Sandokai is an ancient teaching poem composed by Chinese Zen master Sekito Kisen (Shitou Xiqian, 700-790). It's recited daily in Soto Zen temples throughout the world and deals with an issue of paramount importance in Zen: the relationship between the relative and absolute dimensions of reality. In week 3 of our line-by-line study of the Sandokai Domyo leads us in a discussion of the four following lines

"Sights vary in quality and form, sounds differ as pleasing or harsh. Refined and common speech come together in the dark, clear and murky phrases are distinguished in the light.

The four elements return to their natures just as a child turns to its mother; Fire heats, wind moves, water wets, earth is solid."