Audio dharma by Ian Case (2020/02/29)

Brooklyn Zen Center

For me the most powerful things the vows do are because of their impossible nature -- they are humbling. They have a kind of leveling effect. In the face of this impossible vow, I'm one person in a community. So there is an aspect of confession in that vow, of acknowledging our humanness and our limited view. So there is a humbling and tenderizing effect of the vow, that enables us to open up to the functioning of the universe, we actually open up to possibility. We become tender in the face of new possibilities, our imagination is liberated.