2/4 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Hongren

[Jundo]

... a virgin birth ... a baby placed in the river then found ...

So interesting how such themes repeat across cultures.

His name name was not an ordinary name, yet an ordinary name, nameless, just your name and my name ...

Cook from 164
Hixon from 149

[Myoku]

Keizan made my heart sing ...

"By not being able to clarify the Mind, we ignorantky become fascinated with what we see in front of us and devide it into this body and that body"

Its not the trees that make the wind.

_()_
Peter

[Taylor]

Back again after many a patriarch. No story left out!

A few words:

Shame on the 4th patriarch! Each moment is boundless yet he was much too greedy to let poor Hongren express that infinite space as he wished. Just as well, the wise man wasn't so wise, was he? Hongren lacked none of the Tathagata's marks, neither do you or I. Have you seen yourself lately?

Gassho,
Taylor (Myoken)

[Myoku]

Have you seen yourself lately?

No chance to see someone else.
_()_
Peter

[Taylor]

Have you seen yourself lately?

No chance to see someone else.
_()_
Peter

:) :wink:

Gassho,
Taylor (Myoken)

[Heisoku]

"...Two bodies past and present, one Mind."
No name, just one present nature eternal.

[Hoyu]

Hixon:
Hongren was quite the youngin when he inherits the light! Perhaps the youngest on record?

Gives new meaning to the phrase "If at first you don't succeed try try again". Even if it means through a few lifetimes! Great story if you don't take it to literal. How many virgin births does the world really need?!

Gassho,
John

[Heisoku]

I don't know much about virgin births (!) but my Brazilian wife tells me that young girls in the Amazon (her part of it) explain it away by saying that a 'boto' (pink river dolphin) come to them in the night as a man.
Another old legendary excuse!!!

[BrianW]

Our name is our identity….it’s our gender, culture, politics, vocation... It’s where we’ve been and where we want to go. Drop the name….realize the light pouring onto light.

Gassho,
Jisen/BrianW

[Rimon]

Our name is our identity….it’s our gender, culture, politics, vocation... It’s where we’ve been and where we want to go. Drop the name….realize the light pouring onto light.

Agreed. Really agreed. I wish I could say without thinking when someone ask my name to inform that person that I'm just "Buddha Nature" like Hongren.

Linking to the discussion in Treeleaf http://www.treeleaf.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3426#p48104 on dharma names, that's one of the reasons I liked so much getting mine. It reminds me that "David Casacuberta" is just a label, a delusion, and when I state "I'm David Casacuberta" I somehow get it all wrong, so here I'm just Rimon, and that's a relief.

Gassho

Packed Buddha Nature labelled Rimon

[Shogen]

Master Keizan proclaims," all sentient beings are naturally immersed in timeless samadhi, the full expression of reality. Sit with and grasp the essence of Keizan's words and the pages of, " TRANSMITTING THE LIGHT," flutter in the wind and are grasped immediatley.
Gassho Zak

[Shohei]

In Hixon some bits that stood out to me

"to accept the existence of delusion as some force that can impede or veil essential awakeness is itself the only delusion."
"water-moon-sky neither divided nor marked by a single cloud."
Even careful words could give or mind room to suppose some ultimate division or boundary. We experience this essential purity and express it in zazen.

This also got me to thinking about the heron hidden in moonlight where does one begin and the other end...nothing hidden, no beginning.

Gassho
Shohei

[AlanLa]

"May I temporarily borrow your womb?"
"Umm, let me ask my parents."
Cracks me up
:lol: :shock: :lol: :shock: :lol:

Seriously now...
Conscious Buddhahood makes us nameless.
To be nameless is to go beyond all delusional distinctions of class or race, etc.
To be nameless is to not be separated into me and you, self and other, this life and that.
To be nameless is to be awakened to our original nature, where we discover our real name is awakeness.