10/29 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Gayashata

[Jundo]

Mirrors reflecting bells ringing ... all Mind ...

Cook from 107
Hixon from 101

[Shohei]

Hiyas
Cook and Hixon, both wonderful to read, I enjoyed Hixon's conciseness.

Gaysahata's brilliant and perfect mirror, though showing all the teachings Gaysahata still had to see that he was stuck on the duality, the duality of the great round brilliance, of the mirror!
Once removed through true home leaving, Gaysahata received the purist light by perceiving the all encompassing ringing of the the Great Mind.

Gassho
Shohei

[AlanLa]

Stop looking into the mirror!
Instead, become the mirror!


Hixon: No matter how great the knowledge of any advanced aspirant - even if it is pure Buddhist knowledge in the form of direct vision, not mere intellection - this knowledge remains a bright mirror. A mirror implies reflection and original.... [Thus] subtle duality remains.... [Ultimately] this round mirror of all Buddhas must dissolve.

(On a completely different note, am I the only one that kept thinking of the old song "me and my shadow" during the part where the mirror kept following Gayashata around?)

[Tb]

Hi.

A Quote from Hixon:

The round mirror of all Buddhas has no distortion, for it possesses neither interior or exterior. All conscious beings have the potential to see this mirror, for the mental eye of all beings is essentially the same.

And this is a keeper:

Both bell and wind are the silence of the Great Mind

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[BrianW]

A few disjointed commends:

Points made in the Cook and Hixon books are starting to seep into my practice....sort of hard to verbalize, but I feel a subtle shift in perspective from the readings.

How nice to have a mirror to gaze into and see all the teachings! But that is not enough, as in doing so one is still separate from the teachings....it is still dualism.

A minor issue brought up, but one that stuck:


The Buddha said that even if a person lives one hundred years but does not understand the functioning of the Buddhas, it is not as good as living a single day and being capable of settling the matter.

I ask myself, "How old am I?"

Gassho,
Jisen/BrianW

[Myoku]

Your mirror is not my mirror, just when all mirrors disappear, nothing left to say.
_()_
Peter

[Shogen]

"The Buddha said that even if a person lives one hundred years but does not understand the functioning of the Buddhas, it is not as good as living a single day and being capable of settling the matter."

If we embrace Buddhist teachings completely, even for one day, and display them through our actions is the matter of understanding the Buddhas functioning settled? gassho zak

[Dosho]

Hi all,

Another week and, again, nothing to say. But I'm still here. Moving on to the next chapter, perhaps words will come there.

Or maybe not. ;) Tune in next week to find out!

Gassho,
Dosho

[Seishin the Elder]

All the while I read these stories about Gayashata and his Mirror I kept recalling Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice". Durinbg college I was very involved with the theatre arts and was cast in most every play. In "The Merchant Of Venice" I was the Prince of Aragon, one of the three suitors of Portia, who must choose a box that has a riddle written on it in order to win her hand. The caskets are of gold, silver and lead. Aragon is extremely egocentric and the legend on the silver casket reads, "Choose me and get what you deserve". Of course he believes he deserves Portia, or more correctly she deserves him! When he chooses the silver box and opens it he finds inside a mirror and picking it up he says, "With one fools head I came to woo, And now I go away with two".

For some reason I kept seeing the mirror that followed young Gatashata around not as a good thing, but as more of a distraction from where he ought to really be looking, and it is telling that as soon as he completes taking his renunciation vows the mirror disappears.

Gassho,

Seishin Kyrill

[AlanLa]

Isn't it interesting what we each see in the mirror? I saw a stupid song, yet with some profound inplications and K saw Shakespeare with its own implications, and so on. What is more zen than that mirror?