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Thread: A drop in the bucket

  1. #1

    A drop in the bucket

    i am but a drop in the bucket, yet i fill the bucket.

    You, too.
    AL (Jigen) in:
    Faith/Trust
    Courage/Love
    Awareness/Action!

    I sat today

  2. #2
    The drops of water that fill the bucket and the bucket: just us, just this.


  3. #3
    When the nun Chiyono one moonlit night was carrying water in an old pail bound with bamboo. The bamboo broke and the bottom fell out of the pail, and at that moment Chiyono encounters freedom in realization, letting go the struggle. In commemoration she wrote a poem:

    `In this way and that I tried to save the old pail,

    Since the bamboo strip was weakening and about to break

    Until at last the bottom fell out.

    No more water in the pail!

    No more moon in the water!'
    In the Denkoroku, Keizan describes Dogen's "Dropping Body-Mind" this way ...

    Once you reach this realm, you become like a bottomless bucket, like a lacquer bowl with a hole punched in it. No matter how much leaks out, it is never empty; no matter how much is put into it, it is never full. Arriving here is called "the bottom falling out of the bucket". But if you think that there is a hair of enlightenment or acquisition here, it is not the Way.
    Gassho, J
    Last edited by Jundo; 03-19-2013 at 04:30 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  4. #4
    Not to go all lawyer on you, Jundo, but I didn't say what the bucket was filled with
    AL (Jigen) in:
    Faith/Trust
    Courage/Love
    Awareness/Action!

    I sat today

  5. #5
    `In this way and that I tried to save the old pail,

    Since the bamboo strip was weakening and about to break

    Until at last the bottom fell out.

    No more water in the pail!

    No more moon in the water!'

    This is wonderful! When I read the last line I laughed out loud and my family thinks I'm losing it. I really needed that.
    Gassho, Jakudo.
    Gassho, Shawn Jakudo Hinton
    It all begins when we say, “I”. Everything that follows is illusion.
    "Even to speak the word Buddha is dragging in the mud soaking wet; Even to say the word Zen is a total embarrassment."
    寂道

  6. #6
    A drop is a universe in itself.

    And then again, the universe can fit inside another drop.

    Thank you for this post.

    Gassho,

    Kyonin
    Hondō Kyōnin
    奔道 協忍

  7. #7
    Thank you Alan,
    I sometimes wished I would be a stream or a well, but I need to acknowledge,
    just as you say, I'm only a drop.
    Gassho
    Myoku

  8. #8
    Hi Myoku,

    Quote Originally Posted by Myoku View Post
    I sometimes wished I would be a stream or a well
    You are much more - isn't everything enough?

    Gassho,

    Timo
    no thing needs to be added

  9. #9

  10. #10
    I love that video - it would be great to play it out with Zen master/student.

    The circularity of my questions, questions, questions

    Gassho

    Willow

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    When the nun Chiyono one moonlit night was carrying water in an old pail bound with bamboo. The bamboo broke and the bottom fell out of the pail, and at that moment Chiyono encounters freedom in realization, letting go the struggle. In commemoration she wrote a poem:


    In the Denkoroku, Keizan describes Dogen's "Dropping Body-Mind" this way ...



    Gassho, J
    Thanks for the poem - beautiful and profound

    Gassho

    Willow

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