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Thread: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY- case 23

  1. #1

    BOOK OF EQUANIMITY- case 23

    544d89c28c4c2d3c5d97c7dcb3e15643[1].jpgWhenever Roso saw a monk coming he would face the wall...

    I let you read and take in the inspiring prose of Gerry Shishin. What is facing the wall after all? i still vividly remember the impressions and perceptions of my first sitting as a young teenager, some 35 years ago, and the endless game of my eyes sweeeping the whitish wall, both bored and amazed.

    Expressing the path with words is pointless yet necessay. When people come and inquire about the Buddha Dharma what shall we say? Roso turned his whole body-mind into a living- silent mouth, speaking an eloquent silence, carving subtle clouds within and letting them dissolve. This is what precedes Kalpas and birth itself. The ground is naked there. The empty field made visible. Sitting facing the wall is displaying the seal of reality, it is the absolute realization that freedom doesn t have to give itself space to unfold, the the open quality, the spacious sitting- being makes even a simple wall as vast as this boundless reality we are and live in. The wall is a great cure to distraction, a very good way to cut any story short, give up the chase, and not being carried away but being redirected to just this. When we sit in front of the wall we meet heaven and hell, we transmigrate and go through all realms, we wake up to the very truth that we are the makers of all this. We sit with our own self-world in full view.

    This practice is the ultimate practice, in all forms of Buddhism, its given for the most advanced students, in Zen we are all advanced and all beginners. We start where it ends. We end up where it always starts. Facing the wall in Dogen s words is another way to relentlessly polish the tile to make a mirror. To eat painted rice cakes. It trancends the dual and goes beyond oneness itself.

    Whatever you say, it will miss the mark. So what words do you have to point at the pearl?

    Gassho

    Taigu
    Last edited by Taigu; 01-12-2013 at 02:17 AM.

  2. #2

  3. #3
    I remember facing a shoji screen and hearing a temple bell thank you Taigu
    合掌,生開
    gassho, Shokai

    仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai

    "Open to life in a benevolent way"

    https://sarushinzendo.wordpress.com/

  4. #4
    Mp
    Guest
    I share the words of silence.

    Gassho
    Michael

  5. #5
    Practical ones.

    Gassho, kojip.

  6. #6
    Mu!
    Gassho, Shawn Jakudo Hinton
    It all begins when we say, “I”. Everything that follows is illusion.
    "Even to speak the word Buddha is dragging in the mud soaking wet; Even to say the word Zen is a total embarrassment."
    寂道

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Taigu View Post
    544d89c28c4c2d3c5d97c7dcb3e15643[1].jpgWhenever Roso saw a monk coming he would face the wall...

    I let you read and take in the inspiring prose of Gerry Shishin. What is facing the wall after all? i still vividly remember the impressions and perceptions of my first sitting as a young teenager, some 35 years ago, and the endless game of my eyes sweeeping the whitish wall, both bored and amazed.

    Expressing the path with words is pointless yet necessay. When people come and inquire about the Buddha Dharma what shall we say? Roso turned his whole body-mind into a living- silent mouth, speaking an eloquent silence, carving subtle clouds within and letting them dissolve. This is what precedes Kalpas and birth itself. The ground is naked there. The empty field made visible. Sitting facing the wall is displaying the seal of reality, it is the absolute realization that freedom doesn t have to give itself space to unfold, the the open quality, the spacious sitting- being makes even a simple wall as vast as this boundless reality we are and live in. The wall is a great cure to distraction, a very good way to cut any story short, give up the chase, and not being carried away but being redirected to just this. When we sit in front of the wall we meet heaven and hell, we transmigrate and go through all realms, we wake up to the very truth that we are the makers of all this. We sit with our own self-world in full view.

    This practice is the ultimate practice, in all forms of Buddhism, its given for the most advanced students, in Zen we are all advanced and all beginners. We start where it ends. We end up where it always starts. Facing the wall in Dogen s words is another way to relentlessly polish the tile to make a mirror. To eat painted rice cakes. It trancends the dual and goes beyond oneness itself.

    Whatever you say, it will miss the mark. So what words do you have to point at the pearl?

    Gassho

    Taigu
    "What Is"/"Original Mind." Perfection without equal or opposite. Gassho Shogen

  8. #8
    By the way, the so called wall is not a wall, but by now you should have that one figured out.


    The fool

  9. #9
    When sitting zazen I face a door which btw, is not a gate
    合掌,生開
    gassho, Shokai

    仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai

    "Open to life in a benevolent way"

    https://sarushinzendo.wordpress.com/

  10. #10
    There is no tile.
    no thing needs to be added

  11. #11
    Mp
    Guest
    There is no wall.

    Gassho
    Shingen

  12. #12
    Hey Shingen - I wonder whether Taigu hits us with his stick on our heads now and asks us where the pain comes from, hehe...

    Gassho,

    Timo
    no thing needs to be added

  13. #13
    Pain is just a label for a physiological sensation
    合掌,生開
    gassho, Shokai

    仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai

    "Open to life in a benevolent way"

    https://sarushinzendo.wordpress.com/

  14. #14
    Mp
    Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by LimoLama View Post
    Hey Shingen - I wonder whether Taigu hits us with his stick on our heads now and asks us where the pain comes from, hehe...

    Gassho,

    Timo
    Hey Timo ... like Shokai just said, "Pain is just a label for a physiological sensation" ... there is not pain. Guidance comes in many forms.

    Gassho
    Shingen

  15. #15
    How can traces be swept away, the footprints be eliminated? Water.

    As I am contemplating this my mind asks is zazen the water? Does zazen create the water? Are they both water?

    Too many words and too much thought.

    Gassho

    Jeff

  16. #16
    I can't help but say something. I have to.... even though it's beyond words, even though I'm going to miss the mark... I will have to just by virtue of the words simply being limited pointers.

    The more I sit the more I realize I create my experience. Today, at work, I expected a result.. and I saw that result. I expected the result and got what I expected. And unfortunately, it scared the hell out of me because it means I missed something. All at once, like a flood, the cold sensation of failure, the questions of how I could have allowed this to happen. I'm a professional. People expect a certain level of quality with my work. What will everyone think? Then after about a half hour, I realized that I hadn't missed anything. I was testing inaccurately. In any case, that was a wall, and it slapped me right in the face. I meet that anytime I experience what I don't want to.. the reality of my attachments to what I consider perfect were brought front and center to teach me again. and again and again... lol

    And that's what I've gotten out of practice. I know you don't get anything :P but really, it's helped me see where my walls are, so I don't take myself too seriously, so I don't grasp so much.

    I love Shikantaza because it shows me how I fail again and again, but it doesn't allow me to run from that failure. When I get taken in by my story, my thoughts, my wants and my drama, I have to watch it. When I come back to "this", I see what happened, that it was all a creation. Even though it feels so real, even though I just created a fantastic fantasy that I was so right, and I got that bastard back! And then I feel ashamed for having such feelings. But that's why I love the practice; sometimes its hard to face what's going on in my ego-driven mind, but that's the beauty. To not run away from it, to feel "this" amidst what my small self calls chaos. That is truly the courageous way of the bodhisattva.

    Gassho,

    Risho

  17. #17
    Risho speaks quite a bit of my mind on this koan - I composed the following, but I think his post is better

    Reading Shishin's commentary, I took the wall to be the conditions of our life. It is a boundless boundary - neither restrictive nor liberating. When sitting upright, I am sometimes able to glimpse the emptiness of these conditions. And yet, when I get up from the cushion here they are. The wall is inescapable, so I should sit upright & face it.

    Gassho,
    Shujin

  18. #18
    Risho s take is great.

    Gassho


    Taigu

    Of course there is a wall and there isn t any. Don t fix it. As to our conditions, yes they are our wall, a very neçessary one.
    Last edited by Taigu; 01-15-2013 at 12:15 AM.

  19. #19
    Treeleaf Unsui Shugen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Redding California USA
    Some days "the bell already!?" Other days "is the bell ever going to ring!?" But always....


    Shugen
    Meido Shugen
    明道 修眼

  20. #20
    Often when I am doing shinkantaza I find my breathing too tight, holding it, straining my exhalations. Sometimes I forget that I am doing shinkantaza and instead find myself facing the wall. Of course as soon as I remember myself I am doing shinkantaza again.

  21. #21
    Gassho,
    Santosh.

  22. #22
    The temperatue dropped 20 degrees
    then the rain came hard, night fell

    Dad and the boys died in a Sunday hike

    The sun came out with a chorus of birds
    Squiresl ran and chirped

    Splendid day in the Ozarks

    Heaven and Hell, all here.
    "Know that the practice of zazen is the complete path of buddha-dharma and nothing can be compared to it....it is not the practice of one or two buddhas but all the buddha ancestors practice this way."
    Dogen zenji in Bendowa






  23. #23
    Expressing the path with words is pointless yet necessay. When people come and inquire about the Buddha Dharma what shall we say?
    I have no idea what to say about the Dharma. There are many here who are like poets, including you Taigu, when it comes to describing this way. So far, I don't know what I know, or how to say anything about it. All I can do is sit. Sit until perhaps it spills into my words one day.

    Whatever you say, it will miss the mark. So what words do you have to point at the pearl?
    When I find words that are empty, maybe then they will point to the pearl. Until then, my words are like the worlds biggest finger pointing at the smallest moon.
    If I'm already enlightened why the hell is this so hard?

  24. #24
    Catfish,

    Do you think the pearl lives outside, over there?

    The moon lives in your finger, and the finger-moon pointing at the moon- finger is nothing but the very way.

    Gassho

    Taigu
    Last edited by Taigu; 01-18-2013 at 11:56 AM.

  25. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by Taigu View Post
    Whatever you say, it will miss the mark. So what words do you have to point at the pearl?
    Every day HERE is the pearl. Dogen wrote, 'Engaged in birth, do not be held up by birth. Engaged in death, do not be held up by death. Do not be attached to birth. Do not groundlessly fear death. Already there is buddha nature.' Here is the wall of no wall. We sit within the pearl of no pearl.
    Last edited by Heisoku; 01-19-2013 at 08:41 AM.
    Heisoku 平 息
    Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. (Basho)

  26. #26
    Heisoku, your answer comes the closest.

    Gassho


    Taigu

  27. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by Taigu View Post
    Catfish,

    Do you think the pearl lives outside, over there?

    The moon lives in your finger, and the finger-moon pointing at the moon- finger is nothing but the very way.

    Gassho

    Taigu
    It is so, but at times it is hard to feel it is... so for right now my zazen is the way. time to sit
    If I'm already enlightened why the hell is this so hard?

  28. #28
    .
    AL (Jigen) in:
    Faith/Trust
    Courage/Love
    Awareness/Action!

    I sat today

  29. #29
    Galen,

    It seems you really like playing teacher and pooring oil on fire.
    Could please look into your self? I am sure it would help.

    Gassho


    Taigu


    PS: if may add the following pointer, you have a fine mind and your wisdom ability is quite impressive, much like one of Dogen s students, you could be asked to develop your grand mother mind, embracing and compassionate mind.


    Since 22 has been closed, this is my response to your last post there, Taigu.

    Thank you for your opinions and perceptions here, Taigu. It is not my intention to play a teacher, but when you are over 60 I guess that could play out, but I see it as all relative. Most of what people post, whether a statement or one simple question, are teaching, just think about it. It seems in phenomena its all one big lesson. After all, our children are some of the best teachers in our lives. As far as oiling up the fire, first there has to be a fire, it seems, and if sometimes chiding or button pushing gets a burst or even left to smolder, any lesson taught or gleaned can fall back on the one doing the chiding as a projection, like it has on me here. While sometimes there could be some discomfort caused, as it may seem, and some become reactionary and defensive, in most cases insight can be gained for both sides.... life. Sometimes I am astonished at the seeming egos displayed here from those who have taken some of the precept classes, or see themselves at some higher attainment (seemingly), and while that is probably normal to become somewhat prideful, I suppose it just stands out to me and says, can I have a button pushed. Some of those have been on this site for quite sometime, and leads to a pondering of how this approach here is working.

    It is nice to see your more grandmotherly side, Taigu, that has not always been the case. Actually both of mine could be quite crusty and could scare most off if they did not know them personally. Their love could be what is now seen as tough love, but very loving just the same. Thank you for your patience here.


    Gassho

    galen
    Last edited by galen; 01-24-2013 at 04:28 PM.
    Nothing Special

  30. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by Taigu View Post
    By the way, the so called wall is not a wall, but by now you should have that one figured out.


    The fool


    Seemingly a mental wall, small mind.


    Gassho
    Nothing Special

  31. #31
    The wall is a frightening mirror. It's always reflecting, but usually I can hide from it through countless distractions. But in shikantaza there's no escape. And you're naked.


    Gassho, Kaishin
    Thanks,
    Kaishin (開心, Open Heart)
    Please take this layman's words with a grain of salt.

  32. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by Jenell View Post
    Is this forum only for certain members? I'm still reading and watching beginner's videos and teachings.
    Jenell
    Every-one is welcome!

    Gassho, J
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  33. #33
    Face the Wall
    Face your life

    Sit with it
    Sit with your life

    Do the work
    As non-work

    Words always miss the mark
    So face the mark
    The unattainable mark.
    AL (Jigen) in:
    Faith/Trust
    Courage/Love
    Awareness/Action!

    I sat today

  34. #34
    Quote Originally Posted by Taigu View Post
    544d89c28c4c2d3c5d97c7dcb3e15643[1].jpgWhenever Roso saw a monk coming he would face the wall...

    I let you read and take in the inspiring prose of Gerry Shishin. What is facing the wall after all? i still vividly remember the impressions and perceptions of my first sitting as a young teenager, some 35 years ago, and the endless game of my eyes sweeeping the whitish wall, both bored and amazed.

    Expressing the path with words is pointless yet necessay. When people come and inquire about the Buddha Dharma what shall we say? Roso turned his whole body-mind into a living- silent mouth, speaking an eloquent silence, carving subtle clouds within and letting them dissolve. This is what precedes Kalpas and birth itself. The ground is naked there. The empty field made visible. Sitting facing the wall is displaying the seal of reality, it is the absolute realization that freedom doesn t have to give itself space to unfold, the the open quality, the spacious sitting- being makes even a simple wall as vast as this boundless reality we are and live in. The wall is a great cure to distraction, a very good way to cut any story short, give up the chase, and not being carried away but being redirected to just this. When we sit in front of the wall we meet heaven and hell, we transmigrate and go through all realms, we wake up to the very truth that we are the makers of all this. We sit with our own self-world in full view.

    This practice is the ultimate practice, in all forms of Buddhism, its given for the most advanced students, in Zen we are all advanced and all beginners. We start where it ends. We end up where it always starts. Facing the wall in Dogen s words is another way to relentlessly polish the tile to make a mirror. To eat painted rice cakes. It trancends the dual and goes beyond oneness itself.

    Whatever you say, it will miss the mark. So what words do you have to point at the pearl?

    Gassho

    Taigu


    Today is my first read of your opening here. Thank you for your look at the wall, Taigu, tremendous!

    Is there a link to Shishin?


    Gassho
    Nothing Special

  35. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by galen View Post
    Today is my first read of your opening here. Thank you for your look at the wall, Taigu, tremendous!

    Is there a link to Shishin?


    Gassho


    Fooled again! I always refer to Shishin as just Wick, fooled once again and not the last.



    Gassho
    Nothing Special

  36. #36
    When a monk approached Roso he faced the wall and gave the monk the honor of his complete attention. Gassho, Shogen

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