At the moment of awareness ~

This Wed., July 3, our Dharma discussion will focus on this passage from “The Sun My Heart” by Thich Nhat Hanh:

"Our thoughts and feelings flow like a river. If we try to stop the flow of a river, we will meet the resistance of the water. It is better to flow with it, and then we may be able to guide it in ways we want it to go. We must not attempt to halt it. 

"Keep in mind that the river must flow and that we are going to follow it. We must be aware of every little stream that joins it. We must be aware of all the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that arise in us-of their birth, duration, and disappearance. Do you see? Now the resistance begins to disappear. The river of perceptions is still flowing, but no longer in darkness. It is now flowing in the sunlight of awareness. To keep this sun always shining inside of us, illuminating each rivulet, each pebble, each bend in the river, is the practice of meditation. To practice meditation is, first of all, to observe and to follow these details. 

"At the moment of awareness we feel we are in control, even though the river is still there, still flowing. We feel ourselves at peace . . . . Being at peace doesn't mean our thoughts and feelings are frozen. Being at peace is not the same as being anesthetized. A peaceful mind does not mean a mind empty of thoughts, sensations, and emotions. A peaceful mind is not an absent one."

Smiling,

Warren & Marion

Suffering ~ Whose responsibility?

 "If you're not going to take care of your own suffering, who will?" ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Warren reminded us of this statement in Thich Nhat Hanh's book ~"Breathe, You are alive" (2008) ~ reminder to address the suffering in your heart ...instead of ignoring it, or lashing outward, blaming, grazing, buying unnecessary things.

The path of suffering and the path of happiness

The path of suffering and the path of happiness inter-are. We can choose to transform the one and enjoy the other. ~ Warren     

'There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.' Do we have to suffer and toil before we can experience happiness and enlightenment'.   Happiness is here and now. 

on idle chit chat

Discussing brother Phap Hai's discussion on the 3rd noble truth and remarking how much his comments about idle chitchat struck me in the helpful way. He spoke about how harmful speech consists of several categories and idle chit chat is one of those categories.

 I discussed this with W. this afternoon and he found it to be interesting as well.

Then W. talked about we can learn from katagiri roshi. A different topic: about how if I feel uncomfortable that's OK when I need to process something or do something that is difficult -- just do it. If I perceive it's difficult.. then it's time to do it. in some sense we're creating a Phantom wall and we can walk right through that wall...bc reality is likely to be quite different from our imagining.

No alternative

Once you realize there is no alternative to the present moment,

You are on the way to Buddhahood.

-Reb Anderson

My Arm for a Pillow- Yosa Busan

My arm for a pillow, 

I really like myself

Under the hazy moon. 

- Yosa Busan

Covet nothing. Your end which is endless is as a snowflake dissolving in pure air.

Previously posted in October 5, 2013

“The essence of your mind is not born, so it will never die. It is not an existence, which is perishable. It is not an emptiness, which is a mere void. It has neither colour nor form. It enjoys no pleasures and suffers no pains. -- (Blake?)

I know you are very ill. Like a good Zen student, you are facing that sickness squarely. You may not know exactly who is suffering, but question yourself: What is the essence of this mind? Think only of this. You will need no more. Covet nothing. Your end which is endless is as a snowflake dissolving in pure air.” 

― Bassui Takusho

Warren's Dharmafield talk and commentary of Aug 29, 2021 resonates with this: and with Li Po's poem 'Zazen on Jing Ting Mountain'... no grasping of thoughts, mountain and objects of mind as a meditation companion. human made creation of notion of separation between me and the other. 

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'.

Heart Sutra at Lake Superior

O Shariputra, all dharmas are marked like footprints in sand washed from shore,
O Shariputra, on the shoreline clusters of pine, bristling needles mark the empty sky
O Shariputra, pale green lichen, eons old, clinging to tree bark eating the untilled air
O Shariputra, foliate ferns spring from rock sides, tough stone flowering before our eyes
O Shariputra, we stand small by lake and sky and orange moon rising over far horizon
O Shariputra, love this world, water converging to shore again again empty never the same.

-- Warren Lang, 2012

Realization

Realization Is not about getting rid of anything.

Our True Nature is Awareness - Warren Lang

Warren offered this poem tonight.  He said "Our true nature is awareness"....  He wrote this wonderful poem:

Breathe and breathe
Again.
Observe the mind.
Never leave this seat.

And his 'explication de texte', of his own text, is helpful:  Let the thoughts and feelings and other phenomena 's'evanouissent'.  See the ephemerality of phenomena.  This is liberation.

See how the process of 'identifying with suffering' only increases suffering or said differently, it keeps the suffering in the perceived domain of 'permanence', more ego-delusion. 

Identifying with suffering engenders actions that often increase suffering. No thought or condition is permanent. 

Our true seat is the seat of awareness; our true home is the awareness that we always have available.

....

from Verse 1 of Hakuin's Chant in Praise of Zazen: :

From the beginning all beings are buddha
Like water and ice, without water, no ice.
Outside us, no Buddhas.
How near the truth, yet how far we seek.
Like one in water crying 'I thirst',
Like a child of rich birth, wandering poor on this earth,
We endlessly circle the six worlds.
The cause of our sorrow is ego delusion. 
From dark path to dark path, we've wandered in darkness.
How can we be free from this wheel of samsara?

from Verse 2 of Hakuin's Chant in Praise of Zazen: 

The gateway to freedom is zazen samadhi,
Beyond exultation, beyond all our praises,
the Pure Mahayana.
Observing the precepts, repentance and giving,
the countless good deeds and the way of right living
all come from zazen. 
Thus one true samadhi extinguishes evil,
It purifies karma, dissolving obstructions. 
Then where are the dark paths to lead us astray?
The pure lotus land is not far away.
Hearing this truth, heart humble and grateful,
To praise and embrace it, to practice its wisdom,
Brings unending blessings, brings mountains of merit. 

from Verse 3 of Hakuin's Chant in Praise of Zazen:

But if we turn inward and prove our true nature
That True self is No self,
Our own self is no self,
We go beyond ego and past clever words.
The gate to the oneness of cause and effect is thrown open, 
Not two and not three, straight ahead runs the Way.
Our form now being no form,
In coming and going, we never leave home. 
Our thought now being no thought,
Our dancing and songs are the voice of the dharma

A discussion too about being a grumbler, a natural tendency to attempt to problem solve, to not relinquish control;  the ego desperately wants to maintain control of situations.  Desperately wants the world to be a 'certain way'.  But each moment offers a new beginning, a new reality...not one whose conditions will ever be what we can imagine.  "Rest your frontal lobe.'' 

The grumbler will benefit from 'the mindfulness practice' ...that awareness that is always present.  A samadhi can be sourced through Zazen samadhi but also dishwashing samadhi, driving samadhi, etc.

Warren ended with a prayerful meditation from Glimpse After Glimpse, April 17:  

Rest in natural great peace. 
This exhausted mind 
Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thought,
Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves 
In the infinite ocean of samsara.

Rest in natural great peace. 

NYOSHUL KHEN RINPOCHE


Warren offered how the breath connects inside with outside...two dimensions of the same abiding moment.  One without the other is not possible. 

Poem by Gary Snyder offered by Warren

poem by Gary Snyder
http://shlok25.blogspot.com/

My teacher once said to me, 

--Become one with the knot itself

Till it dissolves away, 

---sweep the garden, 

any size.

This poem is offered on the topic of 'sweeping leaves'.

Noble Truths

Noble Truths

In this heart

suffering and its end.

Cease clinging

to what is not there.

Let go of fear.

Release self to air.

Now eyes open.

Now moon’s light

fills the singing night.

Warren Lang

True Seeing

True Seeing

Zen ethics is grounded in the realization that one does not know what’s right. This “not-knowing” is the refuge from which all moral action originates. It’s a refuge that can’t be relegated to the role of moral abstraction and remains a free and alive expression of the moment. What’s offered us in the place of moral certainty is doubt and love, which are nearly synonymous. Doubt wears the hard edges off our best ideas and exposes us to the world as it is. When the great Zen master Ikkyu was asked, “What is Zen?” He replied, “Attention! Attention! Attention!”

This very attention to a world thats not of our contrivance is an act of love, for we can only love what we truly see.

- Lin Jensen, "An Ear to the Ground," Tricycle Summer 2006

--

Chick Lindsay

clindsay@wwt.net

check out Warren's Aug 29 2021: commentaqry on Ikkyu's 'Untitled' poem. "At a waystation, returning from Drizzly Road on my way to Always-dry road' ...both part of life...no judgment needed.