Gate Thirteen
Read the following, place it in your heart and sleep on it. Then, tomorrow, live it until evening when you can leave a brief comment on what you may have received during the process.
Mindfulness of the heavens is a gate of Dharma illumination; for it gives rise to a wide and big mind.
By “Dharma Gate”, we mean a teaching or practice we can study to gain insights into the deepening our practice. It's a way to integrate our understanding of approaching reality.
The Koan:
"I don't stand here giving talks for others. I give them for myself. You should not listen to my talk, but rather listen by stirring up something inside you, something that stirs you and pulls on you; it should truly call to you.
These days, people feel disatisfied because modern man feels he is unexciting, and that he must do something about it. And he thinks he can do something about it. That is what we call delusion. There is no other self than the one who lives with these thoughts right now. It is the self that cannot be replaced. There is no place where another me is. So the thoughts and activities of our selves today is irreplaceable. Hence this self must be the true self."
-Sawaki's Discovering the True Self pgs 137/ 139
A Most note worthy reply :
Where do we seek the heavens?What are the heavens in our practice?Oh...Here we are.
gassho, shokai
stlah
Reply With Quote
