Form Is No Other Than Emptiness, Emptiness No Other Than Form

A nice hot kettle of stew. He ruins it by dropping a couple of rat turds in. It's no good pushing delicacies at a person with a full belly. Striking aside waves to look for water when the waves are water.

Forms don't hinder emptiness; emptiness is the tissue of form.
Emptiness isn't destruction of form; form is the flesh of emptiness.
Inside the Dharma gates where form and emptiness are not-two
A lame turtle with painted eyebrows stands in the evening breeze.

-from Zen Words for the Heart: Hakuin's Commentary on the Heart Sutra
(Normal Waddell, trans)

In my most recent talk, Talking to a Rock, I referenced a talk from a few years back in which I shared the story of my journey to practice, and said I would post it here.  So here it is, dusted off and freshened up a bit, with tales of affinity for the Way via things occurring in early childhood through to adolescence and on to early adulthood, culminating with my participating in the ceremony of taking refuge, which marked the beginning of my journey with The Open Source and Pacific Zen School.

Enjoy!

  Yunyan asked a student what they had been doing.
  "I've been talking to a rock."
  Yunyan asked, "Who spoke first, you or the rock?"
  When the student didn't reply, Yunyan said, "It was nodding to you before you even said a word."