary, messy, miraculous lives.
The commentaries gathered in these thirteen installments grew out of a shared journey with our Sangha. At the head of each section, you will find two classic English translations—those of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and Taizan Maezumi Roshi—placed side by side. Holding both translations together reminds us from the very outset not to cling to words and letters,allowing the space between their phrasings to point us toward the living marrow of the teaching.
Do not read these pages merely to collect another set of Buddhist ideas. Bring them to your cushion. Bring them to your kitchen sink, your relationships, and the quiet places where you still hold yourself apart from the world. Let the small self soften, step into the fertile wonder of not-knowing, and meet what is directly before you.
Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
SANDŌKAI PART ONE | COME AS YOU ARE
We arrive at practice carrying a lifetime of expectations. What happens when we loosen our grasp on the stories we call “I”? The opening lines of the Sandōkai invite us to encounter the mind of the Buddha directly—in sitting, in community, and in the life unfolding right here. Come as you are.
SANDŌKAI PART TWO | ONE JEWEL, MANY FACETS
Each of us reflects a unique facet of the same precious jewel. The Sandōkai invites us beyond the divisions of wise and foolish, North and South, into a practice that honors difference without losing sight of our intimacy. What becomes possible when we meet each moment as beginners?
SANDŌKAI PART THREE | TRANSCENDENT RADIANCE
The source shines clearly, yet its branching streams flow in the dark. Sekitō asks us to release our grip on both fixed things and an imagined oneness. In the interplay of clarity and wonder, we are invited to taste our life directly.
SANDŌKAI PART FOUR | THE COSMIC SYMPHONY
The bell, the incense, the taste of tea—each has its own place, yet none stands alone. These lines of the Sandōkai invite us to honor the distinct expression of each thing while joining wholeheartedly in the harmony of the whole.
SANDŌKAI PART FIVE | THE MASTER'S VOICE
A crow’s call and a temple bell move through the same morning air. What happens when we hear them without grasping at our judgments? The Sandōkai opens a practice of discernment rooted in wonder, where even the roughest voice can reveal the teaching.
SANDŌKAI PART SIX | THE ELEMENTAL EMBRACE
Fire heats, wind moves, water wets, earth supports. Like a child returning to its mother, each element rests in its own nature. In the warmth of the body, the movement of breath, and the ground beneath our feet, we discover that we have never been apart from this embrace.
