from Tricycle on Sept 2, 2015

Ten Stanzas Written on Cloud-Shrouded Terrace (No. 6)

Sitting upright at the foot of clouds, too lazy to lift my head,
I have no more dharma words for the Chan practitioners.
Everything under the sun makes plain the Path—
might as well hang my mouth on the wall and shut up.

—Huaishen (1077–1132)

I’m Happy with My Way of Life

I’m happy with my way of life,
living in mountain caves amid mist and vines.
My wild moods are mostly unrestrained;
I’m carefree as my friends the clouds.
There are paths here, but they don’t lead to the world.
Emptied of illusion, what can the mind cling to?
I sit alone on my stony bed all night long,
while the full moon ascends Cold Mountain.

—Hanshan (766–779)

Coming out of Samadhi

The heavenly realm of meditation is quiet, sealed by clouds;
I sat long on my rush mat, all worries vanished.
Arising from Samadhi, I didn’t realize that evening had come—
astonished to find myself in bright moonlight.

—Jingan (1851–1912)

Moon Over Water

Watching it above the pond night after night,
the meditator sits with the moon beside him.
It is possible to grasp its empty form,
but the idea of its brightness is hard to convey.
If one seeks understanding with a vacant mind,
the moon seems full each and every moment.

—Jiaoran (730–799)

From A Full Load of Moonlight: Chinese Chan Poems, trans. Mary M. Y. Fung and David Lunde © 2014 Mary M. Y. Fung and David Lunde. Reprinted with permission of Musical Stone Culture.

A Full Load of Moonlight is available in Hong Kong local bookstores as well as on www.amazon.com, both in print and Kindle versions.

Illustration by Roberto La Forgia

On the 'appropriate response'

The 'appropriate response' is derived from compassion, from 'right view'
Bankai...zen master who responded to his angry students by stating that his response, his work is to teach the thief-apprentice monk right from wrong, rather than dismissing him from the community.

Right view includes realizing that we are all part of a 'whole'.

'Right' has many translations including 'upright', 'complete', 'not leaning one way or the other'
Katagiri Roshi: you can't know the middle way until you know the two extremes.  Anywhere between the two extremes is the 'middle way'.

Degreasing

Allow for Space

Tsoknyi Rinpoche

The difficulty most of us face is that we’re afraid of our humanity. We don’t know how to give our humanity space. We don’t know how to give it love. We don’t know how to offer our appreciation. We seize upon whatever difficult emotions or painful thoughts arise—in large part because we’ve been taught from a very young age that life is a serious business. We’re taught that we have to accomplish so many things and excel at so many things because we have to compete for a limited amount of resources. We develop such high expectations for ourselves and others, and we develop high expectations of life. Such a competitive, goal-oriented approach to life makes us very speedy inside. We become so tight physically, mentally, and emotionally as we rush through each day, each moment, that many of us forget—often quite literally—to breathe.

When we allow space into our meditation practice, however, something quite wonderful begins to happen. That solidity, that seriousness begins to break down. We begin to relax a bit more and experience some of the fluidity we enjoyed as very young children. We begin to dance with our experience: “Haaa ... I’m so upset … I’m so good … I’m happy … I’m a human being ... I might be upset, but I’m alive … If I were dead, I might not have emotion … but, wow, I’m alive.”

We also gradually cut through the habit of identifying with each emotional wave that passes through our awareness. We can be angry, jealous, or scared without having to act on those emotions or let them take over our lives. We can experience joy or love without becoming attached to the object that we think is the cause of our joy.

All too often, the emotions we experience, along with the thoughts and behaviors that accompany them, become part of our internal and social story lines. Anger, anxiety, jealousy, fear, and other emotions become part of who we believe we are, creating what I would call a “greasy” residue, like the oily stuff left on a plate after eating greasy food. If that residue is left on the plate, eventually everything served on that plate starts to taste alike; bits of food start to accumulate too, stuck to layers and layers of greasy residue. All in all, a very unhealthy situation!

When we allow space into our practice, though, we begin to see the impermanent nature of the thoughts and feelings that arise within our experience—as well as of the conditions, over many of which we have no control. That greasy residue doesn’t build up, because there’s no “plate” for it to cling to. If we can allow some space within our awareness and rest there, we can respect our troubling thoughts and emotions, allow them to come, and let them go. Our lives may be complicated on the outside, but we remain simple, easy, and open on the inside.

From Solid Ground by Sylvia Boorstein, Norman Fischer, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche, © 2011. Reprinted with permission of Parallax Press.

The Middle Way

"The beatings will continue until there is an improvement in the morale."

...  John Thomas and Anon.

Wondering if 'right meditation, right effort, right mindfulness' and the grasping for peace, feels like that quote?  If so, it's time to seek the Middle Way.  If so, I have the wrong view, a frozen view.

Grasping, spiritual materialism, the constant pursuit for intellectual understanding.... yep, this is basically the sense of 'the beatings will continue until there is an improvement in the morale,' and it is often the kind of effort I put into this practice...so .... lighten up?

The Five Contemplations

• This food is the gift of the whole universe: the earth, the sky and much hard work.
• May we live in a way that makes us worthy to receive it.
• May we transform our own unskilled states of mind and learn to eat with moderation.
• May we take only foods that nourish us and prevent illness.
• We accept this food so that we may realize the path of understanding and love.

--Thich Nhat Hanh