Hello friends,

Quote Originally Posted by Sodo Yokoyama
"Satori is being enlightened to the fact that we are deluded. There is then the desire, however small, to stop these deluded acts. That is how ordinary people are saved by zazen. So we realize, beyond a doubt, our ordinariness through our zazen practice, and any departure from zazen (Buddha) will give rise to the inability to deal with these delusions and hence we will lose our way. We can say that the world has gone astray because it can't deal with its delusions...All the troubles in this world, political, economic and so forth, are created from situations in which the awareness of one's ordinariness is absent.
I would like to focus on the first three sentences above.

"Satori is being enlightened to the fact that we are deluded."
This seems an interesting and clever way to calm people down, keep goal-less Zazen at the front of the practice; he seems to be saying, "this 'Satori experience' that you've been craving? You ran right past it! When you came home to the Dharma, when you realized that the Buddha-Way was a way worth following, that was Satori. Nothing higher than coming home to the Dharma."

"There is then the desire, however small, to stop these deluded acts. That is how ordinary people are saved by zazen."
Ordinary people, thus aware of great delusion, become Buddha. Following the ancient path, newly uncovered, each of us strives to improve; becoming more skillful, letting go. Gradually learning that there is nowhere to go and nothing to get to, even as we walk the path to Samma-Sambodhi. Letting go of views, concepts, notions, becoming completely at home in life as-it-is, realizing that nothing is holy, but life is our temple. Burning incense for the Buddha, and realizing that the incense is also Buddha.

Sit sit sit sit sit. Sew sew sew DAMN! rip rip rip, sew sew sew. Nothing special, only this. But it is just this "only this" that manifests Buddha in each moment.

Just my (deluded) musings, and I would love to hear yours.

Metta,

Saijun