Verses on the Faith-Mind

Hello, Today we are looking at the next to last section in the Shin Jin Mei which reads, “Being is nothing but non-being…If you realize it thus, why worry about non-perfection.” In reading the various translations this week, I lean quite heavily towards the translation by Nelson, especially his last line. I have always found our translation, “If you realize it thus, why worry about not finishing?” rather awkward and confusing but Foster’s translation seems to tie together much of what we have already touched on. He translates, “If your insight matches this (a mind with no walls), what anxieties could remain?” If there is no picking and choosing, what anxiety could remain. If there were no rest or motion, no large or small, no love or hate; what worries, frustration or doubts would remain? Seng-t’san will tell us next week, “The reliable mind lacks dualities; nonduality is relying on mind.” And when we rely on THIS mind, each and every other thing drops…& what is left? If there are anxieties, please let go. If there is hesitation, let go. If doubts remain, drop them. Then what is left?

When ‘everywhere is right before your eyes’ then being is actually nonbeing, nonbeing not other than being. This certainly sounds like a re-phrasing of the Heart Sutra, “Form is emptiness. Emptiness form. Form is no other than emptiness. Emptiness no other than form.” This also reminds me of  the opening lines to Hakuin’s lovely song, “All beings by nature are Buddha, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water, there is no ice; apart from beings no buddha.” What do you think…are each referring to the same perspective? Different?

I have noticed in past discussion notes that folks sometimes wonder if a particular line or couplet may be a metaphor or not. I enjoyed it immensely many years ago when I heard Aitken Roshi say, “All is metaphor.” Why do you imagine he would say such a thing? Do you think he was correct or did he misspeak? I think if you can see into the old layman’s meaning, Seng-t’san’s inscription may blossom from your heart forever.

Enjoy

Jack

Hello All, This morning we are looking at, “The entire universe is before your eyes./ The infinitely small is the same as the large;/ boundaries have vanished./ The infinitely large is the same as the small;/ divisions cannot be seen.” Actually, the entire universe is in your eyes but it is too early in the morning to quibble with translations. Walt Whitman said that he contained multitudes. He was correct. However, it is not only he who contained multitudes. You also contain multitudes. However, it is not only you who contain multitudes. The gecko singing on the zendo wall, the red wing black bird arriving from the south,  and the snowy owl moving north, all contain multitudes. We are multitudes and are, in turn, contained by multitudes. One time, the old lay person, Vimilikirti was sick. Manjusri and a retinue of Bodhisattvas went to look in on him and inquire about his health. They had a fun and interesting exchange when first meeting outside his small modest hut that we pick up as a koan in the Blue Cliff Record and which you should surely read about in the The Vimilikirti Sutra (Eileen highly recommends the Watson version over Luk or Thurmund). After the exchange, he invites them all into his 10′x10′ hut. One Bodhisattva wonders how they will all fit but Vimilikirti encourages her to not limit herself  with worry about such things as that. So each enters, one by one by one until hundreds & hundreds have entered the hut. And as they enter, each is offered a throne to sit on which is catered to by tens and tens of servants. And each throne has other smaller thrones circling around it and each of those thrones is served by a multitude of servants. Yet, all have room and all feel spacious, boundless and free. It is quite a wonderful situation. Incidentally, the dokusan room has the same name as Vimilikirti’s hut and traditionally is built to the same dimensions. When you enter, all are all ready present and at the same time, when you enter, all enter with you. Nothing is left out, all are included. Dokusan presents the chance for you to show all of yourself. It allows the chance to show yourself as the cypress tree and the chance for the cypress to show itself as you. It is a unique time, and of course, can be used to talk about life, and situations, and ideas but it can also be charged with the possibility of presenting you as all of you…with no prior thought, with no meaning, with no formulations or contrivances. You can show yourself with no height: big or small; with no sex: male or female; with no race: white, black, red or yellow; with no age: old, young or in the middle. What a challenge but what a joy.

Harking back to some past conversations, we should remember the fact of Vimilikirti’s hut when we are looking for an ethics of conduct. Everywhere it is right before your eye. Everywhere it is in your eye. Everywhere it is your eye. However, it does not come forth as everything but as a particular being, sentient or insentient. It comes forth as animal, tree, bush, rock. It also comes forth as thought, feeling, intuition…again, not in general but in particular. Dogen says it this way, ” In mustering the whole body and mind and seeing forms, in mustering the whole body and mind and hearing sounds, each is intimately perceived; but it is not like the reflection in a mirror, nor like the moon in the water. When one side is realized the other side is dark.”

I’d like to close today with a poem by Joyce Carol Oates titled THAT.

THAT/ single pear in its ripeness/ this morning swollen-ripe/ its texture rough, rouged// more demanding upon the eye than the tree/ branching about it/more demanding than the ornate dropping limbs/of a hundred perfect trees//yet flawed: marked as with a fingernail/a bird’s jabbing beak/the bruise of rot/benign as a birthmark/a family blemish//still, its solitary stubborn weight is a bugle/ a summoning of brass/ the pride of  it subdues the orchard/ more astonishing than the acres of trees/ the army of ladders/ the worker’s stray shouts//      that first pear’s weight/

exceeds the season’s tonnage/costly beyond estimation/ a prize, a riddle/ a feast.

Is it small or large? Good or bad? Being or non-being?

Jack

Hello Everyone, This week we are picking up the following section of the FaithMind, ” The dharma-realm of true actuality/ harbors neither self nor other./To reach accord with it at once, /Hurry and delay have no bearing;/an instant is 10000 years.” It is interesting that Nelson Foster is able to translate the usually translated 10-12 lines in four and the Kwan Um folks translate it even more succinctly. I find myself wondering if ‘our’ translation simply followed D. T. Suzuki’s very early translation and created a more fluid version. I will talk to Nelson in the near future and find out his take on this.

“In the dharma world of true actuality,  there is no other, there is no self.” I wonder, where is this world of true suchness? And if there is no other, there is no self, what is t/here? Who? Maybe it would be worth a 10 minute break in this mornings meeting to walk outside and find it. After locating it, maybe you can bring it back and show the group. You may not be able to find it where you are though because this morning, as Eileen and I were on a looong, sunny, sandy beach walk here on the very wild west coast of Vancouver Island south of Tofino, we skitted over a small creek crossing and off to the side, gleaming in the sun if the angle were exactly so, was a lost mermaid’s purse. Of course, we didn’t know it was a mermaid’s purse, having only heard mermaid tales in the past, but we knew immendaitely that this was the it that Seng-t’san was talking about. We only gently handled it, not because suchness is necessarily fragile, but because it was stunningly beautiful and somewhat mysterious and we wanted the folks who might stumble on it later in the day to find it just so.

The very interesting thing about this encounter was that now, as we continued walking, we saw purses everywhere. It was in the clutches of an eagle building a nest. It was in the flotsam and jetson at the high water mark. It was in the call of the gulls, the squeaks of the squirrels, and the booming of surf on hardened sand. It was dazzling at times, and entirely ordianary at others. It was significant and insignificant, beautiful and ugly, bland and robust and it seemed to appear where ever our eyes were looking. And at some point, it became hungry, so we headed back to the cabin by the water we are staying in and had lunch.

If  I were asked to express it immediately, I wouldn’t dare say it was everywhere. And I wouldn’t say it is everything. Yet, I wouldn’t say ‘not-two’ but  I wouldn’t say ‘not-even-one’ either. However,  if forced to say, I think I would stick with my initial exclamation, “mermaid’s purse”, after finding out that is what it was. I wonder, after your walk and if you are lucky enough to find it, what you’ll call it? Please don’t call it something buddhistie. Find its true name maybe and call it that. Log. Tower. Lamp. Sad.  Love. Thoughtful. Enjoy. Jack.

ps. “A single thought (that is no-thought) is 10000 years.” We are not trying to stop our thinking in zazen although that happens for some and is quite delightful and fulfilling. However, we want to realize as Hakuin alludes to in his great song, the thought that is no-thought at all. With this thought that is no thought, singing and dancing are the Way. Walking the beach and shoveling the snow are the Way. A conversation with your love or a late night of musing are also that. Don’t bog down in worrying about thinking and not thinking. Just loosen your associative and habituated tendencies, open your hands and look at, smell, hear and think–all are paths on the Way. All, when tied to nothing, are it. Actually, although Seng-t’san writes,  “One moment is 10000 years” do not be misled by this. He does mean one instant contains all instances past, present and future. This is the perspective of chronos. But he is implying at the very same moment, that each instant, each thought that is no-thought, each form that is no-form,  has nothing to do with time or space. This is the perspective of kairos. This is mind with no walls. Boundless. Vast. Neither here nor there. Neither now nor later.

“Nothing hangs in the mind,/There is nothing to remember./Boundless, clear, self-illuminating–/The mind does not make efforts./ This is the place of non-thinking,/Difficult to fathom with intellect or feeling.”

Hello Everyone,  I’d like to start today by saying something about the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. Our lineage looks at the precepts from 3 different vantage points–the hinayana, the mahayana and the essential. The hinayana view is quite literal. Not killing means just that. We may attempt to fulfill this vow by eating a vegetarian or vegan diet. We may try to move carefully and thoughtfully in the world and in our daily activities. We move with kindness knowing we are all kin. We attempt to lessen our footprint but the best we can do is lessen the footprint, we can never erase it. In a sense, we can only fail because for us to live, others must die. However, by bumping into this fact over and over again, by bumping into our own inability to fulfill this vow and the others, we are humbled. We fail no matter how hard we try; no matter how much we sit; no matter how loving and kind we are. We fail no matter which way we move. We fail and are humbled. Some quit practice at this point doubting their own resolve and diligence but this expectation holds us to an inhumane standard, the standard of the religious super-ego. This is pride…expecting or demanding that the self be more than human. Some blame the practice at this point for not fulfilling expectations, hopes and needs. Of course, this is simply an egoistic movement to avoid feeling.

Allow yourself to feel defeated, to feel humbled. You cannot entirely fulfill these vows (although they may be able to fill you). As we feel humility (a word related to humus, human, homo), as we go into our dark places of failure, disappointment and disillusionment, a compassion begins to arise. We realize our own imperfections and we begin to touch them, and in time, embody them. As we make this movement downward, we begin to realize that we are all in this together. We realize we are not unique or special and that all feel pain, all have tears, and all have pains of loss and disappointment. We realize our tears as her tears. We touch and know our sadness as his sadness. This movement is called compassion, although not from the Latin ‘pietas’ which means pity, but from ‘cum patior’ which means to share solidarity with, to under-go (go-under) with, to be in oneness with.

This arising of compassion is the mahayana perspective that we now bring to precepts. We do not leave behind the first aspect, but we include it in this new, vaster vision. There is compassion toward self and others. Although we still hold the precepts as more than guidelines, there is a firm softness that allows for our foibles, eccentricities and limits. Our vision is clearer but the means still inhabit the world of this and that, of picking and choosing, of rest and movement. We succeed and we fail. (NOTE: please read W. S. Merwins’ The Vixen: Fox Sleep, pg.4; or Migrations: Fox Sleep, pg.361; or read Gateless Gate; Case 2) This perspective ties us deeply to our own humanity thus to our own kinship with all beings, sentient and insentient; alive or dead; here or somewhere else; now or some other time. This awareness cracks open your heart. You realize that your heart is large, larger than you ever imagined and that its capacity is great. You find that you contain and are contained by multitudes.

In the vast ground of the mahayana, you break open to the essential view, the 3rd aspect. The walls of the mind drop away (“Nothing hangs in the mind”) so there is no inside or outside in perception. There is no you, me or it. There is no one thing called a separate self. Nothing hangs in the mind of no walls. It is luminous and genuine. It is before and after. It is vast and blue like the desert sky in late autumn. And it eats when it is hungry, sleeps when tired and pisses when overflowing. And it can’t be gauged by reason or feeling.

The deep heart of compassion is now a heart of love. Love, not in spite of, but for our foibles, eccentricities and limitations; love for our picking and choosing; love for our likes and dislikes. Although there are still tears, sadness and suffering; there is also an equanimity, a joy taken in the beautiful, heart-breaking, bitter-sweetness of the mystery…Of the mystery of rising–from where, I know not–& falling again and again–to what, I know not. Yet in this not-knowing, it is certain that, “All are blessed, all are blessed; Is that two? Is that one?” This is the place of non-thinking, difficult to fathom.

Enjoy

Jack

Hello All, Winter has finally arrived in the great Northwest. We have 15″ of powder on the ground and lows of 10 degrees and daytime temperatures @ 20 degrees. Unfortunately it is warming up and it is said rain and wind are on the way. I am enjoying the cold and am especially enjoying the powder. If you are ever stuck in on a cold winter’s eve and are looking for something to read take a look at John Haine’s Winter News. Aitken Roshi loved Wallace Stevens’ work and referred to ‘Snowman’ at least in two essays. I lean more toward Haines’ If the Owl Calls Again which goes like this:

at dusk/from the island in the river,/ and it’s not too cold

I’ll wait for the moon/to rise,/then take wing and glide/to meet him.

We will not speak,/but hooded against the frost/soar above/the alder flats, searching/with tawny eyes.

And then we’ll sit/in the shodowy spruce/and pick the bones/of careless mice,

while the long moon drifts/towrd Asia/and the river mutters/in its icy bed.

And when the morning climbs/the limbs/we’ll part without a sound,

fulfilled, floating/homeward as/the cold world awakens.       (1960)

Today, we are looking at, “Stop moving and there is no movement;…When doubts and suspicion are cleared away, true faith is easily attained.”

This is the first time Seng-t’san explicitly states that there is not even One. Since movement and stillness do not exist; since picking and choosing do not originally exist; since rest and unrest do not originally exist;  and since neither a dull murky mind nor discursive thinking is it, then what is it?  John Haines seems to say only, ‘ flap flap flap.’ Wallace Stevens says, ‘coldcold.’ Actually, neither of them says anything, they just present the fact of movement and rest, of existence and non-existence. Seng-t’san, if pushed, might say,  as does the Heart Sutra,”no walls”  when expressing not even one. When there are no walls, when there are no walls of the mind, we can say boundless, or vastness. Yet, this too, is leaning too heavily on one side unless we then get up from the chair and walk down to the store to buy milk and bread for our guests. It isn’t enough to say, we need act. We need to actively save all beings.

The author goes on to say something that can be taken out of context and can be used to justify lousy behavior and abhorrent conduct. “In the absolute there are no rules;” (but this is not the end of the statement!) He continues with, “the mind that accords with it becomes impartial; ceasing to plan and strive.” The mind of not even one is in accord with it. It is in accord with no killing, with no stealing, with no lying, with no hiding, with no sexual misconduct. It is in accord with practicing all good and following, manifesting, and actualizing the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. No one is above these or beyond them. They are the enlightened mind itself. As you have time, please look at our Jukai ceremony and muse on the words of Bodhidharma and Dogen that the assembly recites for each of the 10 Precepts. Take them to heart. Without these 16 precepts, whether taken formally or informally, this practice is nothing other than a weekend hobby. Zen can often over emphasize just sitting, but as Hakuin tells us in his great song, the precepts, paramitas and repentance all come directly from our zazen–they are, in a sense, the direct manifestations, articulations and expressions of sitting. I have heard folks say the precepts are guidelines. I think this is too soft an understanding and allows way too much wiggling. Take them for what they are, not measures or rules, but presentations of an open heart and open hands.

Yun-men was asked by a monk, “What is the one teaching the Buddha gave over the course of his life?”  Yun-men said, “One teaching in accord.”

When doubts and suspicion have fallen away; when picking and choosing, rest and motion, lack and excess, scarcity and abundance have dropped, simply, like leaves in November with the first autumn wind and rain, the mind-body realizes there truly are no walls. Faith, confidence and trust are siblings but I imagine trust as the elder. Trust your intention to wake up. Trust your practice, your life, as it unfolds. And trust those you find around the table with you for we are all walking the ancient path, together.

take care

Jack

ps. I asked the Moscow participants to read Case 35 in the Gateless Gate and also to read the story of Ch’ien. It is not necessary to read the verse, poem or commentary. As you read the story, hold Wu-tsu’s question and the 1st line in today’s reading in mind. Also imagine movement as health, abundance and being and sickness as scarcity, rest and non-being. How does this inform Seng-t’san’s poem? &, of course,

Which Is the True Ch’ien? Remember, explanations are not necessary. Remember Haines and Stevens.

Hello Everyone, Happy New Year to you and yours!
Today we will be looking at, “If the eye never sleeps, dreams naturally cease…causation disappears and comparisons cannot be made.”
Here is a lovely poem written in China nine centuries ago. Most good poems do not need a preface but because of the cultural allusion in this poem which many might not be familiar with, I will say something before the poem.
Once Chuang-chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Chuang-chou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Chuang-chou. But he didn’t know if he was Chuang-chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang-chou.
Here is the poem by Mia-tsong:
A leaf of a boat drifts across the endless expanse of water,
Lifting and dancing the oars to a different melody now.
Clouds on the mountain, moon over the sea: all tossed away.
This done, Chuang-chou’s butterfly dream will last forever.

“All dualistic views come form your own mistaken deductions. They are dreams, fantasies, spots before your eyes; why do you try to grasp them?” The dream we often use as our base to experience and perceive the world is I am over here and you are over there. From that mistaken notion all our anxiety, worry, fear and depression arise. When we see through that conceptual framework, we see through to the great dream, the dream of the buddha. We see through to the mind that does not have walls. When we put this experience of no walls into words we exclaim, as did the buddha, “Now I see, all are enlightened from the very beginning, each just needs to realize that fact.” This fact, which is always right before us, whether the eye is closed or not, is our birth right. If you practice continually either today or tomorrow, or next year or next century, you will wake up to this buddha dream, your very own dream. In this way the coarse dream of ‘I am here and you are there’ will fall away of itself.

I have heard folks say this short passage (if the eye never sleeps, then dreams will cease) means that enlightened folks don’t dream. This is a mistaken notion for many reasons but here are three. First off, there are not enlightened people but enlightened activity. Second, in true zazen you do not hear sound, you are the sound. In zazen, you do not smell fragrance, you are that very fragrance. So who is there to dream? You are that. Third, the only time I don’t dream is when I am anesthetized. (let’s not talk about rem sleep vs other sleeps) The root of the word anesthesia is without aesthetics. Dreaming can open us up to untold depths of possibilities. Sometimes during long sitting retreats, I’ll find someone heading to the coffee urn because her zazen is sleepy or dreamy and this feels unproductive, so the student wants caffeine to sharpen focus and attention. This is a mistake. That dreamy sleepy state can be a very powerful time. Things untold and unknown can slip in and more importantly, things (you) can slip away. This is a liminal space, a crack between what we know and what we don’t know; between who we are and who are not. It is a sweet space and, although it should not be sought, it also should not be disregarded.
In our koan, we find that some wake up while looking at stars or some when listening to creeks; some wake up smelling flowers and others while cutting wood; some wake up while walking, some while sitting and some while sleeping. We even find in a few cases, folks waking up while dreaming. Each activity we are involved in, whether during day or night, is filled with the potential of awakening. Pay attention, there is nothing that is not infused with the buddha dream; there is nothing outside that dream.

As you are in bed readying to sleep, continue to practice but hold it lightly. Just stay with your breath. In. Out. And as you fall away, notice whether you fall on the in or out. Pay attention. Gently. Softly. This way of practicing will infuse your sleep and create an intention for your night’s wanderings. In the morning, immediately on waking notice: in or out. There is no need to be hard and fast here, just notice and then get on with your day.

Of course, if sleepiness or dreaminess is a constant in your zazen, please talk to me. There is something knocking at your door and you are keeping your shoulder against it in an attempt to ignore that friendly knocking.
Incidentally, the phrase, “They are dreams,  fantasies, spots before the eyes…” comes from the Diamond Sutra. At Mountain Lamp this May we will be having a 3 week retreat focused on this Wisdom Sutra. There will be periods of zazen, study, dokusan, dharma talks and work. If you can come for a week or 2 or 3, please do. Past 3-4 week retreats have been focused on the Heart Sutra, the Lotus Sutra and the Record of Lin-chi and participants have found them to be an invaluable experience. See the Mountain Lamp web page for details and a registration form will be going out shortly.

If we don’t conjure up differences, we find that all are kin. If we don’t purposely create distinctions or comparisons, we find we are all in this together. This is simply another way to state the buddha’s great dream. All of us together with no walls in mind. How can there be any picking and choosing? Of what? By who?

An old teacher said, “I don’t know anything about consciousness. I just try to teach my students how to hear the birds sing.” Last week, I mentioned the Satipatthana Sutra. One precursor for practicing this sutra is to find a good and solid practice place. There are three mentioned. First, find a forest to practice in; or, 2nd, sit under a great tree; or, 3rd, find a small hut. Instead of reading (a book) this week, why not instead take a walk in a forest or sit/stand/lay down under a tree and read nature. However, by reading nature I do not mean naming things. See past your associative thinking and feeling, see past your own dream of ‘I am here and you are over there’. Allow yourself to see below the shades and subtle leanings of your interpretations to what is always presenting itself–the great dream, the buddha’s dream, your very own dream.

enjoy the walk; enjoy your practice of being here, together…
Jack

Seng-t’san died in the early part of the 7th century. Although parts of this poem were written at a later time, the Shin Jin Mei is very much a poem of the formative period of what we call Chan. I am not a history major so some of what I am saying has no real backing but nevertheless…
Many early mahayana sutras (ie Vimilikirti, Lotus, Flower Garland, Heart) were in part a corrective for the practices that were happening in that time. This seems to be true for the Shin Jin Mei also. I imagine there were many practices that were focused on mind only and entirely left out, or even purposely blocked out, sounds, smells, tastes etc. I was recently reading a book on the Satipatthana sutra by a vipassana teacher from the east coast and over the course of 2-300 pages of working with the body, feelings and thoughts in meditation there was not one mention of calling birds, fragrant incense, or red and yellow flowers on the altar. It was all about the human endeavor of being with (in) yourself… mind investigating mind with the mind. Seng-t’san is correcting that style of practice when he says, “Indeed, not hating the sense world is identical with true enlightenment”. He also says, “Using the mind to seek the mind–isn’t that a great mistake?” When we leave out sounds and smells; when we leave out nature a subtle discrimination arises. We begin, I think, to distrust nature. We experience it as a distraction and it becomes a hindrance. Once we let in this nuanced discrimination, it is only a matter of time before we distrust other things of the senses–the body, women, etc.

One of the burning questions in the 7th-9th centuries was, “Do insentient beings have buddha nature or not?” Thus we have questions in our koan about dogs, cats, shit-sticks, rice balls etc. The classical tradition seemed to be rather clear on this matter—first a layperson, then a nun, then a monk, then stages of practice were mastered and on and on until the crossing over. Again, Seng-t’san is speaking directly to this traditional practice and offering another, deeper and clearer, path to practice and waking up. Dogen was fond of saying that each thing, sentient or insentient, occupied its own unique dharma position and gave teisho from that perspective. Seng-t’san and his contemporaries were just beginning to survey this field of great shouts from one and all. The author is insistent that our picking and choosing come from our mistaken deductions and can only lead to worry and anxiety. This poem shows an obvious move from India to China as it begins to incorporate the native religion of China, Taoism. We see the next step in this evolution  of Dhyana, Taoism and Confucianism becoming Chan in Shih-t’ou’s The Coincidence of Opposites.

The Shin Jin Mei is one sutra in our sutra service. We start the service with three bells and the Purification gatha, followed by the heart sutra, onto one or two readings, then Torei Zenji and the Kannon Sutra, ending with Great Vows, 3 bows and 3 bells. It is one service and, in fact, the way the chant leader rings the bells indicates there is only one sutra with different variations (heart sutra, kannon sutra, 4 virtues of a bodhisattva et al). Three bells open the service and three bells end the service. The other sutras are prompted by only one bell. No one sutra stands alone so if we are to look for an ethics, we need to look to the entirety of what we recite. I think this might be a fun next venture–the ethics of modern living unfolded from our zen liturgy.

Unfortunately, I need to get going. I have some surgery prep I need to do and then up early in the morning for another pre-op ritual. I am the first to be cut tomorrow (Friday) morning, so wish me well.

until we meet again

Jack

Please enjoy.

Hello All,  This week we’ll continue with a  short passage that goes like this, “Discursive thought turns away from the truth…Indeed, not disdaining the world of the senses is enlightenment itself.” Sorry for switching translations in mid-stream. I have always felt strongly that it is within the world of our conditions where our waking up takes place. It is the tweet of the winter wren. It is the drip, drip, drip of melting ice. It is the fragrance of daphne that wakes us up…and it wakes us up to that. The tweet of the wren does not wake us up to anything but that tweet.  It does not remind us of something else. I feel like Nelson’s translation of this line far surpasses our sutra book rendering. “Not disdaining the six senses–that’s it!” It is in the senses, not in general but particularly. It is in the joining with or falling away of subject-object-activity. Tweet-tweet. Hoot-hoot.

If you want to know the awakened world, if you want to experience it, then don’t disregard the world that you hear, see, smell and touch. There is only one-whole-world. There is only the seamless monument. Each thing you meet is yourself. So whether you pick that or choose this, you meet yourself. You meet yourself as the tweet, as the drip, as standing, as sitting. You meet yourself as you hug a friend, as you chastise the dog, as you honk your horn. There is no way to turn away for it is the ten directions. If there is one standout line for me in this inscription on the heart, it is this one.

We do not sit on the cushions mulling over things or working out issues or, needless to say, planning the day or our lives. And because this is the middle way, we are not reaching for the opposite. We are not trying to not-think. Attempting to not-think often leads to a sinking, to a sinking into a flat, dull space of empty-numbness. This empty-numbness is sometimes confused as samadhi but isn’t even close. Samadhi is engaged and poised, balanced on the cliff edge of life and death. It may be dreamy at times but it is alive and the sounds and smells are very close-by, very close indeed. We do not sit indulging in thought although thoughts may come and go like clouds on a northwest autumn afternoon. And we do not try to stop thoughts any more than we try to stop the clouds that float freely across the sky of Mind. As the author asks, “What point is there in being for or against?” And when you are not for or against, when you sit with open hands, that is the middle way. When the bird sings from a branch of your own heart, that’s it. When you stand up, pungent with the smell of daphne, that’s it. When tears of sadness run down your face and fill the entire world, that’s it. Each thing you fully immerse yourself in, each thing that fills you up, brings you closer to the middle way…the way of no you and no I, of no being and no non-being, of no love and no hate.

I am off to NYC on Wednesday and will not be on the blog until 12/29, the day before my knee surgery. My acl has been torn through for some years and a cadaver is willingly letting me use hers for the duration of my life. It will be grafted on during the surgery which takes @ 2 hours ( he also has to clean up a few other tears I have. Incidentally, this knee problem predates zazen and has little to do with the hours I have spent on the cushion). For this, I am grateful. I am also grateful for your reading/studying group. I enjoy sitting down each week and leaning my body-mind into the text and into your on-going conversation with the hope of deepening my relationship with it and you. So far, I feel we have been successful in our venture together.

I’d like to leave you with this: All are full and complete from the beginingless beginning. Some may come to realization of this given fact and some not. I sometimes think, it doesn’t necessarily matter how you practice; some will wake-up, some not. This may sound terrible or disheartening, but in a way it is rather wonderful. You may want to be a man or a woman. You may want to be tall or short. You may live long or not. But somehow, none of that matters because you are already that. You are already pure and clear. There is only one-whole-world.

Enjoy

Jack

Hello All, Today we look at, “The Great Way is in essence broad…walking it leisurely free from care.”

“The Great Way in essence is broad, neither easy nor difficult.” This is the third time this theme has been presented. And each time it arises, it shifts slightly in focus in the next sentence or two but continues making the same point…”the supreme way is not difficult, if only you do not choose”; “the way is perfect like vast space, with nothing lacking and nothing in excess, it is only because you accept and reject”.

The Way, just like you and I, is in its essence vast and fathomless and it is, in its essence, neither easy nor difficult, with nothing lacking and nothing in excess. This essence which we are, can be touched and known in our walking and sitting zazen. And it is in our sitting and walking zazen where a true and deep ethics arise. We also can touch this ‘beginning ethics’ in music, in art, in nature, in poetry when we are quieted and overcome. We then move forward from those states of mind to develop a sense of ethics but the course of training in these ‘disciplines’ (root of this word is love) is less and so our developing ethics are more easily shifted to the personal, blurred by our own needs and wants. Until we touch the Great Way which we are, our ethics arise from our ideas of the world. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that. We have a deep sense of what is correct within us but that correct sense is easily stained by our thoughts of right and wrong and by our picking and choosing which have been biased by our culture, by our families, by our schools.

To hold views that do not contain the vastness of reality puts us out of step with what is arising and causes an unnoticed bodily contraction. We breathe with a shallowness which over time feels natural. We make unconscious accommodations for ourselves and the world and don’t even know how we’ve limited our scope of imagination and possibility in relationship. Yet, even with those out-of-awareness accommodations, when we do quiet in zazen (in the mountains, in the night, in music, poetry etc), a hint of something missing arises like last night’s fragrance of daphne which wafted through our dream. We touch, for a momentless moment, the immensity of this which we are involved in and we feel corrected in direction and connected in relationship. We feel in accord!

A monk asked Yun-men, “What is the teaching that the buddha gave throughout his life?” Yun-men said, “One teaching in accord.”

Almost all of us who are drawn to this wisdom path have had this sense of things. And we are here, practicing, because we know the ‘rightness’ of that dream fragrance and we want to, we need to participate more fully in what is possible. It is from this fragrance that an ethics of inclusion, collaboration and worthiness of all things begins to arise. This ethics, however, does not come to us fully formed and so we practice. We pay attention to the form that is given, to the teacher, to the words of old, to the community and our practice deepens. And over time, our articulation and expression of inter-connectedness and mutual support matures into a way to work, live and love in the world with no one and nothing excluded.

When we practice and live like this our breath deepens; our bodies, sickly or not, relax; and our minds and hearts soften. This does not mean we become mush and anything goes. In fact, the opposite happens. We become more demanding of ourselves and others to participate fully in the unfolding mystery of what is right before and behind our eyes.  It becomes less and less easy to turn our heads and look the other way…because the Way is vast and where ever we turn–there it is! There it is–sunrise and sunset, tears and happiness, bush-tits and vultures. And you, more and more in accord with it, move naturally, free from the cares of who you think you are and how you imagine you should act. You are free from the unnecessary worries of picking and choosing, of being for or against, of grasping or pushing away. This last may sound too zen, too unattainable but these last two sentences describe the path of the crone. Please think about her this week and let’s make space for her appearance next time.

Unedited but on time

enjoy

Jack

Hello All, Today we’ ll be taking up, “There are two because there is one, but do not then cling to the one…how can there be any bias?”

I suppose we can say that each comes from one but we can as easily say it comes from none. One or none? We just make these ‘problems’ because we are creatures of language and language although beautiful, mysterious and compelling leads us astray if we hold the words too tightly. All this before our eyes–animals, trees, bushes–and all that is behind our eyes—dreams, phantoms, wisps of fantasy– arise from…what? From where?  I suppose we can say from one. In some cultures, before the organizations and institutions became involved, they called the one: ‘god’, ‘yahweh’, ‘krishna’ etc. which actually meant the unknowable, the unsay-able, the indescribable. So those early cultures said all that is before and behind our eyes comes from what we can’t name, what we can’t describe, what we can’t say. So for now, we call it one–but we don’t call it ‘the one’ because we then make this indescribable too monolithic. We concretize it. We begin, without even noticing, to make it literal. So use the word–one, yahweh, allah–but don’t get stuck on the concept.

However, the author is saying something even more important when he says, “But do not then cling to the one.” He is not simply warning us to watch how we use language. He is warning us to not get caught in the experience of oneness. This experience of oneness, as I have said before,  is an important experience. But it is only a state of mind and it need be seen through and let go of.  “Oh you on the 10000 foot pole, take a step and cast your body to the 100 directions.” When we see the one in the many and the many in the one ( and saying it this way is saying too much) without any self-consciousness, then the 10000 things are flawless, you are flawless because there is no thing, no mind, no conceptions, no ideas to keep you separate or apart. This is intimacy. When we are intimate, there is no room for anything else. This is why the myth of Buddha has him as a babe saying, ” I alone in the entire universe.” There is nothing apart, nothing separate. Subject and object fall away. You and I fall away. One and many fall away.

Objects only exist because there are subjects. Subjects only exist because there are objects. Classically it is said, “There is this because there is that.” Please don’t take subjects and objects as a problem, as something to get rid of. That isn’t necessary. Subject-object, you-me, male-female, good-bad are simple arisings of the one as differentiation. When we don’t distinguish between form and emptiness, between fine and coarse, or as Dogen says, between scarcity and abundance, why would we lean toward one side or the other? Why would we prefer ‘one’ over the many or the many over one? Why would we choose emptiness or pick form? When we trust practice which means when we trust our lives, we  naturally walk in the dark at night time and in the light during the day.

enjoy your stroll

Jack