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#2289 - Monday, October 17, 2005 - Editor:Gloria Lee
Unconscious people
read the scriptures
like parrots saying Ram, Ram,
in their cages.
It's all pretend-knowledge.
Read rather, with me, every
living moment as prophecy.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
posted to Along the
Way
photo by Alan Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/at_the_border_1.htm
"Realization makes
Every place a temple,
The absolute endows
All beings with the true eye.
When you come to grasp it,
You find it was ever
Before your eyes.
If you can see clear
What is before your very eyes,
It is what fills the ten directions;
When you see what fills
The ten directions,
You find it is only what is before your eyes."
Daikaku posted
to AlphaWorld
Typed from: ‘Zen
Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Informal talks on Zen meditation and
practice by Shunryu Suzuki’
BOWING pages 43 - 461
‘Bowing is a very serious practice. You should be prepared
to bow, even in your last moment. Even though it is impossible to
get rid of our self-centered desires, we have to do it. Our true
nature wants us to.’
After zazen we bow to the floor nine times. By bowing we are
giving up ourselves. To give up ourselves means to give up our
dualistic ideas. So there is no difference between zazen practice
and bowing. Usually to bow means to pay our respects to something
which is more worthy of respect than ourselves. But when you bow
to Buddha you should have no idea of Buddha, you just become one
with Buddha, you are already Buddha himself. When you become one
with Buddha, one with everything that exists, you find the true
meaning of being. When you forget all your dualistic ideas,
everything becomes your teacher, and everything can be the object
of worship.
When everything exists within your
big mind, all dualistic relationships drop away. There is no
distinction between heaven and earth, man and woman, teacher and
disciple. Sometimes a man bows to a woman; sometimes a woman bows
to a man. Sometimes the disciple bows to the master; sometimes
the master bows to the disciple. A master who cannot bow to his
disciple cannot bow to Buddha. Sometimes the master and disciple
bow together to Buddha. Sometimes we may bow to cats and dogs.
In your big mind, everything has the same value. Everything is
Buddha himself. You see something or hear a sound, and there you
have everything just as it is. In your practice you should accept
everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given
to a Buddha. Here there is Buddhahood. Then Buddha bows to
Buddha, and you bow to yourself. This is the true bow.
If you do not have this firm
conviction of big mind in your practice, your bow will be
dualistic. When you are just yourself, you bow to yourself in its
true sense, and you are one with everything. Only when you are
you yourself can you bow to everything in its true sense. Bowing
is a very serious practice. You should be prepared to bow even in
your last moment; when you cannot do anything except bow, you
should do it. This kind of conviction is necessary. Bow with this
spirit and all the precepts, all the teachings are yours, and you
will posses everything within your big mind.
Sen no Rikyu, the founder of the
Japanese tea ceremony, committed hara-kiri (ritual suicide by
disembowelment) in 1591 at the order of his lord, Hideyoshi. Just
before Rikyu took his own life he said, ‘When I have this
sword there is no Buddha and no Patriarchs.’ He meant that
when we have the sword of big mind, there is no dualistic world.
The only thing which exists is this spirit. This kind of
imperturbable spirit was always in Rikyu’s tea ceremony. He
never did anything in just a dualistic way; he was ready to die
in each moment. In ceremony after ceremony he died, and he
renewed himself. This is the spirit of the tea ceremony. This is
how we bow.
My teacher had a callus on his forehead from bowing. He knew he
was an obstinate, stubborn fellow, and so he bowed and bowed and
bowed. The reason he bowed was that inside himself he always
heard his master’s scolding voice. He had joined the Soto
order when he was thirty, which for a Japanese priest is rather
late. When we are young we are less stubborn, and it is easier to
get rid of our selfishness. So his master always called my
teacher ‘You-lately-joined-fellow,’ and scolded him for
joining so late. Actually his master loved him for his stubborn
character. When my teacher was seventy, he said, ‘When I was
young I was like a tiger, but now I am like a cat!’ He was
very pleased to be like a cat.
Bowing helps to eliminate our
self-centered ideas. This is not so easy. It is difficult to get
rid of these ideas, and bowing is a very valuable practice. The
result is not the point; it is the effort to improve ourselves
that is valuable. There is no end to this practice.
Each bow expresses one of the four Buddhist vows. These vows are:
‘Although sentient beings are innumerable, we vow to save
them. Although our evil desires are limitless, we vow to be rid
of them. Although the teaching is limitless, we vow to learn it
all. Although Buddhism is unattainable, we vow to attain it.’
If it is unattainable how can we attain it? But we should! That
is Buddhism.
To think, ‘Because it is
possible we will do it,’ is not Buddhism. Even though it is
impossible, we have to do it because our true nature wants us to.
But actually, whether or not it is possible is not the point. If
it is our inmost desire to get rid of our self-centered ideas, we
have to do it. When we make this effort, our inmost desire is
appeased and Nirvana is there. Before you determine to do it, you
have difficulty, but once you start to do it, you have none. Your
effort appeases your inmost desire. There is no other way to
attain calmness. Calmness should be found in activity itself. We
say, ‘It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard
to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true
calmness.’
After you have practiced for a
while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid,
extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the
progress you make is always little by little. It is not like
going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a
fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking
you get wet little by little. If your mind has ideas of progress,
you may say, ‘Oh, this pace is terrible!’ But actually
it is not. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry
yourself. There is no need to worry about progress. It is like
studying a foreign language; you cannot do it all of a sudden,
but by repeating it over and over you will master it. This is the
Soto way of practice. We can say either that we make progress
little by little, or that we do not even expect to make progress.
Just to be sincere and make our full effort in each moment is
enough. There is no Nirvana outside our practice.
Published by WEATHERHILL New York & Tokyo
posted by Ben Hassine
To divide and particularize is in the mind's
very nature. There is no harm in dividing.
But separation goes against fact. Things
and people are different, but they are not
separate. Nature is one, reality is one.
There are opposites, but no opposition.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
posted to Along the Way
photo by Alan Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/at_the_border_2.htm
One instant is eternity;
By Wu Men (Hui-k'ai)
(1183 - 1260)English version by Stephen Mitchell
One instant is eternity;
eternity is the now.
When you see through this one instant,
you see through the one who sees.