Jun.03.2009
by joseph
Everywhere I turn, green greets me. Energy trills through my body as the trees, grass, and flowers of late spring stand out in their fullness of life. I am reminded of adventure, the adventure a young boy senses as a new day waits outside the door, during those precious first weeks of summer vacation. I am home.
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May.27.2009
by joseph
Dogen instructed,1
Students of the Way, do not worry about food and clothing. Just maintain the Buddha’s precepts and do not engage in worldly affairs. The Buddha said to use abandoned rags for clothing and beg for food. In what age will these two things ever be exhausted? Do not forget the swiftness of impermanence nor be disturbed vainly by worldly affairs. As long as your dewlike human life lasts, think exclusively of the Buddha Way and do not be concerned with other things.
Someone asked, “Although fame and profit are difficult to give up, since pursuing them is a great obstruction to practicing the Way, they should be abandoned. Hence, I gave them up. Although clothing and food are minor things, they are big matters for practitioners. Wearing clothes made of abandoned rags and begging for food are the practices of superior people. Moreover, that has been the custom in India. The monasteries in China have permanent property belonging to the community, so they do not need to worry about such things. However the temples in this country have no such property and the practice of begging has not been transmitted at all. What should inferior people like me who cannot endure such practice do? If someone like me tries to gather alms from lay believers, he will be committing a sin by receiving a donation without having virtue. Earning one’s living by being a farmer, merchant, warrior, or a craftsman is an improper way of life for a monk. And, if I leave everything to fate, I will remain very poor as a result of inferior karma. When I suffer from hunger or am benumbed by the cold, I will be troubled and my practice will be hindered.
Someone advised me saying, ‘Your way of practice is extreme. You don’t understand this age and do not reflect on your capability. Our nature is inferior and this is the degenerate age. If you continue to practice in such a way, it will become a cause of backsliding from the Way. Seek the support of some patron, take care of your body by living in some quiet place without worrying about food or clothing, and practice the Buddha Way peacefully. This is not greed for property or belongings. You should practice after having provided for your temporal means of livlihood.’
Although I listened to his advice, I do not yet believe it. How should we consider these things?”
Dogen replied, “Just study carefully the conduct of Zen monks, along with the lifestyle of the buddhas and ancestors. Although the customs of the three countries are different, those who truly study the Way have never practiced in the manner you have described. Just do not be attached to worldly affairs but study the Way in a straightforward mannner.”
The Buddha said, “Do not keep anything except robes and a bowl. Give away any extra food you have received through begging to hungry living beings.”
Do not store up even what you have been given, nor run around searching for things. In a non-Buddhist text it is said that if we learn the Way in the morning we should not mind dying in the evening. Even if we might die of cold or starvation, we should follow the Buddha’s teaching if only for one day or one hour.
In ten thousand kalpas and thousands of lives, how many times are we born and how many times do we die? This cycle of lives is samsara, caused only by blind clinging to worldly affairs. To die of starvation following the Buddha’s teaching for this one life brings about eternal peace and joy (Nirvana). Moreover, I have never read in the collection of all the Buddhist sutras of a single or ancestor who transmitted the Dharma in the three countries, dying of starvation or cold. In this world, inherently each person receives a certain amount of food and clothing as a gift. It does not come by being sought after nor does it stop coming by not seeking after it. Just leave it to fate and do not worry about it. If you refrain from arousing bodhi-mind in this life, excusing yourself on the grounds that this is the degenerate age, in what life will it be possible to attain the Way?
Even if you are not as superior as Subhuti or Mahakashapa, you should practice to your fullest capability. In a non Buddhist text it is said that a man who loves women will do so evebn though they may not be as beautiful as Mosho Seishi, and that a man who admires horses will do likewise even if they are not as great as Hito or Rokuji. One who likes the taste of food will like whatever it might be, regardless of whether or not it is as delicious as dragon’s liver or phoenix marrow. We simply have to use as much wisdom as we possess. Even laymen have this attitude. Buddhist practitioners must be like this.
Moreover, the Buddha offered twenty years of his life to us living in this degenerate age. Consequently, the offerings and support by human and heavenly beings to the monasteries in this world have not ceased. Though the Tathagata had mighty powers and virtues and was able to use them all at will, he spent a summer practice period eating wheat used for horse fodder. How can his disciples today help but look up to this (example)?
Someone asked, “Rather than meaninglessly receive the offerings of human or heavenly beings while breaking the precepts, or wastefully spend the legacy of the Tathagat without arising bodhimind, wouldn’t it be better to live as a layman engaging in ordinary jobs, keeping oneself alive to continue the practice of the Way?”
Dogen replied, “Who said break the precepts or be without bodhimind? Moreover, it is said that the legacy of the Tathagata is equally given without concern as to whether maintains the precepts or breaks them; regardless of whether one is a beginner or or an advanced practitioner. Nowhere is it written that you have to return to the mundane life or stop practicing, because you have broken the precepts or lack bodhimind. Arousing what is difficult to arouse,practicing what is difficult to practice…in this way, you will naturally progress in the buddha dharma. Each one of us has buddha nature. Do not meaninglessly deprecate yourself.
Also, in Monzen, it is written, ‘Prosperity of the country is brought about by a single wise man. The way of the ancients dies out because of a later fool.’ This means that if a single man of wisdom appears, the country will flourish, and if a single fool appears, the way of the ancients will disappear.
Consider this well.”
.
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May.20.2009
by joseph
From a travellers perspective, new directions are all I see.
It has been awhile since I posted here. Everything keeps changin’. Slowing me down, speeding time up. Discombobulated, maybe. Yet, it is a good day today.
I woke up at home… yes, at home. Not living on the road, at least for now. Kris and I moved to Ames, Iowa last week. We have agreed to give living together another try. That means waking up in the morning to the sound of children, and nothing is better than this. It feels me with happiness, to wake to Georgia and Spencer’s voices, to hear them call out for Mom, and then, remembering that Dad is there, calling out for me.
Life is good.
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Apr.01.2009
by joseph
this zazen
doesn’t belong to me
leaving it to itself
I don’t know what to think
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Mar.26.2009
by joseph
I have always loved the poems of Han Shan. One of my favorite is number 26 -
- Since I came to Cold Mountain
- how many thousand years have passed?
- Accepting my fate I fled to the woods,
- to dwell and gaze in freedom.
- No one visits the cliffs
- forever hidden by clouds.
- Soft grass serves as a mattress,
- my quilt is the dark blue sky.
- A boulder makes a fine pillow;
- Heaven and Earth can crumble and change.
Over the past few weeks I have spent a lot of time in the mountains alone. Sleeping beneath a new spring moon, with only the high alpine forest as a companion, I linger. I could get stuck here, but the laughter of children remind me that my place is in the world.
I struggle to find a new way of living that honors the Cold Mountain that is me.
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Mar.23.2009
by joseph
Total dynamic function, or Zenki, is our life.
What does this mean? Who am I? What is this!? I ask myself these questions regularly. I remain curious, letting go of what I think.
With no inside or outside, no second person, it is radically different than what I think. And yet, this thinking is not outside of it either. Incredibly interesting, even mystical, from a conventional point of view.
It is not magic, however, and this is why it is liberating. The six magical powers exist within seperation, creating and maintaining a second person, thus, not liberating.
With no second person, this zenki, is just the verification and actualization of the Buddha Way. It is our life.
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Mar.14.2009
by joseph
one
drop
splash!
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Mar.13.2009
by joseph
What are we doing? Are we waking up, or captivated by our dream? Just what is the dream?
The dream is everything you think. What I am writing right now is nothing but the dream, but as an old teacher once told me, there is a difference between a high order dream and a low order dream. For years I lived in the low order dream, just like everyone else.
In reality, everyone is narcissistic, caught up with their own reflection, starving themselves. The reflection isn’t your physical manifestation that you see in the mirror, that’s the low order interpretation. The reflection is your own thinking mind, the very mind you are using right this moment, to judge or analyze, accept or reject, that which I am expressing now, here. Yes, you are reflecting what you have read and sizing it up, evaluating it, and you believe your reflection.
That’s the funny part. The sad part is, that until you let go, and, at least, allow for the possibility that there might be another way to live life, to function in this universe, you are disallowing the divine to enter, right here, right now. You are divine, but your thinking mind does not know it, thus you are starved of your vital function.
Don’t worry, our vital functionality, our divinity has never left us, we are never separated from it. Yet, the difference betwen high order dreaming and low order dreaming is just this, do you love your reflection more than the reality of this moment?
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