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Thread: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 91

  1. #1

    BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 91

    As we usually do, let's dance with a few Koans from the Book of Equanimty before moving on.

    I want to thank all who maintained and participated in our reflections on 'Zen Women' these last many months. The reading was incredibly rewarding and eye opening. For our Ango period, we will turn to 'Zen Master's Dance' ...

    But now, let us turn to BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 91. I encourage everyone to purchase this wonderful, down to earth book by Shishin Wick when you can but, until then, he has made it available here:

    https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/equanimity.pdf

    If you are new to Koans in the Soto way, dive right in. Think of them as poetic, funny, creative teaching stories, not meaningless gobbledygook or something only a Buddha can fathom.

    Our Koan is, "Nansen's Peony."

    This Koan seems very simple, yet Master Hakuin called it hard. Sometimes the simplest things are actually quite subtle, like the wonder of just looking at a simple peony.

    What is the root from which all things spring and flower? Flowering happy and sad, good and bad, beautiful and not, all the complexities of the world? Please know that the flowering, and all the complexity, are not distinct.

    Is the flower real or not real? Is the complexity real or unreal? YES! Wick Roshi says, "Hold a flower in your hand. It's quite amazing. Don't think, don't judge, don't evaluate, don't rationalize. What is it? Is it real or is it unreal? Are you dreaming?"

    It can be both real and unreal, neither real nor unreal. This life is as a dream. Oh, what an amazing dream, what an amazing reality!

    What is the one root? What is real?



    Gassho, J

    STLah
    Last edited by Jundo; 08-20-2021 at 01:43 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  2. #2
    Wonderful to be back to this book.

    I thought this was a great koan. I read through it several times. I am not going to try to capture in words what this koan meant to me but it touched on something I’ve been working through in my own practice.

    In Western philosophy, our logic is based upon the binary system. It’s right or it’s wrong. It’s one or it’s zero. But in Zen we understand there are other possibilities. In reality, our mind doesn’t work like a computer’s binary code. Nonetheless we want to put everything in a box: it’s either real or else it’s not real! We forget there are other logics; It can be both real and not real. It can be neither real nor not real.
    Brings to mind Jundo’s recent post about thinking, not thinking, and non-thinking (thinking not thinking). https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...80%9D%E9%87%8F

    It seems so hard to not see the world as black and white.


    Tairin
    Sat today and lah
    Last edited by Tairin; 08-19-2021 at 07:13 PM. Reason: Added link to discussion on non-thinking

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    As we usually do, let's dance with a few Koans from the Book of Equanimty before moving on.

    I want to thank all who maintained and participated in our reflections on 'Zen Women' these last many months. The reading was incredibly rewarding and eye opening. For our Ango period, we will turn to 'Zen Master's Dance' ...

    But now, let us turn to BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 91. I encourage everyone to purchase this wonderful, down to earth book by Shishin Wick when you can but, until then, he has made it available here:

    https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/equanimity.pdf

    If you are new to Koans in the Soto way, dive right in. Think of them as poetic, funny, creative teaching stories, not meaningless gobbledygook or something only a Buddha can fathom.

    Our Koan is, "Nansen's Peony."

    This Koan seems very simple, yet Master Hakuin called it hard. Sometimes the simplest things are actually quite subtle, like the wonder of just looking at a simple peony.

    What is the root from which all things spring and flower? Flowering happy and sad, good and bad, beautiful and not, all the complexities of the world? Please know that the flowering, and all the complexity, are not distinct.

    Is the flower real or not real? Is the complexity real or unreal? YES! Wick Roshi says, "Hold a flower in your hand. It's quite amazing. Don't think, don't judge, don't evaluate, don't rationalize. What is it? Is it real or is it unreal? Are you dreaming?"

    It can be both real and unreal, neither real nor unreal. This life is as a dream. Oh, what an amazing dream, what an amazing reality!

    What is the one root? What is real?



    Gassho, J

    STLah
    Hi Jundo,

    The link isn't working for me. Can you please help?

    Gassho,
    Sat today,
    Guish.

    Sent from my PAR-LX1M using Tapatalk
    Has been known as Guish since 2017 on the forum here.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Guish View Post
    Hi Jundo,

    The link isn't working for me. Can you please help?

    Gassho,
    Sat today,
    Guish.

    Sent from my PAR-LX1M using Tapatalk
    The link to the book Jundo posted works for me. What sort of error do you get?


    Tairin

  5. #5
    I won't try to say anything cute... But I will go now and check on the pumpkin flowers in the garden.

    -satToday
    Thanks,
    Kaishin (開心, Open Heart)
    Please take this layman's words with a grain of salt.

  6. #6
    Some folks look for reality, and Buddhism teaches that life has so many aspects which are like a dream created between our own ears.

    And yet, Master Dogen taught that the dream is real ... a real dream, our dream, the dream that is our life, our real life. So, the most important thing is to dream it well (because, although we cannot control all aspects of the dream, some folks really make the dream uglier than it needs to be by how they dream it, filled with greed, anger and division.)

    Gassho, J

    STLah
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  7. #7
    Guish,

    If some link is not working, I can try to email you a file. Let me know.

    Gassho, Jundo

    STLah
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  8. #8
    What is the dream and what is reality?
    What makes the heaven different from the earth?
    The mind lets us experience the stunning beauty of the colorful, large peony flowers and feel the spring and see them decay all so quickly...
    While feeling alive in the extreme experiences of beauty and ugly, spring and autumn, creation and decay,
    our self moves us infinitely far apart from reality itself, which is the one body, not the thousand things.

    "We are most asleep when awake" Paul Reps

    Gassho,
    Kotei sat/lah today.
    Last edited by Kotei; 08-20-2021 at 06:38 AM. Reason: spelling

    義道 冴庭 / Gidō Kotei.
    Being a novice priest doesn't mean my writing about the Dharma is more substantial than yours. Actually, it might well be the other way round.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Kaishin View Post
    I won't try to say anything cute... But I will go now and check on the pumpkin flowers in the garden.

    -satToday
    The problem is most of these pumpkin farmers see the pumpkin flowers as if in a dream lol

    real/unreal response coming soon, but I couldn’t resist

    gassho

    risho
    -stlah

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Risho View Post
    The problem is most of these pumpkin farmers see the pumpkin flowers as if in a dream lol

    real/unreal response coming soon, but I couldn’t resist
    You said quite enough.

    Gassho, J

    STLah
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  11. #11
    In the science thread, Naiko posted a link to a review about a book by a neuroscientist who also posits that sentient beings live in a dream (sorry, I have only read the review, not the book yet):

    This may be an interesting read: Being You
    https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...-consciousness
    Gassho,
    Naiko
    st
    Based only on the article, much of this is basic Buddhism 101:

    Reality – or, at least, our perception of it – is a “controlled hallucination”, according to the neuroscientist Anil Seth. Everything we see, hear and perceive around us, our whole beautiful world, is a big lie created by our deceptive brains, like a forever version of The Truman Show, to placate us into living our lives.

    Our minds invent for us a universe of colours, sounds, shapes and feelings through which we interact with our world and relate to each other, Seth argues. We even invent ourselves.

    ...

    Colour is not a physical property of things in the way that mass is. Rather, objects have particular ways that they reflect light that our brains include in their complex Technicolor production of “reality”.

    “We perceive the world not as it is, but as it is useful to us,” Seth writes. In other words, we evolved this generated reality because operating through our hallucinated world improves our survival, by helping us avoid danger and recognise food, for example.

    ...

    Sometimes, our hallucinated world is wildly out of sync with everyone else’s – we lose our grip on reality. “What we call a ‘hallucination’ is what happens when perceptual priors are unusually strong, overwhelming the sensory data so that the brain’s grip on their causes in the world starts to slide.”
    Of course, a central tenet of our Zen way is that "self" is just a useful illusion, and also a trouble maker, and our task is to soften or drop the "self/other" divide which causes so many frictions and tensions as our "self," and its desires, bumps into the "other" from which the "self" has divided itself. Likewise, the "flower" we think we see and smell outside is, well, really between our ears, as our nose and eye interacts with some data from "out there."

    I cannot comment on the book's theory of the source of consciousness, which the article does not explain in detail (I look forward to reading it.) I suspect, if pressed, that consciousness is also something which arises, not merely in the neurons between our ears, but as an entire interaction of "outside" and "inside" in which the brain actually eliminates extraneous data, and does create that artificial self/other - inside/outside divide and visions of all the other "things" of the world, from something more basic before all those divisions.

    In any case, our life is, in whole or part, like a mental dream ... but it is our life, our VERY REAL dream, so let's dream the dream well.

    Gassho, J

    STLah

    Sorry to dream long.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  12. #12
    our self moves us infinitely far apart from reality itself, which is the one body, not the thousand things.
    Is it?

    Thousand things return to one, what does one return to?

    What if the reality itself is the one body and the thousand things? And the challange being to walk the middle way?

    Gassho
    Sat

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Inshin View Post
    our self moves us infinitely far apart from reality itself, which is the one body, not the thousand things.
    Is it?

    Thousand things return to one, what does one return to?

    What if the reality itself is the one body and the thousand things? And the challange being to walk the middle way?

    Gassho
    Sat
    I concur. Dogen would say that the one body, the thousand things ... all real as real can be. No one body apart from thousand things. No thousand things without one body.

    And each of the thousand things holds one and none and all the other thousand things too. All pouring in and out, all true.

    Yet there is no "one body" no "thousand things."

    And we loose sight of this as we stumble along, in this maze of a thousand things, searching for "the one!"

    Our challenge is to walk through the thousand things with grace.

    Nicely said, Inshin.

    Gassho, J

    STLah

    Sorry to have run long, saying 1000 things.
    Last edited by Jundo; 08-27-2021 at 01:33 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Inshin View Post
    Is it?

    Thousand things return to one, what does one return to?

    What if the reality itself is the one body and the thousand things? And the challange being to walk the middle way?

    Gassho
    Sat
    This was bothering me as well, but only you could say it

    Gassho

    Risho
    -stlah

  15. #15
    Well, maybe I am one of those "people (who) nowadays see these flowers as if in a dream.".

    Gassho,
    Kotei sat/lah today

    Quote Originally Posted by Inshin View Post
    Is it?

    Thousand things return to one, what does one return to?

    What if the reality itself is the one body and the thousand things? And the challange being to walk the middle way?

    Gassho
    Sat

    義道 冴庭 / Gidō Kotei.
    Being a novice priest doesn't mean my writing about the Dharma is more substantial than yours. Actually, it might well be the other way round.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Kotei View Post
    Well, maybe I am one of those "people (who) nowadays see these flowers as if in a dream.".

    Gassho,
    Kotei sat/lah today
    Dreams always fascinated me and I like Tibetan approach to investigating daily reality as if it was a dream. What if all our insights, and even
    Awakening is a kind of a dream too?

    Gassho
    Sat

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    You said quite enough.

    Gassho, J

    STLah
    This is actually true - I think Nansen's statement is so succinct anything added is completely unnecessary. That being said, I have to express something on it as part of my practice.

    I love koans too, so there's that

    I have never read this koan before, and I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first. But I really do like it; it really resonates with me.

    I came to Zen looking for something, some way out, some permanent fix for instability mainly with work stress. It's funny, when I first read Nansen's statement "people nowadays see this flower as if in a dream" as a description of a problem. And that is how I approached my practice in the beginning; I had a problem and Zen could solve it.

    Similarly, I thought Nansen was saying something akin to these lay people, so self-absorbed, they don't really see the flower.

    Now he may have been pointing a bit to that, but I also think that (and to echo what Jundo posted ) we don't ever see the "real" flower. In some sense we do have a view of reality, but it is filtered through processes far outside of our control that allows us to function in the world. So I feel that we get enough of reality as to allow us to live.

    It's not to say that there isn't something real in what we perceive; simultaneously, we create the world in our minds based on the limits of what we can take in.

    And I think we do this not only with perceiving (what we think is outside of us) but with how we create our own identity.

    Again, it's not that we don't exist, but we are not who or what we think we are exactly. And that is really what makes this practice fun in a way.

    There is so much depth in this koan, but I really want to stop myself from rambling too much. I think it is just a statement of fact that we see a curated form of reality - in a way it is like a dream in that we imagine something that we construct to bring pattern and sense to things that may not really fit inside a neat box.

    But that doesn't mean practice is worthless. Quite the contrary. I think practice points us to a way of acknowledging our limitations in some sense while allowing us to really not necessarily see a flower fully but to see it in a better way based on the inherent limitations of a human being.

    Just like practice isn't about getting rid of a self or getting rid of delusion or getting rid of attachments. It's about realizing a new perspective of self, delusion and attachment to live a better life, a more caring life. We are humans, we will get attached, and some attachments to friends, family are very healthy, but we have to be careful to not get over-attached or get attached to the wrong things.

    So we will always see a flower in a dream - maybe "flower" is limited to how our minds construct the world, and we will not know what a "flower" is in all of reality - but the point isn't to dismiss the dream - it's to live a good dream. Maybe there is so much more to the mystery of this life - I mean it's incredible that we can convey concepts by symbols, and that we can use framework of thought to communicate all over the world. The world is full of so much wonder and awe.

    Coming to Zen to solve a problem is useless; rather it's almost like a perspective shift that happens if you let it that makes you realize there will always be problems but look at all of this. THIS! To highly paraphrase Dogen in Genjokoan, when looking at the world from a myopic view, we try to get something, but if we let the world come to us, if we acknowledge the dream we put together and stop following in the incessant story telling and mental world building, there is nothing but overwhelming awe and gratitude at the majesty of it all.

    This life is incredible with it's ups and downs, twists and turns. What a miracle.

    Ok Jundo said it more tersely but this is the book club and I'm allowed to go over

    Gassho

    Risho
    -stlah

  18. #18
    Risho, now you said too much.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Inshin View Post
    Dreams always fascinated me and I like Tibetan approach to investigating daily reality as if it was a dream. What if all our insights, and even
    Awakening is a kind of a dream too?

    Gassho
    Sat
    One problem is, however, that one might confuse a Buddhist declaration such as "life is like a dream" (or even the neuroscientist pointing out something very similar) with the belief, so common to the human race, that whatever foolish idea I dream up (e.g., the pyramids were built by space aliens, Covid vaccines are Bill Gates nefarious plot, etc. because '"Q" says so) is thus true if I think it hard enough. That is not the case.

    Yes, we experience a mind created simulation of the world that, in many ways, exists only between the ears as a theatre production, but that does not mean that the moon is actually made of green cheese, or that the Dalai Lama can levitate, just because we dream so at night or believe so during the day. Many religious folks overstep that line.

    Gassho, J

    STLah
    Last edited by Jundo; 08-27-2021 at 01:32 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Risho, now you said too much.
    I both own and recognize that fact.

    I will revert to my pumpkin flower statement.

    Gassho

    Risho
    -stlah

  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    In the science thread, Naiko posted a link to a review about a book by a neuroscientist who also posits that sentient beings live in a dream (sorry, I have only read the review, not the book yet):



    Based only on the article, much of this is basic Buddhism 101:



    Of course, a central tenet of our Zen way is that "self" is just a useful illusion, and also a trouble maker, and our task is to soften or drop the "self/other" divide which causes so many frictions and tensions as our "self," and its desires, bumps into the "other" from which the "self" has divided itself. Likewise, the "flower" we think we see and smell outside is, well, really between our ears, as our nose and eye interacts with some data from "out there."

    I cannot comment on the book's theory of the source of consciousness, which the article does not explain in detail (I look forward to reading it.) I suspect, if pressed, that consciousness is also something which arises, not merely in the neurons between our ears, but as an entire interaction of "outside" and "inside" in which the brain actually eliminates extraneous data, and does create that artificial self/other - inside/outside divide and visions of all the other "things" of the world, from something more basic before all those divisions.

    In any case, our life is, in whole or part, like a mental dream ... but it is our life, our VERY REAL dream, so let's dream the dream well.

    Gassho, J

    STLah

    Sorry to dream long.
    Hi Jundo,

    Thanks for the reminder on the illusion of the self and the friction it creates.

    The brain has to filter information for the human brain to comprehend. Otherwise, it'd not cope. The RES in found in the brain and eliminates unnecessary data for the mind to process. The problem I see with such claims is that I see a lot of Spiritual people not taking their lives seriously because they believe that there's another plane where they should be living in.

    Gassho,
    Sat today,
    Guish.

    Sent from my PAR-LX1M using Tapatalk
    Has been known as Guish since 2017 on the forum here.

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Guish View Post
    The problem I see with such claims is that I see a lot of Spiritual people not taking their lives seriously because they believe that there's another plane where they should be living in.
    Soto Zen folks tend to avoid that. Yes, we believe in this "another plane" or way of knowing things, but we also know that this "another plane" is precisely "this plane" when known as such, like two wings of a no sided jet, so best to cherish, respect and wisely tend to our life in "this plane" so the plane flies well and does not crash.

    Gassho, J

    STLah

    Last edited by Jundo; 08-28-2021 at 04:24 PM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Soto Zen folks tend to avoid that. Yes, we believe in this "another plane" or way of knowing things, but we also know that this "another plane" is precisely "this plane" when known as such, like two wings of a no sided jet, so best to cherish, respect and wisely tend to our life in "this plane" so the plane flies well and does not crash.

    Gassho, J

    STLah

    Indeed, Jundo. We call any metaphysical experience, Makyo, right? And we focus on our sitting and bring the practice to the ordinary life which is not that ordinary after all.

    Gassho,
    Sat today,
    Guish.

    Sent from my PAR-LX1M using Tapatalk
    Has been known as Guish since 2017 on the forum here.

  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Guish View Post
    Indeed, Jundo. We call any metaphysical experience, Makyo, right? And we focus on our sitting and bring the practice to the ordinary life which is not that ordinary after all.
    No, I would not say that. We definitely do not call every metaphysical experience as "Makyo" (a harmful delusion). Not at all. We have many extraordinary experiences on the Zafu, from mild hearing sensitivities (e.g., we hear small sounds very loudly) or visual hallucinations (e.g., I once saw a little Buddha jump out of the wall, and he chatted with me for several minutes, during a long Sesshin). Sometimes an old memory will pop up, or an emotion (like a touch of anger) will pop up very strong. These we term "Makyo" as just a kind of mental amusement or distraction, usually passing and temporary, and not something to get caught in or to chase after. We learn from them about the incredible creativity of the mind, and how our senses construct reality ... but then, we move on.

    On the other hand, sometimes there are experiences which are truly astounding, such as the separate self softening or fully dropping away, time dissolving, all phenomena flowing in and out of all phenomena (and our self along with it all). There may even be great moment of bliss and peace and such. Reality and its reason may suddenly be clear to the heart, like a great 'Ah ha!' moment. This is not Makyo at all, but rather our experiencing this "another plane" of the wingless wing I spoke about. Very good, not Makyo at all. In fact, such is the fruits of this Practice. The Ma 魔 of Makyo means "bad/evil," but this is GOOD!

    However, even that can become Makyo if we cling to it, chase after it, over-emphasize it or use drugs to "get there" or for experiencing other intense, mind-bending experiences (drug hallucinations which we confuse with experience some "deeper reality").

    Then, when the little self drops away, we come to realize as well that both wings of the wingless plane are not two, and that this so-called "ordinary life" is "not ordinary at all."

    I hope that is clear now.

    Gassho, J

    STLah
    Sorry to run long

    PS - 魔境 literally means something like "Bad Places" or "Dark Side" ...
    Last edited by Jundo; 08-29-2021 at 12:15 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  25. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    No, I would not say that. We definitely do not call every metaphysical experience as "Makyo" (a harmful delusion). Not at all. We have many extraordinary experiences on the Zafu, from mild hearing sensitivities (e.g., we hear small sounds very loudly) or visual hallucinations (e.g., I once saw a little Buddha jump out of the wall, and he chatted with me for several minutes, during a long Sesshin). Sometimes an old memory will pop up, or an emotion (like a touch of anger) will pop up very strong. These we term "Makyo" as just a kind of mental amusement or distraction, usually passing and temporary, and not something to get caught in or to chase after. We learn from them about the incredible creativity of the mind, and how our senses construct reality ... but then, we move on.

    On the other hand, sometimes there are experiences which are truly astounding, such as the separate self softening or fully dropping away, time dissolving, all phenomena flowing in and out of all phenomena (and our self along with it all). There may even be great moment of bliss and peace and such. Reality and its reason may suddenly be clear to the heart, like a great 'Ah ha!' moment. This is not Makyo at all, but rather our experiencing this "another plane" of the wingless wing I spoke about. Very good, not Makyo at all. In fact, such is the fruits of this Practice. The Ma 魔 of Makyo means "bad/evil," but this is GOOD!

    However, even that can become Makyo if we cling to it, chase after it, over-emphasize it or use drugs to "get there" or for experiencing other intense, mind-bending experiences (drug hallucinations which we confuse with experience some "deeper reality").

    Then, when the little self drops away, we come to realize as well that both wings of the wingless plane are not two, and that this so-called "ordinary life" is "not ordinary at all."

    I hope that is clear now.

    Gassho, J

    STLah
    Sorry to run long

    PS - 魔境 literally means something like "Bad Places" or "Dark Side" ...
    Thank you, Jundo. It couldn't have been more clear.

    Gassho,
    Sat today,
    Guish.

    Sent from my PAR-LX1M using Tapatalk
    Has been known as Guish since 2017 on the forum here.

  26. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    No, I would not say that. We definitely do not call every metaphysical experience as "Makyo" (a harmful delusion). Not at all. We have many extraordinary experiences on the Zafu, from mild hearing sensitivities (e.g., we hear small sounds very loudly) or visual hallucinations (e.g., I once saw a little Buddha jump out of the wall, and he chatted with me for several minutes, during a long Sesshin). Sometimes an old memory will pop up, or an emotion (like a touch of anger) will pop up very strong. These we term "Makyo" as just a kind of mental amusement or distraction, usually passing and temporary, and not something to get caught in or to chase after. We learn from them about the incredible creativity of the mind, and how our senses construct reality ... but then, we move on.

    On the other hand, sometimes there are experiences which are truly astounding, such as the separate self softening or fully dropping away, time dissolving, all phenomena flowing in and out of all phenomena (and our self along with it all). There may even be great moment of bliss and peace and such. Reality and its reason may suddenly be clear to the heart, like a great 'Ah ha!' moment. This is not Makyo at all, but rather our experiencing this "another plane" of the wingless wing I spoke about. Very good, not Makyo at all. In fact, such is the fruits of this Practice. The Ma 魔 of Makyo means "bad/evil," but this is GOOD!

    However, even that can become Makyo if we cling to it, chase after it, over-emphasize it or use drugs to "get there" or for experiencing other intense, mind-bending experiences (drug hallucinations which we confuse with experience some "deeper reality").

    Then, when the little self drops away, we come to realize as well that both wings of the wingless plane are not two, and that this so-called "ordinary life" is "not ordinary at all."

    I hope that is clear now.

    Gassho, J

    STLah
    Sorry to run long

    PS - 魔境 literally means something like "Bad Places" or "Dark Side" ...
    Speaking of “distractions” .. years ago, when I started sitting facing the wall in my home zendo, I started seeing a Buddha face in the pattern of the wall paint and I’d instantly spot it as soon as I sat on the zafu. It took me a long time to get it to fade back into the wall. The difference now is that I can just find it if I choose to, which I don’t

    SatToday
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

  27. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by Bion View Post
    Speaking of “distractions” .. years ago, when I started sitting facing the wall in my home zendo, I started seeing a Buddha face in the pattern of the wall paint and I’d instantly spot it as soon as I sat on the zafu. It took me a long time to get it to fade back into the wall. The difference now is that I can just find it if I choose to, which I don’t

    SatToday
    I can do Abraham Lincoln. There is a name for this ... Pareidolia.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...puters/260760/

    If you find Buddha in the burnt toast, let me know.


    Gassho, J

    STLah
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  28. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    I can do Abraham Lincoln. There is a name for this ... Pareidolia.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...puters/260760/

    If you find Buddha in the burnt toast, let me know.


    Gassho, J

    STLah
    Ah, it has a name… Fascinating! As soon as Buddha comes to my toast I’ll let you know, (though I am too careful with food to burn toast )

    SatToday
    Bion
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    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

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