Shikantaza and the Morning Star

[Jundo]

I heard some folks comparing Shikantaza to other ways of Zazen and meditation: Is it better or not? Faster or slower? For beginners or only experts? Should we add this or that to improve the practice? Are we just sitting around, letting life pass us by? Should I train to be ready to do it? Should I give it up and find something else? Is it progressing as it should?

They do not realize that this very drive for comparing, timing, categorizing, our constant need to improve, need to get ready, to switch, ever to rate --IS-- the very cause of human suffering and alienation that Zazen is meant to cure.

Does a star, shining as that star, feel the need to compare its shining to all the other stars in the sky, any of the other countless stars in the infinite sky, whether the brighter and larger, the dimmer or smaller? Or does it simply shine as that unique star? Need a mountain wonder if it is rising from the ground too high or too low? Will the river reprove itself for flowing today slowly, and feel guilt tomorrow when it is the season to flood? Must a a breeze spiritually prepare itself to blow, will it long deep down to head a different way? Must a bird be expert before it calls, or does it simply call when nature urges? Is the ant saddened that life is passing it by, thus does it wish to become a butterfly instead? Is the moon worried for its progress no where, embarrassed at its pockmarked face, even as human beings seek to progress and achieve by walking on its surface?

It is the human heart which rates and times, compares and sees lack or excess, feels that now is not the moment, longs to be something else, envisions its happiness only down the line. In comparison to us humans and our need to rank, the star does not compare its shining, the mountain simply mountains, the river quietly flows, the breeze sometimes blows, birds call when spring comes, the ants keep crawling along. While our human need and ability to analyze, rank, compare, plan and implement is our civilization's power, allowing us to build great towers, powerful machines, and to walk on the moon itself ... the moon protests not our footprints, nor any crater or mark upon its surface. Dividing, judging and planning is what makes our species who we are. Yet, perhaps, in all our need to achieve and despair our failures, rating the world as it "should" be, we humans should learn too from the flowers and stones, waters and stars which merely shine, rise, roll, flow, blow, call, crawl and rest.

Does the star judge itself separate from space, the mountain from the land, the river different from the other waters, the bird from the forest, the breeze from the air? Is not, each one, anything but the whole of reality shining, flowing, calling in its light and life and motion? Is our human planning and toiling anything but the same, the world building and growing, spying and moving the world with our eyes and hands?

I wish folks would cease to add complexity to Shikantaza ... for sitting is the ultimate simplicity. The very mental complexity that we add to this is Dukkha, separation, entanglement. No empowerments needed, no energies or exorcisms, no gurus or goals, no clocks or measures, no keys to turn nor 'ki' to tune, no preliminary steps or post-scripts, no stages or stopping points, no deities or special diets, no mind ground or groundless. Just sit, in the completion of sitting for sitting's sake, no other place to be, no other act to do, nothing lacking. Shikantaza is, by nature, beyond compare ... so best not to compare it.

The Buddha sits, the morning star simply shines. Shining for shining's sake, nothing to add or take away, nothing lacking. Must we ask why a star shines, or what is lacking to this star? Need we compare this star to others? After all the Buddha's hard struggles, pursuits of deep meditations, his search for answers ... just shining, just sitting.

Gassho, J

stlah


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cf413f6fbcb440001175a60/1639492734591-YIRTAAINLKLU8QAW0NFP/BEnlightenment_bw.jpg

[Nengyoku]

gassho2

[Meiun]

Gassho [emoji1317]

[Tomás ESP]

I heard some folks comparing Shikantaza to other ways of Zazen and meditation:

Guilty of charge:reading:. My head calls for complexity and comparing, my heart for simplicity and letting go. This is why despite all of the comparisons, rankings and elaborate plans my mind makes when I get carried away, I always come back to Shikantaza. Thank you for the reminder, Jundogassho2.

Gassho, Tomás
Sat&LaH

[michaelw]

gassho2

M
sat

[enis]

Thank you very much, Jundo.

Gassho,
stlah

[Kotei]

Thank you Jundo.
Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Nengei]

A beautiful essay on this topic. Thank you for your teaching, Jundo.
gassho2

Gassho,
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.

[Tai Do]

Thank you, Roshi. I really needed to read your words.
gassho1
Mateus
Satlah

[Naiko]

Thank you, Jundo.
gassho2
st

[Tairin]

Lovely. Thank you for this teaching Jundo

gassho2
Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Margaret]

Gassho
Margaret
Satlah

[Roso]

Thank you.

Jack
sat

[Joshlovesbirds]

Thanks, needed to hear this.
Gassho
sat

[Bokugan]

Thank you, Jundo gassho2

Appreciate your teachings so very much

Gassho,

Bokugan
SatToday

[joshr]

I don’t know if I can really explain what an incredible relief this practice has been after a decade of the contrived complexities of Vajrayana.

Thank you so much for sharing!

Gassho,
Josh

Sat this morning

[Jundo]

I don’t know if I can really explain what an incredible relief this practice has been after a decade of the contrived complexities of Vajrayana.

Thank you so much for sharing!

Gassho,
Josh

Sat this morning

You might appreciate our Zazenkai theme today ...

June 16th-107th Treeleaf Weekly Zazenkai - I Don't Believe In Buddha! ...

... That's why I believe in Buddha! ...

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21607-June-16th-107th-Treeleaf-Weekly-Zazenkai-I-Don-t-Believe-In-Buddha%21

Gassho, J

stlah

PS - Josh, would you mind to put a human face picture to accompany your posts? It helps keep things a bit warmer and more human around here. Thank you.

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?12837-Often-Asked-How-to-Add-an-Avatar-Photo

[Chikyou]

Such a beautiful teaching. I am starting to experience this personally after about a year of daily sitting; the judging voice in my head is gone, (I don't know when it left, I just noticed its absence one day) and when I sit, I feel like I've come home.

Gassho,
SatLah
Kelly

[joshr]

PS - Josh, would you mind to put a human face picture to accompany your posts? It helps keep things a bit warmer and more human around here. Thank you.



Thanks for kicking me in the pants to put up a picture. Also, FWIW, the default was set such that I couldn't see other people's avatars, so I didn't know that was a thing. OMG, what a difference!

Gassho,
Joshua

Sat This Morning

[Bion]

Thanks for kicking me in the pants to put up a picture. Also, FWIW, the default was set such that I couldn't see other people's avatars, so I didn't know that was a thing. OMG, what a difference!

Ha!!! We all have faces now! [emoji1]

[emoji1374] Sat Today

[j.champagne]

Poignant reminder. Thank you, Jundo. gassho2

Jason
STLah

[Jundo]

I am going to "bump" this, just because it is good to bump from time to time. :p

Gassho, Jundo

stlah

[Kaitan]

gassho1

stlah, Kaitan

[Shujin]

Brilliant. I was reminded of a story in Shobogenzo Komyo:


The Tang Emperor Xianzong requested someone to bring the buddha’s relics from Famen Temple to the palace for making offerings to them. On that occasion, in the night, people saw the radiant light. The emperor was greatly delighted.

In the early morning of the next day all his retainers presented letters of congratulation saying, “It is the response of the sacred to His Majesty’s sacred virtue.”

At the time, there was a minister whose name was Hanyu Wengong. He had studied buddha dharma at the end of the seat of a buddha-ancestor. Wengong alone did not write a letter of congratulation.

Emperor Xianzong asked, “All the other retainers have presented letters of congratulation. Why do you not present a letter of congratulation?”

Wengong answered, “Your humble retainer has taken a look at a Buddhist text. It is said that the buddha light is not blue, yellow, red, or white. The light we had this time is the radiant light of the dragon-gods as the sign of their protection.”

The Emperor asked, “What is the buddha-light like?”

Wengong did not answer.

[gassholook]

[Jundo]

The Emperor asked, “What is the buddha-light like?”

Wengong did not answer.

.

[Doshin]

Bumping was a good thing.

Doshin
Stlah

[mdonnoe]

They do not realize that this very drive for comparing, timing, categorizing, our constant need to improve, need to get ready, to switch, ever to rate --IS-- the very cause of human suffering and alienation that Zazen is meant to cure.


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cf413f6fbcb440001175a60/1639492734591-YIRTAAINLKLU8QAW0NFP/BEnlightenment_bw.jpg


I LOVE this phrase! I'm particularly reminded in reading your commentary of Dogen's "Zazenshin" from the Shobogenzo as well.

Shohaku Okamura has a great commentary on Zazenshin, which I think makes a good "companion piece" to your commentary here:
https://buddhismnow.com/2014/10/22/zazenshin-acupuncture-needle-of-zazen-shohaku-okumura/


Gassho,

Michael

SatLah

[Hōzan]

[emoji120]
Being no one. Going nowhere. Nothing to achieve. This is it. I have arrived.

Gassho, Hōzan
Satlah

[Jenny A]

Thank you.

Gassho,
Jenny
sat today

[Jundo]

[emoji120]
Being no one. Going nowhere. Nothing to achieve. This is it. I have arrived.

Gassho, Hōzan
Satlah

Excellent!

Now keep going, head in good directions, live this life! gassho2

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Shohaku Okamura has a great commentary on Zazenshin, which I think makes a good "companion piece" to your commentary here:
https://buddhismnow.com/2014/10/22/zazenshin-acupuncture-needle-of-zazen-shohaku-okumura/



Lovely! gassho2

Gassho, J

stlah

[Onkai]

Thank you, Jundo, for bumping this essay up. gassho2

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

[Kaitan]

I LOVE this phrase! I'm particularly reminded in reading your commentary of Dogen's "Zazenshin" from the Shobogenzo as well.

Shohaku Okamura has a great commentary on Zazenshin, which I think makes a good "companion piece" to your commentary here:
https://buddhismnow.com/2014/10/22/zazenshin-acupuncture-needle-of-zazen-shohaku-okumura/


Gassho,

Michael

SatLah

This quote from the text is really interesting


In order to practice to be free from the three poisonous states of mind, we need the three poisonous states of mind.

I didn't think about practice from this point of view in the context of BodhiCitta. Life is a Koan indeed

Thank you for sharing

Gasshō

stlah, Kaitan

[Alina]

Also, FWIW, the default was set such that I couldn't see other people's avatars, so I didn't know that was a thing. OMG, what a difference!

Thank you Joshua for writing this, my defaults were also set to not show avatars, so I didn't know about them either. What a difference indeed!

Gassho,
Alina
st+lah

[Alina]

I heard some folks comparing Shikantaza to other ways of Zazen and meditation: Is it better or not? Faster or slower? For beginners or only experts? Should we add this or that to improve the practice? Are we just sitting around, letting life pass us by? Should I train to be ready to do it? Should I give it up and find something else? Is it progressing as it should?

They do not realize that this very drive for comparing, timing, categorizing, our constant need to improve, need to get ready, to switch, ever to rate --IS-- the very cause of human suffering and alienation that Zazen is meant to cure.

Thank you Jundo for bumping up this essay.

When I started meditating years ago, I spent a ton of time "comparing, timing, categorizing" etc, and I feel like it kept me searching, following a yearning maybe? I am not sure what exactly it is I was looking for, but I stopped searching when I found Zazen. Maybe those who don't realize that Zazen is the cure still need to go through that searching phase? Does everyone go through that?

Gassho
Alina
st+lah

[mdonnoe]

When I started meditating years ago, I spent a ton of time "comparing, timing, categorizing" etc, and I feel like it kept me searching, following a yearning maybe? I am not sure what exactly it is I was looking for, but I stopped searching when I found Zazen. Maybe those who don't realize that Zazen is the cure still need to go through that searching phase? Does everyone go through that?


I agree, and I think that's an experience many of us have had - almost that we had to thoroughly exhaust our searching, grasping mind enough that zazen "made sense."

I think even Dogen must have noticed this in his time, for him to write in the Fukanzazengi, "You should therefore cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self."

Gassho,
Michael
Sat/Lah

[Jundo]

Thank you Jundo for bumping up this essay.

When I started meditating years ago, I spent a ton of time "comparing, timing, categorizing" etc, and I feel like it kept me searching, following a yearning maybe? I am not sure what exactly it is I was looking for, but I stopped searching when I found Zazen. Maybe those who don't realize that Zazen is the cure still need to go through that searching phase? Does everyone go through that?

Gassho
Alina
st+lah

I think so, and I think that Okumura Roshi's essay, which Michael posted above, hits that nail on the headless head!

I feel that there is an aspect to this practice where we come searching searching, pushing pushing, wanting wanting ...

... until, suddenly, one day we put down that struggle and Just Sit.

This is a good way to hear the old Koan about Bodhidharma ...

Bodhidharma sat facing the wall.

The Second Patriarch stood in the snow ... crying, “My mind has no peace as yet! I beg you, master, please pacify my mind!”

“Bring your mind here and I will pacify it for you,” replied Bodhidharma.

“I have searched for my mind, and I cannot take hold of it,” said the Second Patriarch.

“Now your mind is pacified,” said Bodhidharma.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Tairin]

Thank you for the reminder Jundo. This is an important teaching.

gassho2
Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Hōzan]

The best means to be Buddha is to give up the need to do anything beside sitting (or walking when walking, standing when standing, lying in a sickbed when so lying), including giving up the need to become Buddha
- Zen master’s dance

Don’t wish to be in any other moment than the moment you are in. Even if you are lost in thought. So simple, yet so obviously true [emoji120]

Gassho, Hozan
Satlah

[Tai Shi]

I nwill practice Shikantaza as I go under for new Pacemaker operation: this morning at 8:00 meeting with nurse, Anesthesiologist, and cardiac Surgeon. I will practice Shikantaza as I go under at 12:00 noon.
I cannot Host this morning's meeting. Please, someone ring bell and chant.

Gassho
Tai Shi

[Jundo]

I nwill practice Shikantaza as I go under for new Pacemaker operation: this morning at 8:00 meeting with nurse, Anesthesiologist, and cardiac Surgeon. I will practice Shikantaza as I go under at 12:00 noon.
I cannot Host this morning's meeting. Please, someone ring bell and chant.

Gassho
Tai Shi

We will sit for your new ticker, TS.

Metta.
Gassho, Jundo

[Onkai]

I nwill practice Shikantaza as I go under for new Pacemaker operation: this morning at 8:00 meeting with nurse, Anesthesiologist, and cardiac Surgeon. I will practice Shikantaza as I go under at 12:00 noon.
I cannot Host this morning's meeting. Please, someone ring bell and chant.

Gassho
Tai Shi

Metta, Tai Shi . gassho2

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

[Tai Shi]

I am
Home from hospital i believe my Shikantaza was more effective than in many months this morning and I slept more soundly than I have in months. My new pacemaker has benefits I never anticipated. It is entirely different compony than my old pacemaker and this one computerized and changes each night when the terminal uploads data from our system to the computer in a distant city by means of a computer terminal in our home. Then the pacemaker adjusts for the next day. It does this by means of-a microwave box that is constantly in touch with the computer in a distant city and it changes every 24 hours fine tuned by the computer terminal in our home. I slept soundly. I had not slept in months like I did last night. The pacemaker had adjusted to the need of my body and meditation came easily because I slept soundly last night. The amount of O2 I needed received by my brain.
It seems to me that sitting quietly in zazen or Shikantaza can increase O2 to the brain because we are sitting quietly and breathing. Correct me if I am wrong. Gassho
sat/lah


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Onkai]

I'm glad the pacemaker is working out well, Tai Shi. Not much can compare to a good night's sleep.

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

[Jundo]

I am
Home from hospital i believe my Shikantaza was more effective than in many months this morning and I slept more soundly than I have in months. My new pacemaker has benefits I never anticipated. It is entirely different compony than my old pacemaker and this one computerized and changes each night when the terminal uploads data from our system to the computer in a distant city by means of a computer terminal in our home. Then the pacemaker adjusts for the next day. It does this by means of-a microwave box that is constantly in touch with the computer in a distant city and it changes every 24 hours fine tuned by the computer terminal in our home. I slept soundly. I had not slept in months like I did last night. The pacemaker had adjusted to the need of my body and meditation came easily because I slept soundly last night. The amount of O2 I needed received by my brain.
Gassho
sat/iah



gassho2

The old morning star is good, tech is often good too. In fact, I will be making a video on this later today, at the old Medicine Buddha shrine in our village. It is dedicated to Yakushi Nyorai, the medicine Buddha. In past centuries, the people living in our little village did not have access to modern doctors and hospitals. Sometimes praying to this Buddha was all they had.


https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=6869&d=1604129672

Remote control pace makers sound better for some things.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Tai Shi]

The old morning star is good, tech is often good too. In fact, I will be making a video on this later today, at the old Medicine Buddha shrine in our village. It is dedicated to Yakushi Nyorai, the medicine Buddha. In past centuries, the people living in our little village did not have access to modern doctors and hospitals. Sometimes praying to this Buddha was all they had.

True, Jundo. A medical condition must be addressed by a medical practitioner, and Shikantaza must be addressed by a teacher of Shikantaza, as under the Bod-hi Tree one saw the morning star and touched the earth. This was a true practitioner of Shikantaza. I take heed to pay attention to Purity, so thank you for all your instruction Jundo, Roshi.
Gassho
sat/lah