For a practice that emphasizes the ultimate unity of all dharmas, practitioners can sometimes overlook that. "You're the Lesser vehicle, I'm the Greater vehicle." "Oh yeah, well I'm the Diamond Vehicle, so there." "But Diamond, you have all these deities and weird rituals...Decidedly not the Buddha's original teaching." (Mahayana nods in agreement).
Malintha Hwamin Citta occupies a somewhat unique position--having grown up in Sri Lanka, she practiced Vipassana meditation, then started practicing with One Mind Zen, and through an association with a nun in Sri Lanka from the Tibetan tradition, she is also practicing that form as well. Not one instead of the others, not a jugdemental view of one tradition over the others, just practice. Situation, relationship, function--when practicing Zen, practice in the Zen way. But the teachings from one tradition always inform and influence the other forms, notably in "putting it all down" and (slams table) "all becomes one."
Malintha gave the Dharma talk at One Mind Zen on November 29, 2023, just before leaving for a 3-month long retreat in Nepal.
