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Thread: Let The Mystery Be

  1. #1

    Let The Mystery Be

    Hi,

    Somebody wrote me with a very interesting question when I posted on another thread this folk song ... about not knowing where we came from or are going when we die. They thought Zen, Enlightenment and such was supposed to clear all that up!

    I wrote to them that Enlightenment absolutely, thoroughly, no doubt-about-it clears everything up (that's why the Way has been going strong for timeless millenia! Those old Zen Masters weren't fibbing).

    And at the same time, it doesn't clear everything up.

    How to explain?


    Suppose this life and world is like a big ice cream Sundae! It is sweet and rich (although there may be some things in there ... like the nuts and cherry pits ... that are hard to chew and digest). This Way will teach one through and through that you are the Sundae and the Sundae is you in the richest, most wondrous sense, as much as the vanilla, chocolate syrup and cherry (the nuts two). It is a life-world-you-everyone-Buddha Sundae. A Onedae. Yummy! Dig In!.

    (however, it may not provide certain other information ... like the license plate of the truck that delivered the ice cream to the ice cream store, the address of the ice cream making company, or the name of the president of the company and his wife's shoe size. Maybe science or other religions will have a thing or two to say about some of that, but we Zen folks are happy to savor ... to be ... the life-world-you-everyone-Buddha Sundae whatever the case). ++

    ++ although everything in moderation ... even life's hot fudge sauce!

    Or (going from the sweet to the salty) suppose this life-world-self is like the ocean, and this Practice lets us dive right in ... be immersed in ... be so intimately whole with the sea ... that the sea is me, me is the sea without the least separation or divisions. Both the stormy sea or the clear days, is a big, whole, flowing Budda-sea-flowing-dance! Every taste of sea salt right this moment holds all the saltiness of all the sea, everywhere and for all time, right on the tip of our tongue ... for that taste is the taste of everything.

    However, even so, who knows where this sea stretches, the name of every fish, how many grains of sand on every coastline? What are its chemical properties? Where did the sea come from, and where (if anywhere) is it flowing to? Who (if anyone) made the sea?

    But even though we may not know all such things, we realize that where it flows is where we flow ... because we are the "flowing" in the most intimate sense. We may not know exactly where from or where to, but we have some deep suspicion that it is a good direction. We are like waves that rise up for a time, then fade back ... our life and death. But if the waves are just the water, so what is there to die? We might say that we come back as the other waves that spring from our wave ... and on and on. Dying is all wet!

    However, whatever the case, what is most important is how we swim now, with grace and balance. Don't flip about, choke and sink! .

    Anyway, this Way provides many answers, clear and true. For other things, it answers that we can be right at home with not knowing, nor needing to know. Letting the mysteries be.

    Something like that.

    I love this song, and letting the mysteries be:



    Gassho, J
    Last edited by Jundo; 02-21-2013 at 02:21 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  2. #2
    Hello Jundo,

    keep them country songs coming please

    Gassho,

    Hans Chudo Mongen

  3. #3
    Hi Jundo,
    thank you. I came to religion because of my mind asking what life is all about, why I get up every day, work on something which isnt being used just a few years later (I'm a programmer), why I put so much effort into things that go away, and when at the end only death is waiting for me. Zen perfectly cleared it up. I dont know more than before, except maybe that there are reasons for asking such questions, fears, ideas and that the mind is famous to want to know, to control. Is that any wsidom ? I dont know, as much as I dont know most of the things that other people around me pretend to know. And thats ok! How often in my life people though I would just have no interest in things, I would not be engaged. Ha, yes, a lot of searching has been dropped, its ok to search, to not find and to sad and and and ... however, its ok to drop all that and just sit. I think that I dont want to know any more. Now lets see if at some point I dont want to control anymore and just flow as you say. I'm very interested in that journey, which is not only a personal thing anymore,its the search and adventure of all of us.
    I'm just rambling, sorry for that.
    Gassho
    Myoku

  4. #4
    great song!
    _/_
    Rich
    MUHYO
    無 (MU, Emptiness) and 氷 (HYO, Ice) ... Emptiness Ice ...

    https://instagram.com/notmovingmind

  5. #5

  6. #6
    This is a great analogy Jundo, thank you. Also, I want ice cream now.
    _/\_
    Jigetsu

  7. #7
    Beautiful analogy and music. Thank you Jundo.

    Gassho
    Matt

  8. #8
    Iris Dement's other stuff is good too.

    This tune has been a favorite of mine since I heard it on the soundtrack to Little Buddha some years ago.

    _/\_

    Eika


    Sent from tapatalk
    [size=150:m8cet5u6]??[/size:m8cet5u6] We are involved in a life that passes understanding and our highest business is our daily life---John Cage

  9. #9
    A child said What is grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
    How could I answer the child? - I do not know what it is anymore than he

    -w.w.
    and neither are they otherwise.


  10. #10
    Getting to know the ugly in life and accepting it all as part of the same package is one of the biggest teachings I have ever gotten.

    And then we just flow.

    Thank you for this teaching, Jundo. (I loved the song too!)

    Gassho,

    Kyonin
    Hondō Kyōnin
    奔道 協忍

  11. #11

  12. #12
    Also, I want ice cream now.
    or do we want it all? NOW!

    Thanks Jundo

    gassho
    合掌,生開
    gassho, Shokai

    仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai

    "Open to life in a benevolent way"

    https://sarushinzendo.wordpress.com/

  13. #13
    Remember your diets ... everything in balance and moderation! Even life's chocolate sauce.

    Gassho, J
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  14. #14
    Another wonderful Iris DeMent song about how we choose to live this life right before us ...

    Last edited by Jundo; 02-19-2013 at 02:23 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  15. #15
    Thank you Bro for this.
    To leave mystery to mystery. And truly accept, go with it, fight and surrender ( at once, it is great!).
    As i was tumbling down these stairs or inder the needle of the surgeon, accptance made it almost painless. Seeing all these aspects of Kannon looking after a guy like me, looking after other guys in a far worse situation...Humbling.
    And, at the same time, considering the time it took for commuters to come to this gainjin covered in blood ( fear, not wanting to have trouble), waiting in the ambulance pissing blood for 45 minutes when all hospitals were refusing me ( part of the dance too), calling my school who refused to help: a bunch of smiling Japanese secretaries and not a single one has send a single email ever since...Humbling.
    Dying and living, great eye opener and endless bows to all my teachers, the kind ones and not so kind ones.

    Chocolate is a good idea, now.

    and all is well, the good,the bad, whatever.

    gassho


    Taigu
    Last edited by Taigu; 02-19-2013 at 03:21 AM.

  16. #16
    Mp
    Guest
    Thank you Jundo ... I too connected to your analogy.

    And to follow on with Taigu's quote ... "The good, the bad, the whatever"!



    Gassho
    Shingen

  17. #17
    Jundo, Taigu, and everyone,
    Thank you for these teachings. I still like chocolate and still hate cutting my head. However, sometimes now I'm able to accept not having chocolate and accept that I cut my self. Sometimes I'm not so good at accepting that, too.
    Gassho
    Myozan

  18. #18
    Thank you for this teaching.. and the videos, and Taigu's experience that would royally piss me off.



    When I don't make mystery, every corner is illuminated, Gassho, Daizan
    Last edited by RichardH; 02-19-2013 at 12:46 PM.

  19. #19
    Thank you


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

  20. #20
    Thank you Jundo, Taigu and all that have shared their thoughts! I fail to practice acceptance well much of the time, but I have done better in the brief time I have been sitting. The best thing I have experienced with this forum is understanding the commonality of experiences and thoughts that I once would have accepted as mu own runaway mind....although maybe there is still plenty of that as well.

    Gassho,

    Jeff

  21. #21
    Jundo and Taigu,

    Thank you for this teaching.

    Life is full of questions, questions and more questions. As for answers, well... i guess it leads to more answer-less questions.

    Just living in the present moment...what else is there to do.


    Gassho
    Mike

  22. #22
    Thank you Jundo and Taigu.

    I find it all too temping to get lost in metaphysical questions and forget that I'm living right here, in the present moment. All the more reason for me to practice I guess.

    Gassho.

    Simon

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