everyday is a good day

[Taigu]

As I was browsing through a few calligraphies of Kodo Sawaki, I bumped into this one:

655

Everyday is a good day

A famous statement, thunderous, breaking through our beliefs that tomorrow will be great and yesterday was better, something not for the faint hearted, something for what has courage in us, not for the victim, the abused, the oppressed, the destitute, the jobless soul, the lonely one, the bored, the angry guy, the weeping eye... For all　these guys that we can sometimes be, a statement that says that As it is, raw, complete and intense, it is just good. It is good and we may cry, shout, beg, giggle, kick, strike or fly way...It is bigger than us, bigger than anything we can think of.

Life itself.

Just life.

Life.

Here and now, we have got it all.

gassho


Taigu

[Rich]

Good way to start the day. Thanks.

[RichardH]

Thank you, Taigu.

Gassho, kojip

[Kyonin]

Life is what is.

Thank you, Taigu.

Gassho,

Kyonin

[Heisoku]

I heard this also from an unemployed guy, who happened to overhear two student whining about being broke. I always wondered how he came to this. Well since then I have learnt also!
Thank you Taigu. I am still learning this one.

[Jiken]

Gassho Taigu

Daido

[Nindo]

Thank you Taigu.
gassho1

Once I bought my monthly bus ticket in a convenience store run by an Asian fellow, maybe a Chinese immigrant or Korean. He said the usual "Have a good day" and I said "Every day is a good day" - which made him look at me quizzically and he said "Ah, you know that one..." :)

And yesterday I went to a jazz performance by Sheila Jordan who is just shy of her 84th birthday, with her bass partner Cameron Brown. They were completely dedicated to the music, in the music. She said all she ever wanted in life was to keep this music alive. Music is also bigger than us.
Music itself.
Just music.
Music.

[Mp]

Beautiful Taigu ... thank you. :)

Gassho
Michael

[Kyonin]

Taigu,

How do you say that phrase in Japanese?

Thank you!

Gassho,

Kyonin

[Taigu]

Hi Kyonin,

In old Japanese: Nichi nichi kore kojitsu
in modern Japanese: hibi kore kojitsu

here is a lovely vid of Harada roshi tracing the kanji with his brush:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAPuH8fadjw


gassho

(and my Japanese is almost non existent by the way)


Taigu

[pinoybuddhist]

A lovely reminder for the morning. Thank you.

gassho1

Raf

As I was browsing through a few calligraphies of Kodo Sawaki, I bumped into this one:

655

Everyday is a good day

A famous statement, thunderous, breaking through our beliefs that tomorrow will be great and yesterday was better, something not for the faint hearted, something for what has courage in us, not for the victim, the abused, the oppressed, the destitute, the jobless soul, the lonely one, the bored, the angry guy, the weeping eye... For all　these guys that we can sometimes be, a statement that says that As it is, raw, complete and intense, it is just good. It is good and we may cry, shout, beg, giggle, kick, strike or fly way...It is bigger than us, bigger than anything we can think of.

Life itself.

Just life.

Life.

Here and now, we have got it all.

gassho


Taigu

[Patrick]

Magnifique ! Thank you.

[Yugen]

Taigu
I have begun to revisit Sawaki's words through your posting and they are sustaining me right now, in a difficult time. Thank you Taigu, and to all here.

Gassho
Yugen

[Kyonin]

Thank you, Taigu.

This will be my phrase for the days to come.

Gassho,

Kyonin


Hi Kyonin,

In old Japanese: Nichi nichi kore kojitsu
in modern Japanese: hibi kore kojitsu

here is a lovely vid of Harada roshi tracing the kanji with his brush:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAPuH8fadjw


gassho

(and my Japanese is almost non existent by the way)


Taigu

[Jundo]

Nonin Chowaney from Nebraska Zen Center has a simple, clear comment on this (Nonin, by the way, is a cancer survivor with one lung, a host of other health issues and a heck of a lot of fight) ...

As Taigu reminds us above, "everyday is a good day" is not some simple bumper sticker, but includes the ugly, the sad, even the most terrible of days. Taigu says ...

A famous statement, thunderous, breaking through our beliefs that tomorrow will be great and yesterday was better, something not for the faint hearted, something for what has courage in us, not for the victim, the abused, the oppressed, the destitute, the jobless soul, the lonely one, the bored, the angry guy, the weeping eye... For all　these guys that we can sometimes be, a statement that says that As it is, raw, complete and intense, it is just good. It is good and we may cry, shout, beg, giggle, kick, strike or fly way...It is bigger than us, bigger than anything we can think of.

------------------------


Everyday is a Good Day - by Nonin Chowaney


A couple of years ago, it snowed in Omaha on April 29th. I had wanted to work in the garden that day and when I looked out the window, my heart sank.

Later, I walked downstairs and mentioned that it was snowing to Albert, one of our group. "Yes," he responded, "there's something quite beautiful about these late Spring snowstorms."

Indeed there is, if you can approach them with an open mind; if you approach them with complaint because there'll be no gardening, they can be a real pain.

Lama Govinda writes that, "All suffering arises from attitude. The world is neither good nor bad. It is solely our relationship to it which makes it either one or the other." Snow on April 29th, or any weather condition on any other day, for that matter, is neither good nor bad. Good and bad is a question of mental attitude.

Moment-by-moment, we create the world in the mind. We can look out and create a gloomy, depressing world on any day by the condition of mind we bring to it. A depressed mind can make a bright, sunshiny day black and dreary, and a contented mind can create heaven out of rain and storm.

I am reminded of the old Zen saying, "Every day is a good day." What determines this? The mind that dwells nowhere; the mind that accepts everything. This is nirvana.

Nirvana may be understood as the absence of greed, anger (or aversion), and delusion. In other words, it's a state of mind. If we can approach whatever life brings us with the mind free from greed, aversion, and delusion, or accept things as they are without grasping for more or turning away from what's there, we cultivate the mental state known as nirvana, quiescence, or, heart-mind at peace with what is.

This does not mean passivity. It does not mean that we lay back and not move. What it means is that we start from zero, from acceptance of our lives as they are, and move from there. In that way we are not kept from or hindered in our living by complaining, grousing, or blaming others for the conditions of our lives. Every moment, then, affords us the opportunity to practice awakening, nirvana, enlightenment. When we sit zazen, we cultivate this practice.

The instruction for zazen is to cultivate the mind that abides nowhere, the mind of non-attachment. We are to allow thoughts to come and go, to arise without denial or suppression and to pass away without clinging. Angry thoughts about the boss? Let them come and let them go. Contentment with a lover? Let it come and let it go. I can't garden because it's snowing? Let it come and let it go. This practice does not aim for any particular state of mind; it is in and of itself the awakened state; sometimes it is called "cultivating the natural condition of mind."

Buddha, the awakened one, taught the Way to end human dissatisfaction, and nothing more. He taught that the end to suffering is non-attachment, non-clinging. This is the practice of zazen. Gradually, we are able to also cultivate this practice when standing, walking, or lying down; our life itself is enlightenment.

A mind that can abide anywhere is always content, even when suffering greatly. This is liberation; suffering is gone through. We accept what comes, live it, and move on.

...

... One moment, pain and suffering; the next, joy and relief. This all occurs in the mind; we create the world we live in. We sometimes cannot change the circumstances we live in, but we can always change our attitude. If we can learn to let go, it will change by itself.

As Lama Govinda said, "All suffering arises from attitude. The world is neither good nor bad. It is solely our relationship to it which makes it either one or the other." So, even if it's a bad day, "every day is a good day."

http://www.prairiewindzen.org/everyday_is_a_good_day.html

[Jinyo]

Thanks Jundo.

I have read through Taigu's words again.

I'm struck by 'something for what has courage in us'.

The more I think on this the more it resonates.

Also - the notion of starting from a point of Zero - as expressed by Govinda.

Very helpful [gassholook]


Gassho

Willow

[Myoku]

I feel like everyday is. if it seems good or bad, if it is good or bad, it just is the best day we can get at that day. I once read why the opposite "Everyday is a bad day" is _not_ ok, but I forgot why. That everyday just is as it is - thats enough for me. And thats good :-)
_()_
Myoku

[Omoi Otoshi]

Some days suck.

/Pontus

[Nindo]

I think I am going to recite this verse every morning and evening as a practice, and see what happens.
[monk]

[Risho]

Thank you.

Gassho,

Risho

[Jundo]

Some days suck.

/Pontus

Yes. Some good days really suck. (a koan)

Gassho, J

[disastermouse]

A bad day that kicks you in unexpected ways can be invigorating...humbling - a teacher.

A good day of getting everything you want can inure you to the idea that lasting happiness can be attained via external circumstances.

[Myoku]

A bad day that kicks you in unexpected ways can be invigorating...humbling - a teacher.

A good day of getting everything you want can inure you to the idea that lasting happiness can be attained via external circumstances.

Well put, thank you
_()_
Myoku

[Omoi Otoshi]

Yes, I agree. The sucky days are not less valuable than the days you feel great. Just different. They are just sucky days. No need to add a lot of extra.

Gassho,
Pontus

[RichardH]

It's the "good days" when dukkha is glazed over with " things going my way" that trip me up. The days with a nice chunky dukkha are easier.


Gassho, kojip... wearing a hair shirt.[morehappy]

[Jundo]

"Every day is a good day" ... 日々是好日 ...

Might I respectfully suggest that it is not really a matter of "looking for the bright side" in the hard days, the "silver lining" in the clouds. It is not merely saying that "hard times build character" or "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" (even if true sometimes). Toss such bumper sticker, fortune cookie crap in the crapper!

Rather, what happens when you drop all thought of "good" "bad" "how things should be" or "I wish they would be"? What happens when you drop "you" clean away? What is beyond your little self and its demands on the world, on life? What happens when the walls come tumbling down holding this self-life-world apart, both the sunny days and the rain?

Nishijima Roshi, and countless other teachers, say that Buddhism is a positive, even optimistic philosophy (despite all the talk of "suffering", the real focus is not that ... but "Liberation"). When we drop thoughts and selfish judgments and appraisals, what remains is ... not an empty nihilistic hole, not directionless chaos, not greyness, not darkness ... but peace, freedom and fertile possibility! Not an empty hole ... there is Wholeness. Even a Wholly Holy Wholeness.

There is something about this reality that is positive, not negative, going in the direction all needs to go, so Beautiful ... even though ugly sometimes. It is a Beauty encountered when we drop all small human judgments and demands of "beautiful" (small 'b') and ugly.

And, while it is not always us, we are just that.

I sometimes compare our attitude to that of innocent babes with a deep trust in this source and world that birthed us, that feeds us and which somehow allows us air to breathe. Sure, it is not a perfect place as we might always wish it to be (and certainly, if I were in charge of its making, I might choose to do things a bit differently), but it is an amazing place and a miracle that we are here. Do you know all that was involved in allowing that to be, in allowing you to be ... from the stars ... to the flowers and trees ... every twist and turn of history and natural conditions that allowed you to be?

No, as the spring time comes following the winter, and life returns ... I say that we are grateful to that which allows it all to be, and us to be. Thank you.

In dropping our sense of separate self, we trade our limited perspective (as but tiny cogs, pointlessly spinning) for a vision of the whole "Universal Machine" ... 'tis precisely us, and we are that. Amazing!! AMAZING!

Gassho, Jundo

[Omoi Otoshi]

I sometimes compare our attitude to that of innocent babes with a deep trust in this source and world that birthed us, that feeds us and which somehow allows us air to breathe. Sure, it is not a perfect place as we might always wish it to be (and certainly, if I were in charge of its making, I might choose to do things a bit differently), but it is an amazing place and a miracle that we are here. Do you know all that was involved in allowing that to be, in allowing you to be ... from the stars ... to the flowers and trees ... every twist and turn of history and natural conditions that allowed you to be?

It's a very good comparison!
Sometimes when sitting, it feels like returning to the warmth and complete safety of the womb, where there is nothing to do except just being.
No one to do anything either, just the womb as the whole universe, which could indeed be seen as the source of our life.
Other times, the innocent child may have gas pains. And no matter how much the child trusts, gas pains suck. There's no way around it. But the child in gas pains doesn't add any extra. It just cries.
And when the pain passes, it goes back to just smiling at everyone and everything. No matter how much the gas pains hurt, it never ceases to trust.

Gassho,
Pontus

[Mp]

[I]I sometimes compare our attitude to that of innocent babes with a deep trust in this source and world that birthed us, that feeds us and which somehow allows us air to breathe. Sure, it is not a perfect place as we might always wish it to be (and certainly, if I were in charge of its making, I might choose to do things a bit differently), but it is an amazing place and a miracle that we are here. Do you know all that was involved in allowing that to be, in allowing you to be ... from the stars ... to the flowers and trees ... every twist and turn of history and natural conditions that allowed you to be?

I also agree with Pontus, this example really resonated with me, thank you Jundo. :)

Gassho
Michael

[Risho]

"Every day is a good day" ... 日々是好日 ...

Might I respectfully suggest that it is not really a matter of "looking for the bright side" in the hard days, the "silver lining" in the clouds. It is not merely saying that "hard times build character" or "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" (even if true sometimes). Toss such bumper sticker, fortune cookie crap in the crapper!

Rather, what happens when you drop all thought of "good" "bad" "how things should be" or "I wish they would be"? What happens when you drop "you" clean away? What is beyond your little self and its demands on the world, on life? What happens when the walls come tumbling down holding this self-life-world apart, both the sunny days and the rain?

Nishijima Roshi, and countless other teachers, say that Buddhism is a positive, even optimistic philosophy (despite all the talk of "suffering", the real focus is not that ... but "Liberation"). When we drop thoughts and selfish judgments and appraisals, what remains is ... not an empty nihilistic hole, not directionless chaos, not greyness, not darkness ... but peace, freedom and fertile possibility! Not an empty hole ... there is Wholeness. Even a Wholly Holy Wholeness.

There is something about this reality that is positive, not negative, going in the direction all needs to go, so Beautiful ... even though ugly sometimes. It is a Beauty encountered when we drop all small human judgments and demands of "beautiful" (small 'b') and ugly.

And, while it is not always us, we are just that.

I sometimes compare our attitude to that of innocent babes with a deep trust in this source and world that birthed us, that feeds us and which somehow allows us air to breathe. Sure, it is not a perfect place as we might always wish it to be (and certainly, if I were in charge of its making, I might choose to do things a bit differently), but it is an amazing place and a miracle that we are here. Do you know all that was involved in allowing that to be, in allowing you to be ... from the stars ... to the flowers and trees ... every twist and turn of history and natural conditions that allowed you to be?

No, as the spring time comes following the winter, and life returns ... I say that we are grateful to that which allows it all to be, and us to be. Thank you.

In dropping our sense of separate self, we trade our limited perspective (as but tiny cogs, pointlessly spinning) for a vision of the whole "Universal Machine" ... 'tis precisely us, and we are that. Amazing!! AMAZING!

Gassho, Jundo

This is a freaking awesome topic and gets to the heart of it. So many awesome posts from everyone!

I know zennies are famous for saying "Just Sit!" But it's also "Just Stop!" When sitting, the thoughts that come and go. Sometimes they are funny. Sometimes I jsut can't take and I think seriously, are you really thinking that again?! lol It's almost like saying "Just Stop already!" But not a forceful stop. Trying to stop just makes it worse. but an objectless stop. I know you mentioned the joke about going to the doctor and the patient complains that it hurts when they do something, then just stop. But the thoughts we tell ourself are addicting. I don't know if that's the correct word... maybe just more of what we are used to.

For instance, I'm so used to thinking out problems and emails and conversations so I can present the facts, but that can get ugly in mind. I then start repeat stories I tell myself about how I'm right, or if they do that I will just snap and tell them what for! So in that sense, zazen is like a breath of fresh air. Actually it's more like the freshness has already been there, but I had to get out from under the covers of my repetitive mind games to even know it was there at all.

Interestingly, I was reading through Zen Seeds again, and I happened upon the chapter that points to this point:

From A Brocade Cannot Be Woven in One Color (pg. 33):


Life goes on without regard to our partial or selfish desires. Accordingly, joy and anger, sadness and happiness, love and hate, and all kinds of thoughts and emotions are woven together. If everything, including misfortune, illness and failure, is unconditionally accepted as it is, then all experience may be constructively enjoyed.

The merciful world of the Buddha embraces all people exactly as they are. It is a world in which people who swear they will never be deluded but who will soon fall into bewilderment are generously embraced as they are by the Buddha."


Gassho to everyone for your wonderful posts.

Risho

[glow]

A wonderful thread, and amazingly right on target for me and my life right now. Thank you, everyone.

Gassho,

Glow

[Kaishin]

Thanks, all
Gassho, Kaishin / Matt

[Dokan]

When I read this thread this morning I immediate was brought back to a podcast I had listened to some time ago called The Good Life. It was a talk by Shugen sensei from ZMM where he taught on Blue Cliff Record #6. Why this stuck in my mind wasn't because of the talk per se, but rather a funny quip during the talk. He started by stating "Every day is a good day....with Zoloft." Now, I know he was being funny, and it was. However I think there is a truth here that could easily be missed. The "Zoloft" of our lives, whatever that may be for each of us, is added and unnecessary.

Gassho,

Dokan

[Risho]

Thanks Dokan! I listened to that, and I just couldn't remember the name of the talk.

Gassho,

Risho

PS I didn't mean that to sound competitive, like "oh look I know about that too". I meant it as sincerely enthusiastic that you found that because I've been racking my brain. lol

[Nindo]

When I read this thread this morning I immediate was brought back to a podcast I had listened to some time ago called The Good Life. It was a talk by Shugen sensei from ZMM where he taught on Blue Cliff Record #6. Why this stuck in my mind wasn't because of the talk per se, but rather a funny quip during the talk. He started by stating "Every day is a good day....with Zoloft." Now, I know he was being funny, and it was. However I think there is a truth here that could easily be missed. The "Zoloft" of our lives, whatever that may be for each of us, is added and unnecessary.

Gassho,

Dokan

For all who didn't know either - Zoloft is the trade name of an antidepressant medication.

[RichardH]

Trungpa described Buddhist practice as "surgery without anesthetic". This thread just brought that to mind. Gassho, kojip.

[glow]

Testing to see if I uploaded my pic correctly.

Gassho,

Glow