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  1. #1

    Important mondo

    Cliff asked somewhere on this vast forum:

    You talk about the negative emotions that our thoughts can trigger -- anger, depression, stress -- and offer some valuable strategies for accepting those emotions, holding them without judgement and acknowledging them. I think your daily mantra of, "It's OK not to be OK," is a beautiful path to self-compassion. You suggest questioning the emotion, asking, "It it real, is it true?"

    I may be over-intellectualizing here -- one of the symptoms of having a very developed inner-voice -- but isn't asking the question invoking thinking, cultivating the very mental process we want to allow to recede into the background in the daily practice of zazen?
    And this is my humble answer, hopefully useful:



    In sitting, in just sitting, we do not add to the acceptation of here and now. We let thoughts arise and vanish without challenging their reality with the razor blade like and very sharp inquiry, giving them space, letting them roam we are actually sky-like filled with clouds. Of course once we identify or play with a single thought, the very wide and wild and raw open perspective is kind of lost as we focus on a particular element of the broad scenery. In life, wherever you are, train, work, streets, restaurant, you might of course go there, in shikantaza mode, in that non dual space that cuts through every confusion on the spot as it makes the whole scenery bloom to its full and boundless expanse. This is called one taste in the zen tradition. This instant zazen is always available. AND you may indeed use the thinking process itself to undermine the confusion that results from believing in your thoughts ( which is partly the actual way a koan might wipe the mirror of the bodymind and make you freely reflect all things without being a single one) inquiry such as: is this real? Statement like: no big deal are dualistic tools for a non dualistic realisation. You see, one of the challenges and real wonders of Buddhist practice is the fact that the dual and relative ( words, actions and the likes ) are used to point at , and not only point at in the Zen path, to embody the non dual and absolute. Lex Hixon in the transmission 43 of Keizan Denkoroku, record of the transmission of the light, that I am busy translating in French for French publisher puts it very clearly: as soon you penetrate the non dual you may pick up and use dualistic tools to express fully the Buddha Dharma. Making a disctinction between dual and non dual would be at that stage very dualistic. This is why we are not drunk with the oneness of Advaita ( i love and respect Advaita but Advaita is another path) , saying one with is already dualistic. We express this as neither one nor two and then, Bob is your uncle as they say in Britain.

    Gassho

    Taigu
    Last edited by Taigu; 01-31-2014 at 10:49 PM.

  2. #2
    Mp
    Guest
    Thank you for the reminder Taigu of this wonderful practice. =)

    Gassho
    Shingen

  3. #3
    Thank you, Taigu. I cannot hear this enough.

    Gassho,
    Juki
    "First you have to give up." Tyler Durden

  4. #4
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  5. #5
    Joyo
    Guest
    Excellent, thank you

    Gassho,
    Joyo

  6. #6
    Gassho, Taigu, and thanks once again for an answer that was more than useful. It was profound. I was sitting zazen tonight, and this was immensely helpful.

    Cliff

    Just a quick edit to note that I asked the question here, in response to Taigu's third (wonderful) video: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...isattva-Basics

    I recommend watching all of them. Their wisdom is timeless.
    Last edited by cgcumber; 02-01-2014 at 03:27 AM.

  7. #7
    Thank you much, Taigu. Eloquent.
    求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
    I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

  8. #8

  9. #9
    Thank you, Taigu. This is very helpful.

    Gassho
    Kokuu

  10. #10
    Thank you, Taigu.

    Great words for non-thinking and keep them present.

    Gassho,

    Kyonin
    Hondō Kyōnin
    奔道 協忍

  11. #11
    I am grateful for such wise words
    In Gassho
    Taikyo

  12. #12
    Thank you

    Gassho
    Bobby

  13. #13
    Thank you.


    Gassho,
    Myosha
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  14. #14
    Gassho, Taigu. With thanks,
    Myozan

  15. #15
    Thank you.

    Gassho,

    Daijo

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Taigu View Post
    and then, Bob is your uncle as they say in Britain.



  17. #17
    Joyo
    Guest
    I, too, have noticed a difference in sitting zazen, and in all other areas of my life, since reading this.

    Gassho,
    Joyo

  18. #18
    Thank you Taigu;

    As a boy, I had an Uncle named Bob. Every time I heard some say that phrase I would chuckle and say to myself, " I wonder how they knew that?"

    Great teaching

    gassho, Shokai


    Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk4
    合掌,生開
    gassho, Shokai

    仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai

    "Open to life in a benevolent way"

    https://sarushinzendo.wordpress.com/

  19. #19
    Hello Taigu,

    thank you for sharing this with us.

    Gassho,

    Hans Chudo Mongen

  20. #20
    Thanks for the question and the answer. Will be pondering this one for awhile.
    Gassho
    C

  21. #21
    Thanks, Taigu. "One taste........."

    8) Shinzan

  22. #22
    Thanks indeed, Taigu!


    Gassho,

    Daitetsu
    no thing needs to be added

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