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Thread: I am blooming there as a flower

  1. #1

    I am blooming there as a flower

    Shohaku Okumura in his latest book about Zen chants and texts, Living by vow, writes the following (p.167-168):

    (...) When we see the flower without thinking "this is beautiful" or "What is this flower called?" we really meet the flower itself. When we see the flower without thinking, we find that our life, this body and mind, and the life of the flower are the same life. There is no separation. We can say:"I am blooming there as a flower". To extinguish our views, to let go of thought, or to negate our own way of thinking is not negative. It makes our life very vivid and dynamic(...).

    If you come here with your petty pretty understanding of the path and get it approved and stamped, you are in for a big disappointment. And this disappointment is part of practice itself.

    This path is about loosing, loosing our beliefs, our ideas, our theories and breaking the little boxes in which we try to put everything away.


    When will we wake up to the fact that that all sutras, all shobogenzo, countless teachings take place here and now in the body-mind of Buddha, that to study sutra and texts is not to study dusty books or scrolls coming from the past, that Dogen was not born yesterday and we are so old already, that once we surrender to this hidden-treasure-in-full-view, when we strip everything to just let the original face shine, it meets all beings and things as just an expression of itself?!! YOU ARE THE SHOBOGENZO!!!Wake up! It about you and your life and not old guys playing little pretty koan games and lovely poetic contests.


    gassho


    Taigu
    Last edited by Taigu; 07-05-2012 at 01:19 AM.

  2. #2
    Many thanks, Taigu.

    _/\_

    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

  3. #3
    disastermouse
    Guest
    Thank you, Taigu! I'm on the edge of throwing away every idea I have and this only helps.

    Chet

  4. #4
    Thank you, a timely reminder
    _()_
    Myoku

  5. #5
    Tahank 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/

  6. #6
    Hi Taigu,
    This is great. I'm going to share this. Thanks.
    Gassho
    Myozan

  7. #7

  8. #8
    Thank you _/\_
    Thanks,
    Kaishin (開心, Open Heart)
    Please take this layman's words with a grain of salt.

  9. #9
    Mp
    Guest
    Thank you Taigu!

    Gassho,
    Michael

  10. #10
    2398951945_d27e2748df_o.jpg

    As you know...deep bows for your teachings Taigu. May our unwrapped boxes be used in life's robe.

    Thanks for helping close the gap.

    Gassho,

    Dokan
    We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
    ~Anaïs Nin

  11. #11
    To lose all preconceived ideas. To lose them all.

    Thank you, Taigu.
    Hondō Kyōnin
    奔道 協忍

  12. #12
    Thank you, as always, dear Taigu.

    Gassho,
    Jikyo

  13. #13
    Thank you for the teaching Taigu.
    When I see a blooming flower I instinctively want to sniff it and bury myself inside it. I think I'm doing exactly what this flower wants me to do No thoughts are necessary, just millions of years of evolution for the flowers to perfect their ways of attracting insects, birds and animals (including humans).
    Gassho,
    Andy

  14. #14
    ... and at one with the rain drenched flowers that are struggling to bloom in the Uk just now amidst rain and floods.

    Taigu

    Willow

  15. #15
    Thank you Taigu, this is such happiness.
    Big Gassho.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
    Heisoku 平 息
    Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. (Basho)

  16. #16
    Thank you very much. I love these cutting words!

    Gassho,

    Risho

  17. #17

  18. #18
    There was a time when I thought that this disappointment is a beginning of ,,a real" practice. But now I can see that

    this disappointment is part of practice itself.
    And that every sitting
    is about loosing, loosing our beliefs, our ideas, our theories
    again, again, again, again and again....

    Thank you, Taigu.
    Gassho,
    Marek

  19. #19
    Yes, Marek, any attempt to make something out of this ( at least in my experience so far) has proven to be ridiculous.
    Loosing opens you up, vulnerability makes more available to others. When we start this all Zen circus thing we ride the self, and this riding action kills the belief that that self would take you anywhere. We ride to stumble, to fall, to fail. And when left with nobody, not even a Dharma name, when left with an empty broken bowl, the whole universe revels itSELF.
    In the middle of Shikantaza, what is your name? Tell me!!! ( and if you can find one, time to forget it)

    gassho


    Taigu

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Taigu View Post
    In the middle of Shikantaza, what is your name?
    Same as it was in the 'beginning' and will be at the 'end'.
    We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
    ~Anaïs Nin

  21. #21
    Mp
    Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Taigu View Post
    In the middle of Shikantaza, what is your name? Tell me!!! ( and if you can find one, time to forget it)
    Forget what?

    Gassho,
    Michael

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by ecoist View Post
    Forget what?
    This reminds me of the urban legend of a philosophy professor who placed a chair in front of the students for their final exam and said, "Prove this chair exists." One student wrote for only a few seconds and turned in his paper which would later receive an A. His answer? "What chair?" If true, the student was truly in the moment!

    Also reminds me of British cartoon I watched as a kid called "Dangermouse" where the protagonists travelled to the deserts of Africa and met a soldier among the dunes. He tells them, "I joined the Foreign Legion to forget." "Forget what?", they reply. Says the soldier, "I don't know, I have forgotten."

    Thank you Taigu.

    Gassho,
    Dosho

  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Taigu View Post
    ... When we start this all Zen circus thing we ride the self, and this riding action kills the belief that that self would take you anywhere. We ride to stumble, to fall, to fail. And when left with nobody, not even a Dharma name, when left with an empty broken bowl, the whole universe revels itSELF...
    Okay, this make perfect sense to me, who knows why!

    Gassho,

    Lisa

  24. #24
    Forget what?
    and maybe: Who should forget?

    Last edited by Marek; 07-10-2012 at 05:36 PM.
    Gassho,
    Marek

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