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Thread: Vipers in a Pool (The First Noble Truth)

  1. #1
    Treeleaf Priest / Engineer Sekishi's Avatar
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    Vipers in a Pool (The First Noble Truth)

    I was thinking about Kirk's post here: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...uth-and-dukkha

    And it really got me to sink into the nature of the first noble truth.



    Imagine a huge pool, with tall concrete sides (far too tall to climb). Some parts of the pool are pleasing to the senses, surrounded by tall shady trees, others are crumbling and strewn with detritus. In some places, still and moving pictures are projected onto the walls. Some pictures tell stories about pools that never were and the heroes and villains that live in them. Some tell stories and show images from other places within the pool itself. There is a system that keeps the water constantly circulating with a gentle current. But at regular intervals, poisonous vipers slip into the system and end up in the water, ever more with the passage of time.

    This is the situation all beings are born into. Some are lucky, and are born into the pool where the water is comfortable, and the vipers are rarely seen. Others are not so lucky, and are born into the dangerous areas, in the eddies where the vipers congregate. Initially, there are beings close to us (such as our parents and friends) who will try to shield us from the vipers. In some areas, there are even people who are paid to try to protect everyone in that area from the vipers (doctors, police, etc.). However, the longer we are in the pool, the more the vipers accumulate. The vipers can bite us at any time, but the more time passes, the more vipers there are, and the poorer our chances. Eventually, we and everyone we love will fall to the vipers, and everything we care about will sink into the depths to crumble or rust.

    Some beings spend their time watching the pictures projected onto the walls. Some may dream of other worlds, with pools far more wondrous or dangerous than their own. Some beings explore the pool soaking in the sensory experiences it offers: warm and cold, fast and slow, shaded and sun-baked. Others study the pool unlocking the mysteries of the water, the currents, and beings, and the vipers themselves. Most beings cluster together for safety. Some battle with other groups for protection or resources. Most do their very best to not look directly at the vipers, but all know they are there.

    There is much talk in the pool about what happens to beings "after the bite" when they eventually succumb to the vipers, for nearly all are afraid of the bite.

    Some beings believe that if you believe earnestly enough, and ask for salvation, he who built the pool and created the vipers will transport you to a pool that is entirely pleasing to the senses and free of vipers.

    Some beings believe that you are simply born into a new pool, one that has the exact parameters of the current one: pool, water, vipers, and all.

    Some beings believe that after the vipers there is oblivion: no pool, no water, no vipers.

    Some beings point out that it is irrelevant what happens after the viper bites, the important thing is to care for other beings and the pool itself. Some truly radical beings (Buddha, Jesus, etc.) say that we should love all beings, even the vipers.



    So what is Buddha? What is Zen? My poor answer and current understanding is that Zen encompasses the practices that lead to the uncovering of the ever-present original mind - that the beings, the pool, and the vipers are different forms of one harmonious whole, separate but not different. The vipers are not the enemy, other beings are not the enemy, there is no enemy, except for suffering itself. Some may read this sentence and say "well I know THAT", but can you really KNOW it, when it matters? When the viper is swimming towards you, beneath your feet is only the deep, and behind you is only an unforgiving wall, will you KNOW it in your heart and mind?

    What can possibly uncover such a state of mind? Is it words in a book? Is it the chanting of Sutras? Is it a "breakthrough" with a Koan? Is it a Kensho on a misty morning upon hearing the call of a crow? Is it a lifetime of Shikantaza (that exists in a single moment)?

    I cannot answer, which is why I travel with the beings here. I bow to your experience, believing that you can help uncover this mind, but cannot find it for me.

    What would it be like to swim in the pool with such a state of mind? I imagine it would be to swim fearlessly, open to all beliefs about "what comes after the bite." How could we do anything but work to alleviate the suffering of all beings (including vipers)? If possible, some might even return to a pool when bitten, to continue working to alleviate all suffering.

    What is Buddha to you? What is Zen?

    Deep bows,
    Sekishi
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  2. #2
    You are Buddha. All is Zen.


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

  3. #3
    Mp
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    Zen is the realization on Buddha; zen is the realization of myself, my true nature. =)

    Gassho
    Shingen

  4. #4
    Treeleaf Priest / Engineer Sekishi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Myosha View Post
    You are Buddha. All is Zen.
    I understand these words only intellectually. When faced with the bite of a viper, or bad news on a biopsy, or trapped in a falling elevator, I know they will be only words to me.

    Deep bows, it is why I am here.

    Gassho,
    Sekishi
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  5. #5
    Well, they may be only words, but there are times when you need to act. If you're bit by a viper, you still need to get medical attention; and a bad-news biopsy, well, you still need to embark on a process. Sometimes you can say things are "just words" and let them go; but at other times, you do need to react.

    Gassho,

    Kirk

  6. #6
    Hi Sekishi,

    Yes, there is that bite of a viper, yes, it hurts.
    BUT you are the viper as well, not just the one that gets bit.
    That bite is real, yet at the same time it is not.

    The "art" does not consist in ignoring pain or saying it does not exist (which would be nihilistic), but in acknowledging it and seeing it for what it really is. Then you can tend to it - yet with a different attitude.
    We are a bit like an actor who gets lost in his play so much until he takes it for real.
    However, if he realises once again this is a play he is in, he still can't leave the stage, so he must keep on playing his role.
    (I know there are great dangers for misunderstandings playing with metaphors...)



    Quote Originally Posted by Sekishi View Post
    I understand these words only intellectually. When faced with the bite of a viper, or bad news on a biopsy, or trapped in a falling elevator, I know they will be only words to me.
    Perhaps you will know when you are in such a situation? Extreme situations can eventually lead to liberation of a certain kind.
    Furthermore, we need to be scared, otherwise we would not act.

    Quote Originally Posted by Sekishi
    What can possibly uncover such a state of mind? Is it words in a book? Is it the chanting of Sutras? Is it a "breakthrough" with a Koan? Is it a Kensho on a misty morning upon hearing the call of a crow? Is it a lifetime of Shikantaza (that exists in a single moment)?
    It could be any of those (or not).
    Having kensho/satori is just a moment - it won't necessarily help you in everyday life, but then again it could.
    For some people enlightenment can be like a long walk in the fog - finally you get really wet, although it might take longer than falling into a pool.

    Having said this, when we sit we realise our buddha nature, i.e. sitting zazen IS enlightenment - we need to practice to get this from the cushion to our daily lives as well.

    And this can be hard as hell - that's why it's called practice.

    Gassho,

    Daitetsu
    no thing needs to be added

  7. #7
    Treeleaf Priest / Engineer Sekishi's Avatar
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    Thank you all for your input. This lesson / the reality of Dukkha simply continues to sink in.

    The inevitability of impermanence, not just for me, or you, or our loved ones, but all beings. All formations must eventually succumb and change. There is nowhere to stand, only the deep beneath us. I often wondered why the Buddha chose THIS lesson as his first lesson, but where else could he have started? Once you accept in your heart that all is ceaseless change -- what is there to grasp? Non-grasping and non-harm are not moral lessons, they are the only sanity. When facing the truth of impermanence for all beings, the pool, and the very vipers -- what sense is there in "fair" and "unfair"? Without "fair" and "unfair" what sense is there in "gain" and "loss"? Without "gain" and "loss", what is there to do but pour our compassion into the waters -- to save all beings (and pools and vipers) though they are numberless? To continue to grasp onto this or that as we sink in the waters of Samsara is the definition of delusion. We are intimate with all beings, the pool, and the vipers themselves, how can the heart do anything but pour open?

    All these words are completely unable to express this truth, but what else can I do but say them?

    Thank you again, all of you, for your input. What a kind and wonderful little band of brothers and sisters buoyed in these dark deep waters!

    Deep bows,
    Sekishi
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  8. #8
    Treeleaf Priest / Engineer Sekishi's Avatar
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    Zazen has been a comfortable sweater. It has provided warmth against the drafts and the damp.
    Zazen has been a toothbrush. Without it I was not necessarily pleasant to be around.
    Zazen has been a "time out". A moment of silence at the end of cacophony.
    Zazen has been a reset switch. A method by which sanity can come forth.

    Now Zazen is an earthquake, liquefying the very ground, crumbling the foundations of the world.
    Now Zazen is the space between spaces, everywhere found, nowhere seen.

    Now Zazen is love.

    Deep bows,
    Sekishi
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  9. #9
    Sorry, I could not help thinking of this (the clean version) ...



    Perhaps we let the snakes be snakes ... yet learn to charm them too. When they inevitable bite with their deadly poison, we try to suck it out ... yet let the bite be the bite too. I guess that makes us kind of "snake handlers" like the folks in that other religion. There is this famous image in Buddhist tradition ...



    Mucalinda is the name of a naga (a snake-like being), who protected the Buddha from the elements after his enlightenment.It is said that four weeks after Śākyamuni Buddha began meditating under the Bodhi tree, the heavens darkened for seven days, and a prodigious rain descended. However, the mighty king of serpents, Mucalinda, came from beneath the earth and protected with his hood the one who is the source of all protection. When the great storm had cleared, the serpent king assumed his human form, bowed before the Buddha, and returned in joy to his palace.
    I just posted this a couple of places today, will post here too ...

    ................

    The medicine for this [Suffering] is to transcend all that ... which is what is undertaken in Shikantaza.

    How? Elegantly simple really.

    Shikantaza sits, allowing bird chirps to be chirpy, the breeze to be breezy, stinky garbage to be just that, lovely flowers to flower, yesterday yesterday and tomorrow tomorrow ... placing aside all judgment and resistance, analysis and plans, dreams of "what if" and regrets for "what was". All is as it is, and a vibrant flowing wholeness is all things.

    Rising from the cushion, we can and should still clean up the stinky garbage, water the flowers and pick the weeds, learn from yesterday and plan for tomorrow (we are not complacent) ... yet the sensation of "flowing wholeness is all things" simultaneously pervades. Beyond good or bad, clean vs. dirty yet, hand-in-hand (like seeing out of two eyes at once) bad is yet bad and in need of fixing, dirty is still dirty in need of cleaning ... we should get on the clean-up job, and realization happens in our every choice and action in life ... while simultaneously all is as it is, not a thing in need of fixing.

    As to the Dukkha of good things ... one can learn to appreciate and savor them while they are present, but appreciate and savor their parting too. One is not their prisoner, does not cling. Rather, one embraces ... yet also embraces their departing. If one has assets or a bit of treasure, one learns to appreciate them for what they are, not be overly attached like a sickness, and use them for good and healthful purposes. One is at Peace of One Piece with the happy times and sad/scary times too (even as the sad times make us fearful or cry with a broken heart ... there is the Heart which Cannot Be Broken). All is as it is, flowing wholeness ever changing.

    And thus Shikantaza closes the gap on the existential Angst of the human condition, our mortality, feeling of separation from the world, basic unsatisfactoriness due to change and impermanence. The reason is that we come to now flow along (and feel ourselves as the flow) of change and impermanence, taste something timeless and whole as the mind drops human measures of "beginnings and endings, births and deaths" and "me and you, this vs. that" in the wholeness of Shikantaza.

    The frictions drop away and the gap is closed. In fact, there never was a gap all along. All flowing flowing.

    Thus the simple elegance, the power of the medicine of Shikantaza.

    Gassho, Jundo
    Last edited by Jundo; 04-09-2014 at 02:42 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Sekishi View Post

    What is Buddha to you? What is Zen?

    Deep bows,
    Sekishi
    I don't know. Buddha is Buddha, Zen is Zen, it is what it is. A snake bite? Clarity maybe. :-)

    Gassho, Jishin

  11. #11
    unnamed.jpg

    Here is the tattoo on my belly with one viper on each side of Buddha ready to take a bite.

    Gassho, Jishin

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    The frictions drop away and the gap is closed. In fact, there never was a gap all along. All flowing flowing.

    Thus the simple elegance, the power of the medicine of Shikantaza.
    Thank you, Jundo.

    Gassho,

    Kyonin
    Hondō Kyōnin
    奔道 協忍

  13. #13
    Mp
    Guest
    Wonderful reply Jundo, thank you. =)

    Gassho
    Shingen

  14. #14
    Treeleaf Priest / Engineer Sekishi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Sorry, I could not help thinking of this (the clean version) ...
    (Samuel L. Jackson clip snipped)
    Haha, I have not seen the "clean for teevee" version. Thank you Jundo.

    I did think about that film as I was writing. Its ok, trapped in ANY confined space with poisonous snakes is just so evocative! Whether cultural or biological (or both), the thought of being trapped with them just tightens the gut ("Snakes, why did it have to be Snakes?" -- Indiana Jones).
    http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...HaveToBeSnakes

    I also briefly considered using "shrieking eels" instead of vipers because, well:


    "Enough is ENOUGH! I have had it with this monkey fighting shrieking eels in this Monday Friday water!" -- Princess Buttercup

    Ahh metaphor. Other options (besides vipers or shrieking eels) with greater or lesser amounts of nerd points / geek credits:
    - Hungry rats in a head-shaped cage (1984)
    - Mind controlling earwigs in a space helmet (Wrath of Khan)
    - Tied on the railroad tracks by Snidely Whiplash (Rocky and Bullwinkle)
    - Dementors in a tent (Harry Potter)
    - Huge cephalopod in a water filled garbage disposal unit on the detention level (Star Wars Ep.IV)
    - 1000 years in a sarlacc pit (Star Wars Ep.VI)
    - Four great moving mountains coming towards us, crushing all beings (Pabbatopama Sutta)

    Anyhow, it doesn't really matter. We all taste it to lesser or greater extents eventually, whether through the borrowed consciousness of film, or books, or directly through the inescapable suffering of our dear ones (ourselves included). Anything that clarifies just how trapped we are, just how immense the possibilities for suffering, and conversely just how enticing a moment of liberation -- no wonder it is so easy to grasp onto an enlightenment experience. More grasping!


    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Perhaps we let the snakes be snakes ... yet learn to charm them too. When they inevitable bite with their deadly poison, we try to suck it out ... yet let the bite be the bite too. I guess that makes us kind of "snake handlers" like the folks in that other religion.
    Yes. From where I sit at the moment, as this all sinks into the marrow, I would add -- we MUST also do everything we can to bring compassion to all other beings (and vipers) trapped in this same circumstance. Even if we cannot yet touch the fundamental oneness or "see our original mind", it is obvious that we are all facing the same fate. How can we pick and chose whom to help and whom offer comfort and compassion? The truth of suffering is a great equalizer, it burns away "fair" and "unfair", replacing it with open compassion (even if there is still sadness). No other possibility.

    Wow.

    Gassho,
    Sekishi
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  15. #15
    Treeleaf Priest / Engineer Sekishi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jishin View Post
    I don't know. Buddha is Buddha, Zen is Zen, it is what it is. A snake bite? Clarity maybe. :-)
    Compassion for snake and victim (nah, all snakes and victims). Compassion that arises unbidden, unclouded by reason, or cost / benefit analysis.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jishin View Post
    Here is the tattoo on my belly with one viper on each side of Buddha ready to take a bite.
    Wow! If you do not mind my asking, is this in reference to Mucalinda or something else?

    Gassho,
    Sekishi
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    The frictions drop away and the gap is closed. In fact, there never was a gap all along. All flowing flowing.

    Thus the simple elegance, the power of the medicine of Shikantaza.
    Once the gap (that was never there at all) is closed, when we get up off the cushion, how can we do anything but act? Really beautiful.

    Thank you Jundo.

    Deep bows,
    Sekishi
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Sekishi View Post


    Wow! If you do not mind my asking, is this in reference to Mucalinda or something else?

    Gassho,
    Sekishi
    It's purely accidental. I started getting tatted up 8 years ago and now just have my left leg left. The underlying theme of my tats are Asian in nature. I have dragons, coy fish, tigers, vipers, yin-yen symbols, temple guards etc. The vipers came first and there was a nice whole left to be covered in my abdomen. An enlightened Buddha fit perfectly. I thought it was cool because when I get older my belly will grow and will bring good luck when rubbed. I think the Chinese chunky happy Buddha brings good luck when his belly is rubbed.

    Gassho, Jishin

  18. #18
    Treeleaf Priest / Engineer Sekishi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jishin View Post
    It's purely accidental.
    "It was just my Karma."

    Quote Originally Posted by Jishin View Post
    I think the Chinese chunky happy Buddha brings good luck when his belly is rubbed.
    Good old Hotai (Budai in China I think). I am currently working on cultivating his physique as part of my intensive training.

    To bring this thread full circle, there is a wonderful Koan about Budai. It is said that he travelled around, giving children candy / food / gifts (from the bag he is often shown to be carrying). One day he met another monk who asked him "What is the meaning of Zen?" Budai put down his bag. Then the monk asked "How does one realize Zen?" Budai picked his bag back up and walked away.
    I asked the same question in my original post. Some of the Budai's here answered similarly (if not as physically).

    Thank you Jishin.

    Deep bows to all.
    Sekishi
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  19. #19
    Maybe best to put the snakes down now, just sit ... and let them slither along.

    Too much talk about snakes does not even begin to capture the bite, nor the sound of the hiss!

    Perhaps that is the best answer to "What is Buddha, What is Zen".

    Gassho, J

    Last edited by Jundo; 04-10-2014 at 02:53 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Maybe best to put the snakes down down, just sit ... and let them slither along.
    Thank you dear Jundo. Deep bows.

    ...And what a photo you found! Thank for that too. I think...

    Gassho,
    Sekishi
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  21. #21
    Treeleaf Priest / Engineer Sekishi's Avatar
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    I found this tonight: it turns out that there is a Sutta about just this topic (protection from vipers). The Buddha's answer is Metta:

    May I have metta towards the footless.
    And towards bipeds too, metta may I have.
    May I have metta towards quadrupeds.
    And towards the many-footed also metta may I have.
    http://www.buddhanet.net/bp_sut05.htm

    Deep bows to all you bipeds. Deep bows to the footless ones swimming in the deep.

    Deep bows to all in Slytherin house as well.
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

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