Someone asked me if in my little essay I am telling folks not to study, not to read and learn from what the physicists and astronomers discover about things like time and the origins of the universe, and never to ponder the "Big Questions."
NOT AT ALL!
Recently, while sitting under the Milky Way and countless stars in a national park by night I also thought about such questions. Then, I sat Zazen among those stars, all separation and time dropped away.
It is excellent and natural to ponder the "Big Questions" such as why are we here, what or who made the universe, what is "time" etc. As to study, it is just that when sitting Zazen, one puts down the books in the time of sitting. And in reading any books at other times, one learns not to be prisoner of spinning intellectual wheels. It is good, rewarding and (frankly) TOTALLY! to be encouraged (lest one falls into ignorance, so common now as in the past) to study history, science, economics, literature and art, society and many subjects. Of course, maybe after sitting, when we pick those books up again, we can have some clarity that also lets us see some Wisdom through the words on the pages (e.g., the wars and changes of human history seem very different to a student of Buddhism. Someone like Dogen had some insights on the fluidity and relativity of time, and existence in a truly vast universe-s, that the physicists seem only to have caught up to centuries later.)
Although we might contemplate some "Big Questions," we Zen folks also know that the best answers to some of those questions may come from our dropping those questions, and the dichotomies and assumptions they entail, in the manner I describe in the essay. Yes, the physicists have certain truths to tell us, but perhaps we in turn have certain truths to convey even to the physicists and others, presenting certain answer that come when we radically rephrase or drop certain questions and ordinary perspectives altogether. Then, through our quiet sitting, asking "why we are here" and "who/what made the universe" and "what is time" may prove to have been in subtle ways our intellectually having asked the "wrong questions" in the wrong way, and the best and clearest answers may come from the silent Clarity and Timelessness we nurture in this Practice. Physicists may ask where the universe came from, the source of the Big Bang, and how long it all has been. This is important to know, and precious information. However, Zen folks savor how to jump right through all "coming and going," finding our source in this present moment, dropping all measures of time.
Gassho, J
STLah
NOT AT ALL!
Recently, while sitting under the Milky Way and countless stars in a national park by night I also thought about such questions. Then, I sat Zazen among those stars, all separation and time dropped away.
It is excellent and natural to ponder the "Big Questions" such as why are we here, what or who made the universe, what is "time" etc. As to study, it is just that when sitting Zazen, one puts down the books in the time of sitting. And in reading any books at other times, one learns not to be prisoner of spinning intellectual wheels. It is good, rewarding and (frankly) TOTALLY! to be encouraged (lest one falls into ignorance, so common now as in the past) to study history, science, economics, literature and art, society and many subjects. Of course, maybe after sitting, when we pick those books up again, we can have some clarity that also lets us see some Wisdom through the words on the pages (e.g., the wars and changes of human history seem very different to a student of Buddhism. Someone like Dogen had some insights on the fluidity and relativity of time, and existence in a truly vast universe-s, that the physicists seem only to have caught up to centuries later.)
Although we might contemplate some "Big Questions," we Zen folks also know that the best answers to some of those questions may come from our dropping those questions, and the dichotomies and assumptions they entail, in the manner I describe in the essay. Yes, the physicists have certain truths to tell us, but perhaps we in turn have certain truths to convey even to the physicists and others, presenting certain answer that come when we radically rephrase or drop certain questions and ordinary perspectives altogether. Then, through our quiet sitting, asking "why we are here" and "who/what made the universe" and "what is time" may prove to have been in subtle ways our intellectually having asked the "wrong questions" in the wrong way, and the best and clearest answers may come from the silent Clarity and Timelessness we nurture in this Practice. Physicists may ask where the universe came from, the source of the Big Bang, and how long it all has been. This is important to know, and precious information. However, Zen folks savor how to jump right through all "coming and going," finding our source in this present moment, dropping all measures of time.
Gassho, J
STLah
for positive poetry 優婆塞 台 婆
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