10/22 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Sanghanandi

[Jundo]

Oh, the Samadhi which cannot be entered or left!

Some, in Eastern practices, seek unusual, deep, removed, extreme states ...

In this case, Sanghanandhi entered deep Samadhi for weeks at a time, heartbeat and breath barely registering. He entered this state, seeking to lose body and mind and flee this world ... exiting the state only with regret and for the minimum to eat, hoping to someday permanently return. It is a dualism which places this dirty world against that.

Such is not Zen Samadhi ... which cannot be entered or left ... located no where and every where, leaving nothing out ... which is all that is ... alive, and unbound by need for attaining to some deep mental concentration or absorption or stopping of the mind ... effortless awakeness ... all ordinary phenomena already awakened when known as such ... no need to flee into the mind's dark cave in search of it ... ordinary mind as awakened mind when known as such ... this 'ordinary' never just ordinary ...

I SUGGEST THAT EVERYONE FIRST READ HIXON THIS WEEK, WHERE THE DISCUSSION IS SET OUT A BIT CLEARER, BEFORE MOVING ON TO THE RATHER LESS OBVIOUS PRESENTATION OF MASTER KEIZAN IN COOK.

HIXON from 97
COOK from 101

[Rich]

Maybe because the illusion of limited self kept reappearing Sanghanandi went into his 21 day samadhi's to purify himself. Asceticism is not the way.

/Rich

[Shogen]

Jundo explained,"no need to flee into the minds dark cave in search of it."

Our Zen Samahadi is right here in this moment always when we realize it. It is the "This" of which Taigu spoke in one of his posts. Always right in front of your nose ... just look! When this realized looking is, the self is no longer. gassho zak

[monkton]

Like Sanghanandi I can understand, and can talk about self and Self, but that doesn't mean that I am no longer, "restricted by feelings about delusion and enlightenment... not getting snared in the net of [ideas of] ordinary beings and Buddha"(Keizan). But on the whole I have to say I remain restricted, snared and stuck - if I think about it. Trying to work with, connect or even drop all these threads gets me nowhere, but Hixon offers me a bit more hope: "...this veiling and unveiling is just play, the cathartic theater of the transmission of Light that cures practitioners from their dualistic sense of struggling to reach some goal". The cave is only as deep or shallow as I am, if I turn around I'm, already out.
gassho,
Monkton

[Myoku]

Honestly, I cant say what samadhi is. But sitting in a cave for 21 days do not sound like what the buddha teached.
_()_
Peter

[Tb]

Hi.

Sanghanandi realizes as it is, this practice is not limitied to one practice.
Nor is it bound by anything else, except what you let it to be bound by, be it concsciously or not...

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[Seishin the Elder]

Here's what jumped out at me, from Hixon..."Yet this veiling and unveiling is just play, the cathartic theater of the transmission of Light that cures practitioners from their dualistic sense of struggling to reach some goal".

I think that often we like the struggle too much to let it go. We like the feel of it, the anxiety, the pain, the pit of non-feeling that we mistake for freedom, but which is truly only numbness to cover pain. We like others to see this in us too.

When the Teacher comes and releases us, plays with us and shows us our own play to our faces and we see the self in the Self, in one another then our struggle is over and so is our self-delusion.

Gassho,

Seishin Kyrill

[Jinyu]

Hi everyone!
I couldn't resist! I read the part that everyone was reading, and "forgot" that I had a huge delay in my reading and posting in the Bookclub... but I felt that I woud never "be back" otherwise.
So, I'll authorize myself to drop a few words on this weeks reading :roll:

This weeks is particularly interesting, I felt that a lot about to what extreme do we go for practice, and to what point is it still the practice.

Sanghanandi realizes as it is, this practice is not limitied to one practice.
Nor is it bound by anything else, except what you let it to be bound by, be it concsciously or not...

I like how you say it Fugen. No limits in this practice, no boundaries to this path. But it also brings the question, what is not the practice? There is no boundaries, than is it all practice, cave or dark retreats are very popular in some Buddhist traditions for example in Tibetan Dzogchen or some Thai Theravadan (especially for lay yogis), can we say with our view that it is a bad practice.
Of course we directly see that it is not a question of good and bad, but a question of limits/no-limits and a question of sense. At least in my opinion, what is our limited view about our/other practices?

When the Teacher comes and releases us, plays with us and shows us our own play to our faces and we see the self in the Self, in one another then our struggle is over and so is our self-delusion.

Thank you for your, as always, beautiful words!
Maybe that is just about seeing our own games and distractions, our very discriminating way of protecting our Ego.

Sorry, if I'm out of subject (as always) but I'm so happy to write on this thread that I almost forgot his subject :lol:

deep gassho,
Jinyu

[Shohei]

Hiyas
I read Cook first (as i often do) and was scratching my head so i followed the instructions (speaking of stubborn!) and read Hixon through. and the I have to ditto what Fugen and Seishin wrote!
I cannot improve in any way so Iwill just clumsily move forward -

As already said the line on how many ways can the awakened ones patiently come to play and show us ...repeatedly, each time in unique way, to reach through the veil and open our eyes. Eyes which are dazzled and blind to our own play. By show us our own strings - attached and tangled; stage props and rehearsed lines; dramas and comedies and wake us up to the fact that this is only the play. No matter the practice, stuck is stuck and true awakening is not contained in coming and going in deep Samadhi, starvation or other practices where we try to escape or enter a level detached from here and now(it contains all these things including those delusions...plus tax!). True awakening is ever present and endless! Can we come and go in something that has no beginning and no end?

Gassho
Shohei

[BrianW]

I must say that some days going in a cave and experiencing a deep Samadhi for weeks at a time sounds a bit appealing.....getting away...of course it is an escape which is no escape, nor is it likely to result in realization. As Suzuki Roshi said to a student who wanted to leave a sesshin, "You can leave but there is no place to go."

Our Zen approach was nicely summarized by Zak who stated:

Our Zen Samahadi is right here in this moment always when we realize it. It is the "This" of which Taigu spoke in one of his posts. Always right in front of your nose ... just look! When this realized looking is, the self is no longer.

Gassho,
Jisen/BrianW

[AlanLa]

Does anyone see the irony of a guy whose name is Sanghanandi practices alone in a cave for so many years?. Here is another guy who through study with the monk in the sheltered palace and then alone study in a sheltered cave thinks he gets it so well that he argues with the guy who really does get it, but only by joining with others in a community does he ever really get it to the point he realizes true Awakeness. Besides what has already been said above, I find this part of the story to have great applicability to our modern sangha's practice.