SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: Why Zen Folks FAIL!! (2) - FAIL-NO-FAIL
http://coachingforleaders.com/wp-con...09/success.png
People fail at Zen because they think there is a place to fail. But in fact, THERE IS NO PLACE TO FAIL!
People fail at Zen because they think there is -no- place to fail. In fact, THERE ARE ENDLESS PLACES TO FAIL!
The biggest place to fail is to believe that there either is or is not places to fail. Better said, the trap is the failure to know that ONE CAN FAIL YET NOT FAIL AT ONCE!
There is a certain "Win-Win No Fail" realized thru this Way (well represented by the wide open sky in the picture above) which sweeps in all small human wins and losses. There is truly NO LOSS POSSIBLE, nor anything more in need of gain from the startless start. All is Buddha, and Buddha Can't Fail at being Buddha! :buddha:
And yet, in life, we must win some lose some. If you think that you will someday reach a point fully beyond all of life's wins and losses, ups and downs, where the sun will always shine without a day of rain ... well, not in this world, honey! If you over-idealistically think so, you are bound to fail (at least so long as one is a human being, a Bodhisattva, living in this world).
And if you drop your guard and fail to be diligent (perhaps thinking that it makes no difference because 'Ol Jundo said "there is no place to fail"), well, that is a ticket to failure too! Practice is in every moment and volitional choice. There are endless traps and mud piles to fall into ... exercise care or you will fall off the Lotus, and be up to your neck in the greedy, angry, divisive, selfish, miserable muck!. You are not yet Buddha although on the road there, and not until you make Buddha manifest in how you choose to live and act now. So, while you are already always flawless Buddha, you are simultaneously not yet Buddha and can fail at being Buddha! [scared]
One of the top places where people fail in Zen Practice is the failure to pierce these facts, get them in their bones and live accordingly. They fail to see how all of the above are true at once, as one! They fail to see how two seemingly opposed conclusions .... such as that one can fail and not fail at once ... can be true at once (such Zenny nonlogic is what so many of those old Koans are about).
The great Fayen Wenyi took the high seat before the midday meal to preach to his assembly. Raising his hand he pointed to the bamboo blinds. Two monks went and rolled them up in the same manner. Fayen said, ‘One gains; one loses.’ ... commented Wumen: Tell me, which one gained? Which one lost? ... But I must warn you most firmly against arguing gain and loss.
Even older Practitioners can fall into one extreme or the other ... running after a world of "Never Any Fail" too much, or at the other extreme, falling back into being excessively caught by the delusion of this world of success and failure. (Even many Buddhist teachers seem to put too much emphasis on reaching an extreme Buddha-realm by fleeing the ordinary world ... failing to see and teach how both mutually illuminate fully, the same yet not). If you are a long term Practitioner, but fail to get the meaning of what I say here, you have somehow missed something crucial despite all your efforts. You (or what you think of as "you") FAIL!
Thru this wondrous Path, one can attain a center point where all life's ups are up, the downs just down, a certain wise balance is attained where one avoids the pitfalls and minefields of harmful words, thoughts and acts with great aplomb ... all as one simultaneously knows a way of seeing and being fully transcendent of up/down/win/lose/rain/sun ...
... all right amid life's successes and failures, sun and rain, ups and downs.
THE DOWNLOADABLE AUDIO PODCAST VERSION IS HERE:
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: Why Zen Folks FAIL!! (2) - FAIL-NO-FAIL
Hi,
Whenever I am too tired to try to understand something (like now because of traveling all day) but feel that I somehow have to do something about my lack of understanding I cover my ears and mumble form is emptiness and emptiness is form. There. Problem fixed. :)
Gassho, Jishin, _/st\_
