8/27 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Parshva

[Jundo]

60 years in the womb, yet never born.

3 years study and sitting without sleep, yet nothing to attain.

Cook from p. 72, Hixon from p. 72

[Seishin the Elder]

Whew! What a relief. When Parshva enters monastic life at age 60 he is mocked by everyone and told that he is too old to learn anything, too old for the rigors of the life. As I finally rounded the corner and felt compelled to formally practice Buddhism I was met by these same people. "Oh, just be happy with what you have", "Why do you wany to start something new at this late stage?", "There's no way they'll let such an old man take vows."

I think that Master Parshva will now become my own special personal favorite. It ain't over til it's over! and neither am I.

Gassho,

Seishin Kyrill
Benedictine&Chan Monk

[Shogen]

A little old, a little dense, alittle fat, a little black, a little red, or a little yellow you are the " WAY RIGHT NOW." No one can take that away even nay sayers. Keep on keepin on! Gassho zak

[Shohei]

Sincere and humble effort, diligence and patience in practice at 9 or 90 (or 140!) Its never too late!
As Master Keizan says "Everyone with out exception is a vessel of the Dharma, everyday is a good day"
Parshva awakens by embodying the scrolls,teachings and sutras despite much adversity.

fitting all days and especially on this start of Ango period! no?

Gassho
Shohei

[Taylor]

Awakening: the glass house is shattered and we finally see there was no looking "out" to begin with. Right? Not always so.

No earth shattering awakening, no flowers, no light, no shock; it is just as if Parshva woke up from a nap any other day. The one that he never takes, that is. Buddha doesn't sleep even when we sleep. But still it sleeps with us. More intimate than pillows, lovers, sheets, flesh, bone. You give it a good morning kiss or nod even without trying. Still, to use a fan properly we have to move our wrists now and then.

I like this guy, humble but confident. Willing to give nay sayers a smile and leave the hooks to hang as they may like wind chimes rather than traps. Even when surrounded by doubters, uncertainty, sadness, everyday is a good day.

Enough on this now from me, too many considerations on the concrete and the absolute, what one means over the other blah blah blah... better to throw both sticks in the fire and just enjoy the warmth!

Gassho,
Taylor

[Myoku]

60 year, 140 years, what age I am right now ?

"Dont you realize that although we are born, there is no place to come from, and though we die and depart, there is no place to go do"

I have to do some zazen over this...
_()_
Peter

[AlanLa]

Dropping all that old/young stuff, diligence in the Way will pay off eventually. Just gotta "keep on truckin'" as they (I) used to say.

http://i495.photobucket.com/albums/rr314/alwchair/truckin.jpg

[Rich]

Being an old timer I have complete admiration and respect for Parshva, but not sleeping for three years seems like a bit of exageration.

"Every day is a good day for non-duality"

/Rich

[Hogo]

This evenings reading sat well with me, a few lines in particular.
From Cook:
"When you emit this light from your eyes, you adorn the world with color and forms, and when you emit this light from your ears, you hear the sounds of things that are Buddha. Emitting light from our hands, we change ourselves and others;emitting light from our feet, we advance and withdraw."

From Hixon:
"The Suttra of Birthlessness is the completeness of life. Anyone can say these words. They must become our life-breath. We must speak as we breath, not out of distraction but to live. For all beings to live."

I have no idea why these lines struck me, nor do I care to try and figure it out.
Gassho
~ Dave

[Taigu]

Once we penetrate the nondual, everything becomes sutra, a speck of dust, a fleeting light, mud and shadows as well as big poetic-living-majestic things like mountains and rivers, and cars, wheels, tarmac and ...
Once we penetrate the nondual with an unborn nondual body-mind, this very life has a great taste and we can count: 1,2,3,4,5
Things and people, they all return to where they come from and never really left ( just in dreams).

Welcome!


gassho


Taigu

[Jinyu]

Hi everyone! :D

Once we penetrate the nondual, everything becomes sutra, a speck of dust, a fleeting light, mud and shadows as well as big poetic-living-majestic things like mountains and rivers, and cars, wheels, tarmac and ...
Once we penetrate the nondual with an unborn nondual body-mind, this very life has a great taste and we can count: 1,2,3,4,5
Things and people, they all return to where they come from and never really left ( just in dreams).

What to say after that?... he just summarized the all thing :twisted:
It is true that when I first read about "genuine Mahayana sutras" I said to myself: what? But Keizan explanation is beautiful, genuine Mahayana sutras express complete truth, and as Taigu said so well, everything then become sutras. What a lovely way to ask us to go further than the "ordinary explanations". Further than the ordinary explanation of "reading sutras" and also further than the ordinary explanation of "birth and death", lovely really! I probably need to sit with it!

Anyway, he also gave us good advices for our Ango! Practice diligently, forget fatigue but of course Ango is not a competition against our fellows, no need to "surpass" them than. But it is still an important statement. If we look closer.
Surpassing others doesn't mean that we depreciate them. In his example Keizan is talking about a patriarch that surpass other because of his talent and dedication but also because others weren't practicing as they should! It can mean surpass other's practices, surpass your own desires (to be confortable, to escape from pain, ...), in a way, surpass yourself... Well, I'm not sure about that, but that's what comes to my silly mind!

gassho,
Luis/Jinyu

[monkton]

This transmission pushes and pulls.
>>>It doesn't matter at what age you start studying>>> BUT on the other hand, BUT on the other hand, , BUT (and maybe this is Keizan's hint) [size=150]

[Tb]

Hi.

From Keizan's poem

Born here, dying there - nothing but chapters and phrases.

How fitting...
How true...
Once you see it for what it is, a book is nothing but chapters and phrases.
But where do you come in?

Mtfbw
Fugen

[Myozan Kodo]

When the novelist John McGahern was asked how to write a book, he advised to “attend to each sentence”.

Likewise, the novelist Colm Toibin once said a novel is nothing more than a thousand details.

This, if you ask me, is great wisdom. The great tapestry of infinity is nothing more than the present moment (attend to your sentences! Forget the great book!), and the great sutra is written in our very own flesh and blood in the here and now.

Parshva appears to have attended to each sentence. It’s the same teaching as attending to each breath.

The beauty of what Parshva teaches us is that it is never too late to learn this: even our very last breath isn’t too late!

Jundo and Taigu: thank you for the opportunity to read these texts.

Gassho,

Soen

[Shogen]

When the novelist John McGahern was asked how to write a book, he advised to “attend to each sentence”.

Likewise, the novelist Colm Toibin once said a novel is nothing more than a thousand details.

This, if you ask me, is great wisdom. The great tapestry of infinity is nothing more than the present moment (attend to your sentences! Forget the great book!), and the great sutra is written in our very own flesh and blood in the here and now.

Parshva appears to have attended to each sentence. It’s the same teaching as attending to each breath.

The beauty of what Parshva teaches us is that it is never too late to learn this: even our very last breath isn’t too late!

Jundo and Taigu: thank you for the opportunity to read these texts.

Gassho,

Soen

Hi Soen
Thanks for this excellent teaching. ATTENTION! Gassho zak

[Jinyu]

This, if you ask me, is great wisdom. The great tapestry of infinity is nothing more than the present moment (attend to your sentences! Forget the great book!), and the great sutra is written in our very own flesh and blood in the here and now.

Parshva appears to have attended to each sentence. It’s the same teaching as attending to each breath.

The beauty of what Parshva teaches us is that it is never too late to learn this: even our very last breath isn’t too late!

Lovely really, and so true! :D
Thank you Soen!!

gassho,
Jinyu

[Jikyo]

Birthless, deathless - the is-ness of it/us all. Sometimes I feel like this body is 140 - does that count? :D

Gassho, Jikyo

[Myoku]

I think what Keisan wants to emphasize in his Teisho is the need to really put effort into the practice, to take it serious.

_()_
Peter

[BrianW]

Born here, dying there - nothing but chapters and phrases.


Once you see it for what it is, a book is nothing but chapters and phrases.
But where do you come in?


Good question...are we the chapters and phrases? Is there more to us? Reminds me of one of Jundo’s talks on how our lives are like the light from a movie projector being projected on to a screen. And what can be said about that screen?

The “Great Mother Sutra” as Hixion states is “always turning, always unrolling and rolling back up. No place to come from, no place abide, no place to go.” He adds it is “simultaneous evolution and involution.” I’ve been sort of stuck on the concept of time lately and the way the turning of the scrolls is presented here is reminiscent of a Dogen quote, “Do not think flowing is like wind and rain moving from east to west.” In short, time flows, it is dynamic, but not only in a linear manner. Usually we would think of scrolls turning and sutras being moving in a linear fashion, they roll forward but also they “roll back up” and the “Great Mother Sutra” has “no place to come from....no place to go”

Gassho
Jisen/BrianW

[Jinyu]

Hi everyone!
I was "surfing" on Dogen's shobogenzo two minutes ago and I came to the chapter 71 in Nishijima's translation: Nyorai Zenshin - the whole body of the tathagata.
I was reading the description and a part of it make me think about what Soen beautifully said earlier.
The great tapestry of infinity is nothing more than the present moment (attend to your sentences! Forget the great book!), and the great sutra is written in our very own flesh and blood in the here and now.
Here is a part of the introduction of the chapter 71.

In this chapter , Master D?gen teaches that Buddhist sutras
are Gautama Buddha’ s whole body, using the word “sutras” to express the
real form of the universe. Thus Master D?gen insists that the universe is
Gautama Buddha’ s whole body.
The chapter is quite short but very synthetic, I like the way Dogen expresses is view of the whole universe being the Tathagata's sutras.
There are other chapters where Dogen exposes his view on sutras ( chapter 21 - Kankin and chapter 52 Bukkyo ( and I think that there is another one I can't find...).

I'm very happy that the reading of the denkoroku helped me to return to shobogenzo's study. I'm also quite interested in the fact that Keizan kept the same interpretation of the sutra.

Well, sorry for these messy thougts... I'd better get back to my cushion...

gassho,
Luis/Jinyu

[Dosho]

Hi all,

I'm back reading this week, although I only had a chance to go through the two chapters while waiting for my wife at the hospital while she had some minor surgery (she's fine). So, I don't have much to say since my mind was focused elsewhere, but hopefully this post will get me back into the swing of things. Some of the reading is very abstract, like poetry...something my far too literal brain can have trouble understanding. But I'm here for the duration! :)

Gassho,
Dosho

[Fuken]

I know I'm way behind on this book club thing. This is a great one to go to in times like now for me.

Hear I see another case where Keizan's teisho encourages us "...you
must proceed diligently and forget fatigue, surpass others in your
aspiration for enlightenment..."

Today we don't seem to get that type of encouragement often enough.

Brace up!