BOWING FOR WORLD PEACE

DAILY LOG KEPT BY BHIKSU HENG Ju AND BHIKSU HENG Yo DURING THEIR JOURNEY FOR WORLD PEACE

Nov. 14 - My birthday is today, Nov. 14: we have gone 100 miles, and are becoming accustomed to operating in the rain.

Nov. 15 - Passing by Sea Ranch, a careful of drunks came out to hassle us.  Hung Yo was up ahead looking for a campsite. They rolled along side me for several minutes as I bowed along, making fun of me and shouting obscenities. I did not look at them. After a while, one of them got out of the car and approached me from the rear. I put my fate in the bands of Kuan Yin Bodhisattva and kept bowing. Finally the man asked me what I was doing. I stopped bowing and answered his questions in a friendly and straightforward manner. I could see his face change. When he went back to the car to tell his friends, I could hear them saying, "Wow, a hundred miles! All the way from San Francisco!" They turned around, sped off, and never came back.

Nov. 16 - Judy Bruff, a Quaker, turned over her house to us as we passed the Sea Ranch area. We stayed there twice and she stayed at the home of relatives. Each day she drove us to the bowing area.

Nov. 17 - Encountered-continuing Pacific storms as we passed through the towns of Gualala and Anchor Bay. A man came out of the Anchor Tavern and gave Heng Yo a couple of dollars and said "You gotta eat, don't you?...if you thank me, you're crazy!" In Gualala we were invited to stay at a house for the night with some young people. When they began drinking and smoking dope, we went to our room and sat in dhyana meditation. We should have left.

Nov. 18 - The day was clear with a strong cold northern wind in our faces and only intermittent rain. That evening as I was making the final prostration of the day and Heng Yo was standing right next to me, a car full of drunks came racing down the highway towards us about 80 mph and threw a full beer can at us. It missed my head by about an inch and exploded on the ground next to Hung Yo. If it had hit, it surely would have killed me. We remembered the Master's words, "When you cultivate the Way, demons appear and try to kill you." We thought that it was especially wonderful that they missed.

Nov. 19 - We have gone 130 miles already, and Heng Yo reminded me of the line in the Venerable Master Hsu Yun's autobiography; "Although his progress did not seem like much, it accumulated slowly, day by day." Passed through Point Arena and Manchester. Many people have stopped to ask us about our trip and Buddhism. Several police officers have also stopped to check us out, saying we look like escaped convicts or AWOL sailors.  They are friendly and courteous, but some of them appear to have serious doubts about our sanity.

Nov. 20 - Sometimes we camp on the beach - it is really nice to pitch the tent and build a roaring bonfire, and then sit in meditation. We hear the thundering surf kicking up, and gaze into Orange flames, and think of far-off places. Ahhhhh -- just like in a dream, all of our yesterdays have gone, and tomorrow never come. In reality there is only the present moment, but how few are able to dwell in it! One who is able to live totally in the present is called a man of the Way with no heart. He has no views of self or other. His mind is unobstructed by thought, he has conquered all his desires. He realizes that the whole universe is merely a manifestation of the Buddha-mind--pure, clear, and essentially unmoving. All the suffering of birth, old age, sickness' and death are no longer problems, because he has united with the self-nature. Even if an atomic bomb went off, it would be no great affair.

Occasionally I am coerced into telling a sea story, and go into a long rap about my days aboard the submarine USS Rock. The captain on that boat was bold and daring as a lion, and together we had many high adventures while crossing the Pacific. One of his favorite tricks was to run at full speed along the bottom when we were chased by surface craft. This is really quite dangerous, because a submarine travels blind underwater, and only relies on compass and charts. But it makes us hard to find.  He would estimate where the bottom was and run at full speed just 5 feet above that estimate. Everyone's nerves would be on end, imagining us running into a large underwater mountain - but we never did. One day I asked him why he did that and he replied, "Don't think about death. If you are going to play this game, you play to win!" In fact, in all the fleet competition for battle efficiency, opposing two diesel subs and two nuclear subs, we came out first!