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#2979 - Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Today is God
By Pygmy
(Anonymous)
(18th
Century)
In the
beginning was God,
Today is God,
Tomorrow will be God.
Who can make an image of God?
He has no body.
He is the word which comes out of your mouth
That word! It is no more,
It is past, and still it lives!
So is God.
| |
-- from An African Prayer Book, Edited by Desmond Tutu |
from the Pygmy people in the Congo www.Poetry-Chaikhana.com
Whoever clings to mind
sees not
The truth of what's Beyond the mind.
Whoever strives to practice Dharma
Finds not the truth of Beyond-practice.
To know what is Beyond both mind and practice,
One should cut cleanly through the root of mind
And stare naked. One should thus break away
From all distinctions and remain at ease.
-- Tilopa
From "The Song of Mahamudra."
http://www.kagyu-asia.com/l_tilo_t_song_mahamudra.html
posted to Daily Dharma
EXPERIENCE OF SUNYATA
Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche
excerpted:
The experience of sunyata is the essence of enlightenment. It is also the basis for bodhicitta, the motivation to benefit all sentient beings. This is because realizing insubstantiality--the sunyata nature of all things--makes the difference between sanity and insanity. A sane person sympathizes with the suffering of an insane person. He or she thinks, "I wish something better could happen to him," and in this way her bodhicitta grows. Likewise, a realized person sees that those who have not recognized sunyata clutch and hold onto fixed ideas, and knowing that this will lead the other person to further suffering, he or she wants to do all they can to help. Because a person with the experience of sunyata knows what the sunyata experience means to them, they know how much it would mean to others.
Just having had the experience of sunyata brings benefit to others because now spaciousness is always present. We are no longer limited to doing only this much or that much, and because there are no limitations, there is also great ability and willingness. When there is no substantial blockage to our true nature, the experience of sunyata is immaculate. Without at least a beginning experience of sunyata, true compassion is not even possible. The bodhicitta generated by bodhisattvas is directed toward all beings equally. Only with such non-discriminating motivation can there be the ability to benefit others. Great ability, or skillful means, extends everywhere because we have transcended a fixed state of reality and overcome all barriers. Regardless of the situation and regardless of which people are involved, we will have the ability to help.
At the point where we experience sunyata, practice becomes easy. When the sky is cloudy, the sun is obscured, but as the clouds evaporate, the sun's rays appear and become more and more radiant. Likewise, the more we let go of ego, the greater is the space created in the environment. Some people believe that persons who have realized sunyata become detached and aloof. This is not at all true. Indeed, with the experience of sunyata we become even more affectionate, respectful, and helpful toward others. We feel closer to everyone because the wish for them to attain enlightenment is also growing. Thus the greater our experience of sunyata, the greater our concern for all beings.
Complete text can be viewed at: http://www.purifymind.com/ExperienceSunyata.htm
posted to GardenMystics by Bob O'Hearn
Bob: One problem I've noticed with identifying with the
characters in our stories is that stories -- no matter how lovely
-- end. The temporary gratification and self-confirmation they
can provide is sown with the seeds of craving for more bliss, and
so dependently originate attachment and suffering in an
ever-revolving cycle. Modifications of mind in the form of
notions and experiences are endless, fascinating, and yet have no
substantial reality. Part of "finding out for oneself"
is verifying that this is so. This is the starting point. This is
when the me-story ends and things return to being just what they
are, as they are, with no need for big words, sacredness,
immortality, or special purpose, other than to simply be.
Ben: Well that's not a
problem to me--the fact that stories end. It's just the way it
is. Still, we are human beings, not just stories. Other than that
you made a valid observation, and I really do appreciate your
effort in writing them down. What I find a little amusing is that
some people make another story (and a living) out of the no-story
story. You just type their oriental sounding name in the youtube
search tool and voilą: hours of no-story chatter! Now, who is
doing all that? I think that is an aspect that needs some
consideration as well.
posted to Garden Mystics
This is from 'Sounds of Valley Streams - Enlightenment in Dogen's Zen' Francis H. Cook
If Buddha nature is itself
impermanent or impermanence, then it is futile to hope for
permanence in enlightenment; worse, the longing only intensifies
feelings of anxiety and sadness. For Dogen, the only solution to
the problem of impermanence is to realize its absolute reality,
and in the realization, to accept it unequivocally as one's own
life. This realization is at once both the acceptance of the
reality of life in its broader scope and the acceptance of
oneself as a truly time-bound and perishable being. This means
that realization is in part a matter of progressively grasping
the reality of all things and in part a matter of accepting
oneself as being that same reality, without regret, fear,
resentment, or antipathy. Dogen's message seems to be that in
this profound self-acceptance and self-understanding, one becomes
free from impermanence even while remaining impermanent in a
thoroughly impermanent world. Liberation, consequently, is not
transcendence in the sense that one passes beyond, or literally
escapes conditions, but rather consists in an absolute
affirmation of the condition and in an unqualified acceptance of
oneself as subject to the condition. As Martin Heidegger, the
existentialist philosopher, said, authentic selfhood is not
possible without radically confronting one's essential mortality.
For Heidegger, as with Dogen, true selfhood comes from
understanding what one is.
posted to Allspirit Inspiration
10,000
Ten thousand flowers in spring,
the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer,
snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded
by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
-- Wu Men posted by Alan Larus
http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/Ten_Thousand.htm
http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/1a.html
http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/1b.html