2/26 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Qingyuan

Here's how I might express the point of this passage ...

There is a practice to be pursued, Teachings such as the "Four Noble Truths" to pierce.

But piercing the "Four Noble Truths" is ultimately like searching for a mountain while on the mountain (the "Mountain of Emptiness" which cures the Suffering described in the Four Noble Truths).

One might run for years and years, lifetimes, ages ... around the mountain looking for mountain. That's one way to go about things.

Or, sit very still and find the mountain.

Or, walk while still .. or slowly run while still (that's more our Shikantaza way).

In any case, the mountain is there.

Also, is the mountain walking/running you ... or are you walking/running the mountain? Do you climb up the mountain, or does the mountain climb down your feet? So, are you and mountain and climbing separate?

In any case, have a good hike. :-)

Better than my mountain example as an image for "Emptiness", Hixon and Keizan convey it talking about "building a stairway in the sky" or "flying birds that fly fly fly but leave no traces."

Cook from 175
Hixon from 165

This chapter of the book was very heavy for me. I didn't understand much, if anything.

Hixon p161
"We must not submit reality to our assumptions of states and stages"

p162
"Any sense that we hold a final or even a provisional solution - knowing exactly what it is, how it is, how it should be - must dissolve"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rich

Hixon p161
"We must not submit reality to our assumptions of states and stages"

p162
"Any sense that we hold a final or even a provisional solution - knowing exactly what it is, how it is, how it should be - must dissolve"

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Hi, Rich.

Thank you very much for posting this excerpts from Hixon's book. I don't have that book. It really digs out the diamonds off the stone mountain.

:wink:

Thanks again,

Sunyata (Alex)

Alex, you are welcome. They were my favorite lines from the chapter and I thought they might be helpful. Plus I get to read them any time. Now, where are those diamonds - with the price of gas I could use a few :lol:

“A bird in its passage

leaves no traces of its flight,

So why look for stages

on that dark and solitary road

which leads deep within?”


That poem made click on me this morning. It's so difficult not to look for stages, not to process my "progress" on the buddihst path, and so on, and yet so important to forget about stages.

Gonna turn off the computer and watch some birds flying

Gassho

Rimon

In this chapter it seems as though Keizan is teaching to not only remove past attachments and delusions but to be ever diligent about forming new ones. New attachments even within the teachings and principles of Buddhism could cause a halt to the endless journey of our way. No matter how wonderous or delightful these experiences may be just hang them on your life's tool belt (Jundo) and keep on keepin on. Gassho, Zak

Jundo wrote: "flying birds that fly fly fly but leave no traces."


I'm not so sure about that. Sometimes they leave traces all over my car!!! :)

Gassho,
John

Oh, just a tech question. I still haven't figured out how everyone does that cool thing to quote others in the post they are writing? I always have to write what they said by hand if I want include it. Heeeeelp!

Thanks in advance!

Gassho,
John

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JRBrisson

Oh, just a tech question. I still haven't figured out how everyone does that cool thing to quote others in the post they are writing? I always have to write what they said by hand if I want include it. Heeeeelp!

Thanks in advance!

Gassho,
John

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You mean like this? Just press the quote button in the top right corner of the post you want to quote.

Doh! :shock: You mean It was right there this whole time! Doesn't this apply to so many other things in life which are right in front of our faces yet fail to be seen?!
Thank you Anista :D

Gassho,
John

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JRBrisson

Doh! :shock: You mean It was right there this whole time! Doesn't this apply to so many other things in life which are right in front of our faces yet fail to be seen?!
Thank you Anista :D

Gassho,
John

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Like What? Enlightenment? If that is a consolation for you, I am not enlightened yet. But I guess speaking like this, I am going on the opposite direction of Qingyuan.

:lol:

Sunyata (Alex)

A couple of points came to mind when completing this weeks readings:

In “Uji” Dogen explores the notion that life as it is complete, profound, and “truth”, if one wants to talk about it in that way, is right in front of us. Hixon:

Quote:

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Our way, right from the start, must be the sky. Not the teaching of emptiness, which remains indirect. Only direct sky!

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In addition, one word kept coming to mind and that was flow….not to get bogged down in concepts and ideas….not to fixated on “stages” and “progress”.

Gassho,
Jisen/BrianW

Hiyas
At what point are we at in our practice, if practice is seen as something beyond the ordinary, enlightenment something extraordinary to reached then we still have stages to gauge by. All this construction falls apart under careful investigation in Zazen and is expressed in the same way. No class, sect, stage, level or caste. No thing to investigate further. Of course... while knowing there is further investigation!
Master Qingyuan reply to the past Buddha seemingly contradictory at first glance simply illustrates the truth.

Gassho
Shohei

The mind, bird in the sky, no arising, no alighting, no dwelling.
Where are there stages in the sky? How is height measured in infinite space?
Easy to think about.. and so hard to unfix those ideas and processes!
Sit and fly!

Keizan had me completely lost here, but within one page of Hixon the light came on. Quinyuan is like that student that sits in the back row and never says a thing in class, all of his classes with all of his professors, because he feels he has nothing to say or ask; it's all so plain to him. Then one day a new professor shows up and somehow lights a fire under him, prompts him to come up after class and thus reveal that not only has he been paying close attention, he gets it better than all those students that talk and ask questions in class. Yeah, I've seen this before, although not to this spiritual extent of course.

As to the lesson, it's Heart sutra, baby: No Path, no stages, no Truths, no suffering. It's all right here. Come to think of it, that's also the Diamond sutra, as well as the previous stories, for that matter. Ordinary experience is prajna!

And I loved this from Hixon: "Verbal teaching of compassion are no more ultimately reliable than verbal teachings of emptiness. We must come direct!"