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Jundo
09-25-2016, 03:34 PM
Case 66 never ends, and so we intrapenetrate Case 67, The Avatamsaka Sutra's Wisdom ...

https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=WTU6AwAAQBAJ&dq=Shuzan%27s+New+Bride&q=Avatamsaka+speck+thousand#v=snippet&q=Avatamsaka%20speck%20thousand&f=false

The Avatamsaka (also known as the Kegon, Huayan or 'Flower Garland') Sutra was influential in the Zen world for its teaching of the intimate intrapenetration, interflowing, same-not-sameness and radical all is one each are all identity of all things ...


... each thing is intimately connected to every other thing, each thing is an expression of the interdependence of everything else, the whole universe is an expression of each individual thing, and each thing is exactly itself. In other words: everything is interdependent; you are just the universe expressing itself; your actions have infinite impact; and each thing is simply itself, you are you.

Another way to express this ...




A frequently cited expression of this vision of reality is the simile of Indra’s Net from the Avatamsaka Sutra, which was further elaborated by the Huayan teachers. The whole universe is seen as a multidimensional net. At every point where the strands of the net meet, jewels are set. Each jewel reflects the light reflected in the jewels around it, and each of those jewels in turn reflects the light from all the jewels around them, and so on, forever. In this way, each jewel, or each particular entity or event, including each person, ultimately reflects and expresses the radiance of the entire universe. All of totality can be seen in each of its parts.


Another time, Fazang illustrated the Huayan teachings for Empress Wu by constructing a hall of mirrors, placing mirrors on the ceiling, floor, four walls, and four corners of a room. In the center he placed a Buddha image with a lamp next to it. Standing in this room, the empress could see that the reflection in any one mirror clearly reflected the reflections from all of the other mirrors, including the specific reflection of the Buddha image in each one. This fully demonstrated the unobstructed interpenetration of the particular and the totality, with each one contained in all, and with all contained in each one. Moreover, it showed the nonobstructed interpenetration of each particular mirror with each of the others.


More here ...

http://www.lionsroar.com/the-phenomenal-universe-of-the-flower-ornament-sutra/

Thus, as in the Preface, one speck contains countless shapes. The one mind is your mind is the countless minds and minded things of the universe ... is the mind of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Some of the other references:

The Preface "a great man crowned with heaven and standing upon the earth" may point to the famous statements attributed to the Buddha upon his birth ("In the heavens above and beneath the heavens, I alone am honored.") and in attaining enlightenment ("I attain the way simultaneously with all beings"). This "I along am honored" is simultaneously the honoring of all sentient beings and all things, which have been the attained way all along. Yamada Roshi writes:


This is what these lines are referring to. Although most people are not aware of it, this
is the truth about each and every one of us. Each of us is: “In the heavens above and beneath
the heavens, I alone am honored.” But unless you realize it, you don’t know it. Realizing it is
knowing that it has always been so. ...

Unless he has realized that fact, he turns his back on his own true nature.
Then it is as if he has “buried away the family treasure” and is unable to use that treasure.

http://www.sanbo-zen.org/shoyoroku_67.pdf

As to the Appreciatory verse, the words point to something-not-a-thing boundless, without inside or outside or up or down, yet which fills heaven and earth and the smallest point. The ancestors fruitlessly try to express this in words, doing what they can. Its last line regards Master Nansen who held up a single leaf and called it sacred, and sufficient to feed the whole world.

Are you caught like a fish in Indra's net?

Gassho, J

SatToday as Indra's Net

Geika
09-25-2016, 05:22 PM
Whenever I am wanting something, here or not, here it is.

Gassho, sat today

Jishin
09-25-2016, 10:24 PM
Are you caught like a fish in Indra's net?






What net?

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

Onkai
09-28-2016, 01:40 AM
gassho1

Gassho,
Onkai
SatToday

Byrne
09-28-2016, 11:50 PM
I'm totally caught in Indra's Net. Every day I go onto the Internet to reach out to the rest of the world but all I ever find are my own biases and preferences reflected back at me in a myriad of forms.

Gassho

Sat Today

Jishin
09-29-2016, 01:51 AM
There is no net when I am the net.

There is no fish when I am the fish.

There is no Indra when I am Indra.

Don't make a net, a fish and Indra with mind and then there are no worries.

My 2 cents.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

Kyonin
09-29-2016, 03:57 PM
Yes but what if we are also the net?

Kyonin
#SatToday

Jishin
09-29-2016, 04:25 PM
There is no we if we are we.

[emoji3]

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

Jakuden
10-02-2016, 01:54 AM
Holding this Koan this week, along with Genjokoan and now the topic in another thread about the center of the universe (or lack thereof) all harmonize nicely together. The "self"=the Buddha Way=enlightenment and we have it all the time, although it is not what we think of as the egocentric self; it is just all self.

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

Tairin
10-02-2016, 07:38 PM
There is an old story of a monk who carries a sack of horse shit around with him. Each time he goes to a monastery, he puts his sack down, looks around, and says" Boy, this place stinks! I'm not staying here." Then he picks up his sack, and carries it with him to the next place and - surprise! - place stinks too. There's only one constant in all of the troubles we have in life: ourselves.

[claps]

Oh man... I have to remember this one for times when the negativity just starts to compound itself. Put down the sack.

Gassho
Warren
Sat today

AlanLa
10-02-2016, 10:54 PM
I am not caught in Indra's net, I reside there. Finding my way home is the issue, because I get in my own way of realizing I am already home, have never left home... what home?

MyoHo
10-03-2016, 07:17 AM
the net is caught in the fish and the fish is the net. Dive in and swim untill there is water no more.

Gassho

MyoHo

Risho
10-03-2016, 09:19 PM
Yes at times, I am caught in Indra's net. If I'm not the net (well we are always the net -- which means we are always part of this), if I create a distinction in my mind, then I'm caught by it. I think that practice and life is just this alternating between being caught and not caught over and over. But if we can see that we are being caught - if we can see our negative feelings or attachments, then we are not pulled and controlled by them as much as before. Much, much easier said than done. Thankfully (and seriously, thankfully - how unique to find a path like this and actually appreciate and dig into it) we have a way to practice not being caught.

I think rather than not being caught, I should say: we find/we realize a place that is beyond caught and not caught even amidst being caught or not caught.

Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

Jundo
10-04-2016, 02:13 AM
I think rather than not being caught, I should say: we find/we realize a place that is beyond caught and not caught even amidst being caught or not caught.



Risho, you are starting to sound and use crazy grammar forms like me! Better get that fixed! gassho1

Gassho, J

SatToday

Risho
10-04-2016, 02:32 AM
Hahahah

Gassho

Risho
-sattoday