Once in a Lanka...

 
     In the middle of the ocean of life and death there was a priest musician named David Byrne, who rising from his meditations saw before him an orchestra, a choir of gods, bodhisatvhas, buddhas and their accompanying beauties and perfumes. He was inspired to a realization of no self and he spoke a verse to Buddha.

""And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
  And you may find yourself in another part of the world
  And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
  And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
  And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"""

     And the Buddha replied " Excellent David Byrne. It is excellent, upon considering the true nature of the world and hoping to awaken beings of the past, present and the future from mistaken views,you have asked me about this. For a wise man should ask questions. Not only for his own benefit but also for that of others."
 
      Zen Master Ku-shan, who is in the assembly spoke..."What is the basic operation of investigation?" and chuckling to himself, answered himself..."How one has gotten to such a state."

     And the Buddha explained " You see how ignorant people distinguish things, things as fragile and impermanent as a clay pot, do you not? The distinctions among dharmas and non-dharmas are the projections of foolish people and not how things are viewed according to Buddha Knowledge, but in terms of characteristics."

     The Stenographer, being confused by this statement asked her own question to the assembly saying..." Buddha, do you mean that the one who finds themself behind the wheel of a large automobile is projecting from his own mind what it means in terms of the characterization of the automobile. That is to say, this is a 18 wheeler therefore I am a truck driver and a assume the society of truck drivers? But the buddha knowledge is that truck and finding oneself in it are not because you are a truck driver but you are independent of where you find yourself?"

     Buddha continued """Consider the continuity of a seed,as it gives rise to such varying forms as sprouts, stems, joints, branches, leaves, buds, flowers, and fruits.
     And as with external objects, the same is true of internal objects, whereby ignorance gives rise to such dharmas as well as to the varieties of existence in the three realms and to differences in terms of suffering and joy, good and evil, speech and silence.
      So, too, consciousness and its objects are the same but differ depending on distinctions as to which is superior, neutral or inferior, defiled or pure, good or bad.
      How much more then are dharmas and non-dharmas marked by a multitude of
distinctions? Thus, David Byrne, the different characteristics of dharmas and non-dharmas are the result of projection. What then, is a dharma? A dharma is whatever ordinary people and followers of lesser and heterodox paths imagine."""

     The Stenographer,"Oh ok, it is like the story about stepping on the eggplant thinking it was a frog. Because the monk held a dharma of precepts and imagined himself to have broken one, his mind played for him all the dealing and acceptance and experience of guilt and redemption. But there was no frog, he projected the experience. All the same if he really did kill a frog the imagination in his mind is still imagination.It would not be  dharma till the next day when seeing the  dead frog body that the act of the dharma could happen. And if one is not attaching even further it can be handled with a simple burial."

 """Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
    Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
    Into the blue again, after the money's gone
    Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

    And you may ask yourself, "How do I work this?"
    And you may ask yourself, "Where is that large automobile?"
    And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful house"
    And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful wife""""

    The Buddha Replied. "Basically, they think a dharma has existence and
substance and arises from causes. Such things must be
abandoned and avoided. Don’t engage in the projection of
appearances or become attached to what are perceptions of
your own mind. The things people grasp, such as clay pots, lack
any real substance. To view dharmas like this is to abandon
them.
   And what,David Byrne, is a non-dharma? This refers to
what has no discernible body of its own, what has no
distinguishable characteristics, what is not subject to causation,
and what offers no basis for views of its existence or
nonexistence. Therefore, it is also to be abandoned. Non-
dharmas are things like horns on a rabbit."""

   Zen Master Foyan, who was in the assembly said "The minute you fixate on the recognition that "This is 'it'" you are immediately bound hand and foot and cannot move around anymore. So as soon as it is given this recognition, nothing is right, whatever it may be. If you don't fixate on recognition, you can still be saved.
    It is like making a boat and outfitting it for a thousand mile journey to treasure trove; if you drive a stake and tie the boat to it before you jump in and start rowing, you can row till kingdom come and still be on the beach.You see the boat waving this way and that, and you think you are on the move, but you've never gone a single step.



""Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
   Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
   Into the blue again, after the money's gone
   Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

   Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
   Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
   Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
   Same as it ever was, same as it ever was

   Water dissolving and water removing
   There is water at the bottom of the ocean
   Under the water, carry the water
   Remove the water from the bottom of the ocean
   Water dissolving and water removing

   You may ask yourself, "What is that beautiful house?"
   You may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?"
   And you may ask yourself, "Am I right, am I wrong?"
   And you may say to yourself, "My God, what have I done?"""

    The buddha continued. """ David Byrne, you say you have asked the tathagatas, about this in the past, and they have also answered you. What you call the past
is a projection. And just as the past is a projection, so are the future and the present. David Byrne, the tathagatas do not project what amounts to reality.
    They transcend projection and fabrication and do not go along with distinguishing forms, except to instruct or to pacify the ignorant. It is by means of such wisdom that tathagatas practice a formless practice. Thus, tathagatas consider knowledge as their
real body.
    And because they consider knowledge as their real body, they are free from projection or anything that projects, such as a self, a life, or a person or any kind of consciousness that gives rise to forms dependent on an objective world. Thus,they are free from what projects and what is projected. David Byrne, everything in the world is like an illusion. This is beyond the understanding of ignorant beings and the followers of other paths. David Byrne, to see things like this is to see them as they really are. To see otherwise is to see them as they are not, to engage in projection, and to become attached to these two kinds of dharmas.
   David Byrne, this is like seeing an image in a mirror or a reflection in
water or like seeing a figure in the moonlight or a shadow on a wall or like hearing an echo in a valley. People attached to the images of their own projections cling to dharmas and non-dharmas. Unable to abandon them, they continue to engage in projection and fail to attain tranquility.
    Tranquility means oneness,and oneness means the tathagata-garbha, the realm
of self–realization of buddha knowledge"""

    Zen Master Yangqi Added. "Mind is the faculty, phenomena are the data: both are like scratches on a mirror. When there are no scratches or dust the clarity of the mirror shows. When mind and phenomena are both forgotten, then your nature is real."

   And as we all sat back to reflect, Master Joshu brought his best brew out, asking if we had our tea yet. And the choir reverberated and faded away.

 """Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
    Same as it ever was, look where my hand was
    Time isn't holding up, time isn't after us

    Same as it ever was, same as it ever was (I couldn't get no rest)
    Same as it ever was, hey let's all twist our thumbs
    Here comes the twister...."""




                        .this post was for fun.
                       .not sure it makes sense.

On Top of Mt. Lanka...

 ....With Ravana king, We listened to Buddha and Mahamati.

      They spoke of perceptions, that come from the mind 

      All kind of things, leaving other paths behind

      Mahamati asked questions, 'bout one hundred and eight

     When Buddha answered, world views did abate

      Red Pine did the translate from manuscripts three

      He stuck with Gunabhadra, before Bodhidharmeee

     Heard the Northern School,  Called him first Patriarch

     Surely such a thing stings r/zen's zenly heart

     Now here is the end of this poem you see

     Let's take a walk, have a talk with Lankavatareee 

 

     (i hope you sang that to On top of Spaghetti)

    I have been gone a little while. Bet no one missed me. I am unmissable. I have been messing around with the twitter stuff. Got caught up in all kinds of mean and nasty things to study and look at and see thru and all kinds of mental places to go visit.

Was fun.  Got boring. Got interrupted when I started to pick up the Lanka with some glint of seriousness.  I started about four weeks ago voice chatting once a week with someone from these illustrious halls, we are going thru this sutra. But I have been fairly dis-diligent. See I had somethings to work out by letting go of. And I think these things are the kinds of stuff that Buddha talks about.

  I really enjoy reading the sutras that I have so far looked at, I like the notion of this was a Buddha...a clear mind expressing it's explanation about how it's mind works.  Sometimes I feel like it is a bunch of  illogical couplets.  "There is no self because if there was a self then the realization that there is no self could not happen...." I mean something like that makes me wonder if it is a word con.

But then sometimes I stare at it long enough and I almost understand it like it was my own language.

My weekly study partner always wants to put  a zen master quote to it but  that losses me some. I read the words as zen master words breaking the non-it down into tiny pieces, where the zen master is the instant short and  snappy sweet version.  I don't know how to add a Foyan verse to Buddha explaining that all views are projections.They are saying the same thing.  I wonder if reading Sutras is what it would sound like to hear Foyan giving a dharma lecture. 

 I hope to make some posts occasionally as I go thru these Sutras, and attempt to focus on various moments that appeal to either some personal event or to garner insight and appropriate ZM quote finding group effort for broadening of discussion, or correction. But that is up to us. Here is an interesting section from the first chapter. The People and the Kings had just collectively witnessed the appearance of the buddha and all the buddha lands. But then it vanished.

38. And after they had spoken / these buddhas and
bodhisattvas vanished / only Ravana the yaksha remained /
standing inside his palace

 
39. He wondered what really happened / who spoke just now and who listened /      who saw and what was seen /and where did those cities and buddhas go:

40. ”Where did those cities go / those radiant
buddhas, those sugatas / were they a dream or an illusion /
or were they the work of gandharvas

41. Were they the result of cataract eyes / or was
what I saw a mirage / dream children of a barren woman /
the smoke and flames from a wheel of fire?

 
42. Such is the nature of things / the realm of nothing
but mind / this is something the foolish don’t know /
bewildered by false projections

 
43. There is no seer or anything seen / no speaker or
anything spoken / the appearance of buddhas and also
their teachings / are merely what we imagine

   44. Those who view such things as real / they don’t
see the Buddha / nor do those who imagine nothing / only
those who transform their existence    

        

         My name is IZM and I have a problem with adopting world views. It started the day I was born, but I only became responsible for it in my teens. You might not believe it but worldviews can be switched out like outfits. They can because they are not reality. They are the lens thru which you view reality, or translate it to yourself. I think that is somewhat of the thing Buddha is talking about in verse 44.  To transform your existence, that not viewing things as real and not imagining there is nothing, leaves you with the original  non-programmed mind.

        So what then would be the appearances of all that groovy stuff? Is it like a worldview?  A story or presentation of information that seems to cause all things to cascade into sensible understanding. One which in turn causes an altered mental relation to the projections one gives and receives. It can have many outcomes. It can be wonderful and full of truth, and fear, and plots. But it is the same as a mirage and not the original mind. So the reality is not like any of the projections we subject ourselves to. That is why the other paths, religions, philosophies cannot  get free from the projection or the having of the Worldviews. Because they become the happening of their projections. Think Part of the ship/Part of the crew.

It is like using the world view to define the internal self in relation to the "reality" presented or accepted. But the internal self  is....well here the Buddha will later on explain how it is not a self anyway so how could it be bound to any worldview. But I think that is later in the book.

Anyway. This is sorta how I tend to break things down. I told another user that I am not a translator that is a half truth I am desirous to paraphrase, is that not a form of translation?

As I mused over this first chapter I got to thinking how it is nearly like a manual on how to not get brainwashed. How to notice the subtle little place where you can tell that your own self view, being originally independent, is being encroached upon by the external. (or internal for that matter)

I also enjoyed this verse. 

" Who sees that the habit-energy of projections of the
beginning-less past is the cause of the three realms and who
understands that the tathagata stage is free from projections or
anything that arises, attains the personal realization of buddha
knowledge and effortless mastery over their own minds"

Well Alrighty then, I am not sure what more to say at this time. 

Thank you for reading. And tell me your favorite bits. Mind you, I am hardly familiar with only the first three chapters and ima wanna chew on them a while before I pick up the next one.

Oh Ps, I almost forgot, In chapter two there are the 108 questions of MahaMati. My initial take about them was this person has just stepped into the buddha zone, his mind was all in the oh ahh eee with this chance to ask some questions.  It is like what would you ask, how could you get your whole meaning in there? Do you really want to know or do you really just want to make sure that the Buddha knows?

Listen to the Zen Masters right, what is Buddha?  So, if you could ask Buddha questions, what is it that you really want to know? I tend to think of the questions as like those of a young child.

They don't want to know the science really. They want to build faith that what ever it is they want to know, it is known already by mom and dad.

 

 

    

     

     

Bruting the Diamond, Chrystal Cleavage and Zen.

       We all have heard or read the story about the 6th Patriarch Huineg, how he got awakened upon hearing the Diamond Sutra.  How that after it really sunk in, he was able to make that poem..."no mirror for dust to alight."  Quite a few Zen Masters where inspired by the Diamond Sutra.

Sometimes I will use a saying from it for myself but not directly know where I heard such a thing. Then remember after I happen to stumble across the sutra again.  I would like to point out how there seems to be a theme about "hearing" this Sutra.  Huieng was awaken upon hearing, the other's mentioned below have had mind opening conversations based upon one line or generality of the Diamond Sutra.

Clearly they where as intimately familiar with it as any of us might be in a crowd of friends  sharing enjoyment of the same movie together.  Each their own way to pick a thing out and bring it into discussion.  Do you ever wonder, were sutras , being collected in temple libraries, the only thing there was to read?  And it is fairly common knowledge that just up till about 500 years ago or less, it was normal to read out loud even by yourself.  SO if you ever wondered, how the monk asked if so and so was reading the Diamond Sutra, that's why. He was speaking it out loud.

Let's hear some of the conversations around the Diamond Sutra that some zen masters have had.

                                        Zen Master Yunmen #275

The Master asked a monk, "Are you reading the Diamond Sutra?"

The monk replied, "Yes."

Quoting this scripture the Master said,

All objects (dharmas) are no-objects; just this is called "all objects."

Then he held up his fan and said, "You call this a fan. That's a concept. I hold it up — but where is it? What good is it to be overwhelmed by delusive thoughts from morning till night?

 

 IZM- have you ever puzzled over over the "what do you call it" type koans?  The cheat sheet is probably in the Diamond Sutra.

 

                      Sayings of Layman P'ang #50: The Message of the Diamond Sutra

              The Layman dropped in at a temple where a priest was giving a public lecture on the Diamond Sutra. When the priest came to the part that says "There is no I and there is no other," the Layman asked the priest, "About the part that says, ‘There is no I and there is no other,' who then is lecturing now and who is listening to it?"

              The priest did not reply, so the Layman said, "I am only a layperson, but I have a rough idea about the teaching involved."

The priest said, "So what are the Layman's thoughts about it?"

The Layman then composed a verse:

"There is no I and there is no other."

How can there be intimacy or estrangement?

I recommend giving up trying to get there by meditation,

But rather, directly seizing the reality at hand.

The message of the Diamond Sutra is:

Nothing is excluded from our experienced world.

From beginning to end,

It inevitably exposes our false identities.

Upon hearing this verse, the priest was delighted and expressed his gratitude.

             Wherever the Layman went, Whether it was a place he frequented or was just passing through, his actions were always appropriate to the situation. He was always unpredictable and spontaneous.

 IZM-  Wow, so much impact from such a little Sutra. What do you think, Rzen? Does this little sutra have any distinct or definite teaching? How can it inspire such understanding? I mean , it does not to that to me when I read it.  Maybe someone should read it out loud to me.

Or let the next speaker explain for me, to me.

                                          On the Transmission of Mind (Huangbo) #8

             Our original Buddha-Nature is, in highest truth, devoid of any atom of objectivity. It is void, omnipresent, silent, pure; it is glorious and mysterious peaceful joy - and that is all.

            Enter deeply into it by awaking to it yourself. That which is before you is it, in all its fullness, utterly complete. There is naught beside. Even if you go through all the stages of a Bodhisattva's progress towards Buddhahood, one by one; when at last, in a single flash, you attain to full realization, you will only be realizing the Buddha-Nature which has been with you all the time; and by all the foregoing stages you will have added to it nothing at all.

           [Enlightenment must come in a flash, whether you have passed through the preliminary stages or not, so the latter can well be dispensed with, except that, for reasons unconnected with Enlightenment, Zen requires of adepts an attitude of kindness and helpfulness towards all living creatures.] You will come to look upon those aeons of work and achievement as no better than unreal actions performed in a dream. 

          That is why  the Tathagata said: 'I truly attained nothing from complete, unexcelled Enlightenment. Had there been anything attained, Dipamkara Buddha would not have made the prophecy concerning me.'

 [This quotation refers to the Diamond Sutra, as do many of the others either directly or indirectly. Dipamkara Buddha, during a former life of Gautama Buddha, prophesied that he would one day attain to Buddhahood. Huang Po means that the prophecy would not have been made if Dipamkara Buddha had supposed that Gautama Buddha's Enlightenment would lead to the actual attainment of something he had not already been from the very first; for then Enlightenment would not have led to Buddhahood, which implies a voidness of all distinctions such as attain-er, attained, non-attain-er and non-attained.]

         He also said: 'This Dharma is absolutely without distinctions, neither high nor low, and its name is Bodhi.' It is pure Mind, which is the source of everything and which, whether appearing as sentient beings or as Buddhas, as the rivers and mountains of the world which has form, as that which is formless, or as penetrating the whole universe, is absolutely without distinctions, there being no such entities as selfness and otherness."

IZM- Yup, that is all pretty clear there HungBo-Po. Guess I don't have to read that ole Sutra anyway. You all make it so clear. No self, No other, nothing gained, had it the whole time.  But people still keep getting something outta reading that darn rag. Can't we just listen to you zen masters tell us about it? 

                                                       Sayings of Joshu #385                                             

          Joshu was reading the Diamond Sutra when a monk asked, "It is said that all the various Buddhas, all the wisdom of the Buddhas, everything derives from this sutra. What is this sutra?"

Joshu said, "Kongohanyaharamitakyo. 'I have heard that Buddha was once in the country of Shaei...''"

The monk said, "That's not it."

Joshu said, "I cannot possibly revise the sutra of my own accord."

 

  IZM-  I hear ya Mr.Joshu. Well maybe you can present it in a new a hilarious ways, Mr Joshu. Like, starting from a more realistic place. Subiti and Buddha sitting together having a conversation.  Rzenners, when was the last time you heard the Diamond sutra?

       Do you hold it in any reverence, (trick question), I mean does it speak to you, help you quiet your mind?  Have you floated that raft down stream?  

      How about this one...... 

      If you have not heard this sutra before, ( and I do not mean read it many times in your head or chanted it in some other language) I have went ahead and recorded an art project style reading for any who will like to give it a try.

     If you have read this sutra before...well you haven't tried mine.

           I have had a bit of inspiration form u/golden_eyebrow when he was speaking of seeing these sutras, and writings  with more of a storybook view. Well, if I misunderstood him it got me churning about, as I alluded to before, if the sutras where the only reading material available, surely there was a comedian in the monastery. I wonder how many different ways it might be read out. 

          I have my own fun way. I give Buddha his own voice and personality.  I have  tried to listen to other people read out or dramatize Scriptures and Sutras and they tend to make things overly reverent.  Saccharin respectful. Bombastically voiced word of law and wisdom. 

         Not like it might have really been. Two persons into seeking truth and stuff talking. Or in my case, putting on a musical.  If you are so daring, I invite you to a fresh take into what all the hub bub was that these Zen Master's just could not  get enough of.

The link is to My Play list called  No Subuti Sutra. There are four acts, respectively 14,16, 23 and 20 min  in length.

 

Remember it is art, not blasphemy. Warning do not expect a professional quality production, it was improv and any time I do it hereafter it will be improv.  Just look at it this way. If i ever become a famous entertainer going temple to temple reading sutras for monks, then you will have the pleasure of knowing that what you are about to view will become the lost original tract.  Your memory here today, or any day you view these, will be collector's items.

 Play list          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJDMLIO3138&      list=PLDjrcczMXmUI0FTjbD24mo5kN0cEShitV

               

 Or individually....

 Part 1   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJDMLIO3138

 Part 2   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZI315m-LwE

 

Part 3   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNy3bGH01Ec

Part 4   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni5lhLLZA1Q

 

I use zen to study mind and more.

  Liao-an.

 

" Just get to  the fundamental, don't worry about the outgrowths. What is the root, what are the outgrowths? Knowing the mind and seeing it's essence is the root; explaining Zen and expounding the path are the outgrowths. If you know the mind and see it's essence. You may speak at will and go where your feet take you- nothing is not the path."

    For me the study of zen is in the application to one's own perception.  For me it was a psychological science. Zen equipped me with a microscope, a flow chart, and a cheat sheet. But my study of zen did not start when I picked up a little zen book. If henceforth no thing is not the path,  then all the steps taken  hitherto where the path. So where do I find this "fundamental"?  

Should I leave that hanging,  all mysterious like?  Let's jump ahead a bit..because my life, my mind, all this has outgrowths that I am not supposed to worry about.  He says, knowing the mind......AND....Seeing it's essence....is the root. The root is this fundamental. 

He says, when I find it my outgrowths will be explaining zen and expounding the path.  Could I apply the same principle that I outlines before in this section? 

If I have outgrowths of any kind, previous, current, changing, different, then they are all the root of my mind. or...rooted in the mind.

  Hum, my outgrowth here is confused.  I really picked a big quote. I am going to graciously relieve myself of the responsibility of this quote because this is not coming out naturally at this time. I only tried to approach it again because I said that I would and it would only be a bad excuses not to try.

 

I did, how ever find a very nice teaching and made an observation. And maybe the buddha will let me talk about it a little bit, after I type it out for yous. ** crosses fingers**

 

 

The Business Of Zen-  

      One day the governor of the province asked Mu-Chou (780-877), " What is the Business of Zen?" Mu-Chou said, "Come here, Come here."

The governor approached; Mu-Chou said, "You sure can talk nonsense!"

The governor was speechless. Finally Mu-Chou asked."Whom have you seen?"

      The governor said that he had seen such and such an old adept. Mu-Chou asked, "What else?"The governor replied that he has read scriptures.  Mu-Chou suddenly hit his chair and said, "In the teachings, what is this called?"

The governor said,  " This is not spoken of in the teachings."

Mu-Chou said, "In the teachings it says, 'Productive labor as a means of livelihood is not contrary to the truth.'  What about that?"

The governor had no reply.

IZM-   SO mysterious. so baffling. What are you sitting there thinking of this? Where did you get hung up at?  I zeroed right in on the advice given to the governor.  I like to hang on to good government philosophy because you never know one of these lives ya might get to be  in charge for a damned change. Ya know, so always seeking correct methods and guiding principles life to life...is a really good habit to get into. And if you don't believe in reincarnation..... hustle hustle.

Anyway.  Do you see a lesson in the words of Mu-Chou?  

Governing is  a corrupt affair, even your best leaders are forced into tough compromises. Humans suck like that. Let us assume that Mu-Chou would only talk so much with someone if they had a good heart and mind. And remembering that this is potentially the most important conversation in this governor's life. What is best for all concerned and what shares in pointing to the way?

Not that Mu-Chou was ruminating those thoughts, we are...that guy just Miyagi chopped that thought out of the air like a fly. We and our Governor will have to go a longer way.

Sometimes I think we make the mistake of overly mystifying, or far away externalizing these teachings. 

I think this is for the governor to remember that people who are proud in their labor are happy people. Happy people can endure if they have something to be proud of. Something to produce and sustain.  In that they can live lives closer to truth.  When cutting corners, corruption, controls and making the people put out cheap labor...there is no accord in the people to find truth.

But that is my bent on the matter....((i lean a bit Confuciusonian))

 

I don't know how to study zen; A Rant.

 I don't know how to study zen; at least I can study that much while I am here.

I don't know how to study zen here; All I know is how to study my own mind in light of the way the zen master's pointed out.

It is one thing to come to a tacit understanding that the zen masters are only talking about mind...my own mind...yet applying this tacit understanding to all the zen teachings we talk about here, does not cause understanding of that mind, nor the ability to speak of that mind to expand.

That must mean that the different teachings have different tiers. Or It seems that way because I cannot find something like a unifying principle of discernment applicable in every moment;  therefore my understanding of the teaching is obscured.  Well...it has to be something right, because why can I only clearly understand when the Zen Master is pointing to awareness of the one mind, but I cannot understand a damn thing when Plenum and Elaborate are doing their banter?

Therefore I do not know how to learn better from the zen I am able to study.

Also, I do not know what studying zen publicly looks like. I mean there is to study what the Zm's said, when they said it, what the translators coulda tweaked, and even what it means to oneself. Or to express the great principle like you know it.

But I do not know it.  I thought to study mind was observing and refining a lot of mental messes. And I found this easier with the things the Zm's taught. Little things. I also think studying mind is to ask critical questions of one's understandings, to keep in light the Zm teachings of abandoning everything the mind clings to.

Like, how I was struggling the past few days to try to contribute a post, but I got all tripped up because, I really do not know what is expected of "to study zen" other than what I do when I am all by my onesy looking at something the dead zen guy said then, and how it points to that awareness which is alive now. I worried about how the post would look or measure up.

I desided the best post I could make would be an honest one, and in this case my thoughts are simply not polished. And that is the theme.

You can tell me how you study zen, how you use or do not use your mind. And you can tell me that zen is to shut it all up. I will not argue. It is that also, but we didn't gather here to demonstrate silence. (hum, or did we anyhoo)

I am going to "study" this zen saying from Liao-an.

 

" Just get to  the fundamental, don't worry about the outgrowths. What is the root, what are the outgrowths? Knowing the mind and seeing it's essence is the root; explaining Zen and expounding the path are the outgrowths. If you know the mind and see it's essence. You may speak at will and go where your feet take you- nothing is not the path."

oh....

I guess I did my study already.

Post Edit ( two days later);

        This was admittedly not well thought out, not truely ready. Think of this more as blowing air thru a dirty pipe so that water can get thru.  I will revisit this blog and verse at another time.  When i figure out a formula or method that works for me to try to discuss zen stuff.  To try better, and also keep my stream of conscious flow.

      It is like sometimes when you write poems, the first one is like the junk file then the prose comes out. I am not satisfied with this post, and that is ok. 

     The idea is to process live...I think that is how to study the zen while talking about the quotes.  That is how the fellows can help assist one another if their "logos" are not clear. I don't know yet.

     But I have learned that I really ought to read the common material at the site I am making these posts, rather than try to bring newness with quotes they haven't been thinking over for a long time.  I was not being considerate because I think zen words is zen words, right?  Same principle being expressed therefore conversation should just happen. 

But if I am using material they have not been, it is not as good as to tweak a veiw on something they already have been looking at.

And it is better for me too, because I can see somethign new and see it my way and they can say how they figured it when they thought the same or differently.  I had been hobbling myself because I was not expanding my source material.

I did not expand my source material because I was afraid of being confused with so many new ways to express or words or ironically concepts.  I hope these explanations help me overcome the issue I am having with taking that simple little fucking quote and figuring out what I want to do with it.

(or is this whole blog the act of doing it with it, till i get to the point of speaking about what I have been doing...hummm)

 

 

To Be Continued. Eventually.

A Breath of Zen Air

 

The old master was meditating by the riverbank when a young student interrupted him. “Master, I wish to become your student,” said the man.

“Why?” asked the master.

The student thought for a moment. “Because I desire enlightenment.”

The old master leapt to his feet and grabbed the student’s robe. In a flash, the master plunged the student’s head into the river, waiting a full minute before throwing him, kicking and gasping, onto the riverbank.

“Now, tell me, what did you desire most when you were underwater?” he asked.

“Air!” gasped the student.

“Very well.” said the master. “Come back and see me when you want enlightenment as bad as you wanted air.”

 

IZM- * that Victorian Lady in the fine hat who sets down her tea; once she decided to make something her business.* 

Buckle up kiddies, this might get long. We are going to take a few looks into this thing. We are going to challenge ourselves just a little bit.  We are going to listen and share a few stories. And if I am so inspired by the time it is warranted, maybe I will plug in some poignant Zen Master quotes. 

But mostly let us deal with; What is it to desire zen as we desire air in the moment of being under water?

That is really hefty. Not some hallmark card  you read to yourself on your bed as you stare listlessly out your window wondering what it might be like if you could want zen like you want air.

Nor is it some hope you might hold close;  that at least you have seen someone who wanted zen as much as they wanted air. Look how they swim, all you have to do is swim, using the stroke they are using.

Do you think they went into the water knowing those strokes? Do you think they came out of the water knowing those strokes?  

No.

What did they know?

AIR! NOW!

Did they say that they could not want air now because the boatman was holding them down? ( the version with the boat man in a boat instead of the master on the river bank works better for my analogy) And when they where let up, did they say that they could not want zen now because the boatman was an asshole?

Did the young man get angry at the boatman, and cast his gaze at the other fishermen in boats? Maybe he thought.... That guy sucks. What does he know? I know I want zen.  It isn't that serious dude. Be nice.

IS it really not that serious?  What would it be like if you could understand why that guy in a boat knew that the young man was not ready for zen study?

So maybe the young man went to another boatguy and told him the story of the asshole boatman. Boatguy asks for a demonstration of the event. Young man jumps in the water and the boatguy fake holds him down. When the young man comes up, gets in the boat, the boatguy proceeds to tell him how he was drowning incorrectly.  How the other boatman was holding him down incorrectly. And to explain what it means to want air as you want zen.

(did you see what i did there?)

Now this young man will learn what to say, but he will also stop wanting zen like he wanted air.

 

              Now let me tell you a story from my life.   My dear old best friend was named Larry.  Larry was really smart and had an appearance of self confidence.  He had a lot of friends, and people always went to him for advice. Larry always had sage advice.

            Heck. I even watched him convince a girl that he was a non smoker....while chain smoking.  What really impressed me though was how he could be in a room full of different conversations, and respond to each of them in time.

           Larry bragged that he was studying "perfection".  Hey, I was always into "new age" stuff, and he was really cool. I thought he had something.  I felt like he had something. I wanted it like I wanted air.

         I wanted to learn how to become perfect. To have mind discipline. To not make errors. To understand everything. To give sage advice. I wanted it bad.

       After a few days of admiring him and building fantasies in my mind of all the things to learn. Of how he was perfect and wise. I sucked up my ego, and decided to "impress" him.

     I pulled him aside, asked him not to laugh, this was serious. Gave him a preliminary spiel of my spiritual life and....

Asked him if I could be his disciple.

(waits with a red face till the audience stops laughing)

Yeah, that's what he said too......to everyone.

     But he loved me...and was my friend for many years. Did the karaoke DJ thing together. He came out of the closet to me first.  And I was able to help him by introducing him to two of my mother's best friends, who helped him in ways only they understand.

Now. What did I want so badly that I asked a stranger to teach me?

Do you want it that badly?   And was that thing ever within him?

No.

       And also let us look at this from an other angle. In fact make this the light of all koan study.  The people represented... the monks  who get to be the ones in the snapshot;  did not just step out of an Allen Watts Seminar.

       If the young man in our story had just come out of the seminar... do you think the zen master would have bothered dunking him?  By god, that would be child abuse!

       No. The monks in the story have already been studying zen.  They where not listening to zen being described. They where not judging whether or not the conduct of others was like zen. They where concerned with their own understanding of zen. Their own mind. It's illusions. It's motives. It's understanding. It's doubt. It's belief. It's very existence.

       The monks where already asking themselves how to end their wheel of suffering. And happen to meet up with someone who looked pretty cool. They want it from them. They want them to at least point.  And some of them complain when they don't really want to  breathe air.

 What can that person give to them?

Well, that depends on how drowned they are.

 

P.S.  Hey you! Quit whipping in on my favorite baby seal with that lead filled snow shoe! 

 

P.S.S.  Zen Mater Dahui  "Don't draw another's bow, don't ride another's horse, don't mind another's business. Although this is a common saying,  it can also help you practice Zen. Just examine yourself constantly  from morning to night.

What have you done that is beneficial to other's and to yourself? if you notice any partiality, you should altert yourself and not over look it.  When you have no mind, Zen is easy to find.  

In Zen terminology, "mindlessness" does not mean insensitivity or ignorance. It means that the mind is stable and does not get stirred up by the situations and circumstances one encounters; it means the mind does not grasp anything, it is clear in all situations, unimpeded and undefiled, not dwelling on anything, even non defilement." 

 

If you read this and applied it to someone other than yourself...then you become  the ewk you hate.

If as soon as you know something well enough to correct others.... then you become the ewk you hate.

If you have written someone off and beat them for being mistaken, or for trying to defend or promote their views..... then you become  the ewk you hate.

When you plead to not be hated because you like Dogen, and turn around and hate someone whom you deem associated with rasicm... then you become the ewk you hate.

 How guilty you should feel about this is self determined. But if you feel victorious because of your own behavior then you are wanting to breathe water instead of zen.

If you wanted Zen.... unblock all boatmen and fight for your air.

 

 

3 Zen Masters and a baby

 Master Chien-ju

        " Do you want to study Zen? You must let go. Let go of what? Let go of the four elements and five clusters, let go of consciousness conditioned over incalculable time.  Focus on right where you stand and try to figure out what the reason is. Keep on pondering, and suddenly the flower of mind will bloom with enlightenment, illuminating the whole universe.

        This can be called getting it in the mind, responding to it in action.  Thereupon you can turn the earth into gold and churn the rivers into cream. Wouldn't that just make life exhilarating?  

        Do not memorize sayings, recite words, and discuss Zen and the Way based on books. The Zen Way is not in books.  Even if you can recite the teachings of the whole canon and all the masters and philosophers, they are just useless words of no avail when you are facing death.

        The ancients sought illumined guides only after they themselves had awakened and understood, in order to pick out the rubble and completely purify their realization of truth.

        When they could measure pounds and ounces accurately, they where like people opening variety stores carrying all sorts of goods."

...   * *   ...   * *   ...   * *    ...

Master Pai Chang

        " IN reading scriptures and studying the doctrines, you should turn all words right around and apply them to yourself.  All the verbal teachings point to the inherent nature of the immediate mirroring awareness.  As long as this is not affected by anything, existent or otherwise, it is your guide.  It can shine through all realms whether they exist or not.

        This is adamantine wisdom, wherein you have your share of freedom and independence.  If you understand in this way, then even if you could recite the whole canon and all it's branches of knowledge, that would only make you conceited.

        Paradoxically it shows contempt for Buddha; it is not true practice."

...  * *  ...  * *  ...  * *  ... 

Master Ying-an 

        " The verbal teachings of Buddhas and Zen masters that have come down from the past are like bits of tile used to knock on a door;  it is a matter of expediency that we use them as entrances into truth.

        For some years now, students have not been getting to the root and aim of Zen, instead taking the verbal teachings of Buddhas and Zen masters to be the ultimate rule.

        That is like ignoring a hundred thousand pure clear oceans and only focusing on a single bubble."

...* *...* *...* *...* *...* *...* *...* *...* *...* *...* *...* *...* *...* *...* *...* *

Isn't that the most annoying sound ever made?....No wonder it make the observer go searching for the source; to shut that thing up....never to Save Our Ship.

Saving lives was only a side quest.

 

** Picture this; A medium sized bald  little monk kid skimpering down  some long brightly sunlit arched corridor that they build into temple/monastery places for the express purpose of this imagery before you. She has cradled under her arm a medium sized lightweight box, she is trying to keep it covered with the sash of her orange robe. Sneaking into a room whose ornate sign in calligraphy denotes as " The Zafu Room"  and stuck upon that placard some unknown monk posted " Please wipe the seat after use."

        The brothers are all in the "arguing room" the young monk calls it. Brother Ewk wants to burn the room down, and maybe he should no one ever comes in here anymore.  She arranges the pillows into a  little private zafu fort. She pretends is it vulture peak. And she dumps her box a the foot of zafu mountain.A box of zen master barbie dolls tumble and she chooses Chien, Pa-chang, and Ying.

Wondering absently weather some brothers would not approve, noticing someone without a face has been thru her toys and changed her Bodhidharma's robe into a Hawaiian shirt, ripped off khakis and flip flops. And someone put the Buddha princess crown on Huang-Po. She settles to play.

 "What is consciousness conditioned over incalculable time? "

        Just a Buddhist thing....not important....well....what do you think it is?

Well, a quick google lends this.. "

What is the Buddhist view of consciousness?

“Buddhists argue that nothing is constant, everything changes through time, you have a constantly changing stream of consciousness,” Evan Thompson, a philosophy of mind professor at the University of British Columbia, tells Quartz. “And from a neuroscience perspective, the brain and body is constantly in flux"

How long have i been conscious?  My whole life. Has my mind been conditioned during my known existence? Yeah.  (just turn every teaching to yourself)

What is a sangha for?  To discuss  the study of the mind/consciousness. To compare notes, apply zen master support, help each other discover going beyond.

 What is adamantine wisdom?

Well quick google offers...(and it is pretty darn long if you crave more description) 

Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra

        " It is one ultimately pure. It does not shake. It does not receive, nor does it do [act]. It does not abide, does not make. It is tasteless and unmixed. It is an “is” and yet is not something created. It is neither action nor fruition [i.e. it is beyond Karma]. It is not one made, not one that dies. It is no mind; it is one not countable [whose dimensions can be reckoned];

         It is the All-Wonderful, the one Eternal, and the one not presumable. It is not consciousness and is apart from mind. And yet it does not depart from mind. It is a mind that is all-equal. It is not an “is”; yet it is what is “is”. There is no going and no coming [with it]; and yet it goes and comes. It does not break up. It is one indestructible. It does not snap and does not cease. It does not come out, nor does it die out. It is no master and yet a master. 

        It is not one that exists; nor does it not exist. It awakes not, nor does it see. It is no letter, and is not no letter. It is no dhyana [meditation] and is not no dhyana. It cannot be seen and can be well seen. It is no place and yet is a place. It is no abode and yet is an abode. It is not dark and not bright. There is no quietness and yet there is quietness [in it]. It is non-possession, non-receiving, and non-giving. It is pure and untainted.  

       It is no quarreling and is never fighting. It is what is living and is not what is living. It is no taking and no falling. It is no thing and is not no thing."

    The sutra was the Buddha talking about the Tathagata's body. Perhaps it is not too much error to infer that that body of the tathagata is made of dharma. Therefore the adamantine wisdom embodied. Yet this is also just a way to say it...you still have to go on to apply it to your own self.

Which is apparently easy peazy for some brothers who just notice that they already are adamantine just by memorizing HuangPo and farting.

Well I am out of thoughts. I didn't have anything add or expand really. There are terms i am not sure about, and would just be tickled to death if the comment section had opinions or self informed ideas about what it means to them and how it may apply. Or even better...supporting quotes.

Does anyone want to tackle...What is Mirroring Awareness?

I think it has something to do with a clear awareness not in rumination, or mind games, simply in the here, is responsive and receptive to information. Synchronicity perhaps, or events of being in the right place with the right response at the right time just because you have no-thing going on but going on.

Yet also I would think that grasping and chasing and depending on such to support or comfort your mind ( ie a nest) would be wrong. But also incorrect is to toss out every mind-symbol you work with.

** little bald kid-monk packs up her zen master barbie dolls as the sun dips into a more comfortable hue and she restores the zafu room to it's ignored state and prepares for the evening meal. 

she expects crickets, no one ever comes in here anymore.**