Being mindful of 'mindful'

[Jishin]

Do you live here in beautiful San Diego, John? "You stay classy..."

Amelia, I wish. I live in Lubbock, Texas. The city is about 200,000 and the nearest 'big' city is about 2 hours away in Amarillo. The population there is about 150,000. In between there is a LOT of flat land growing cotton.

Home is home and Lubbock is my home. Always get a little sad when coming home from super cool places like San Diego. Guess don't matter where one settles down. In the end (beginning), I wake up, zazen, breakfast, shit, shower, shave, work, home, family, bed, and the cycle begins (ends) again. Could do this anywhere, even in prison (don't know what kind of 'girlfriend' would have there).

Gassho, John

[Geika]

Home is home.

[Ryan379]

Thank you Jundo, I came across this when I most needed it, it's answered many things for me

Deep bows

Gassho

Ryan

Sat Today

[orangedice]

Thank you Jundo. This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately--am I a still "good" Buddhist for not feeling all Zen about everything? Rationally I know that it's silly to feel insecure, but a part of me feels hopeless that all this mindfulness and shikantaza practice won't change anything about me. Anyway, I'm a bit exhausted so I'm not sure this makes any sense. But thank you.

Gassho,
June
#SatToday

[Rich]

You are already perfect so there is nothing to change. A part of you was trained or learned to be insecure. Being with that allows seeing through that.

Will sit now

[Kaishin]

Rationally I know that it's silly to feel insecure, but a part of me feels hopeless that all this mindfulness and shikantaza practice won't change anything about me.

It won't change anything about you! But the meaning of your life will become clarified.

I'd like to share one of my most treasured stories about our great teachers, Kodo Sawaki and Uchiyama Roshi. I have so many problems, and especially early in my practice, all I wanted was for practice to make me flawless. But, as this story illustrates, zazen is not a self-improvement campaign. Don't sit or practice to "become better." Sit and practice to embody the flawless true, perfect, universal Self that Rich refers to.

I re-read this passage many times each year. I hope it speaks to you. (emphases mine)

-satToday

Shortly after I began to practice with Sawaki Roshi, we were walking in Utsunomiya and I said, “As you know, I’m a rather weak-minded person, but I want to continue to practice zazen with you for twenty or even thirty years, or until you die. If I do that, will it be possible for a weak person like me to become a little stronger?”

Sawaki Roshi replied, “No! Zazen is good for nothing.” He had a loud, deep voice and was powerful and resolute. He wasn’t a weak yet handsome person like me! He was the traditional image of a Zen monk. “I’m not like this because of my practice,” he continued. “I was like this before I began to practice. Zazen doesn’t change a person. Zazen is good for nothing.”

When I heard those words I thought, “Although he says it isn’t possible, still, I’ll be able to improve myself.” I followed him and practiced zazen for twenty-five years, until his death in December 1965. While he was alive, I relied on him. After he died, I couldn’t do that anymore.

Just after his death, I recalled my question during our walk and asked myself, “Have I changed after practicing zazen with the roshi for twenty-five years?” I realized I hadn’t really changed at all.

In that moment it was natural for me to say to myself, “A violet blooms as a violet, a rose blooms as a rose.” There are people like Sawaki Roshi who resemble luxurious roses. There are people like me who resemble tiny, pretty violets. Which is better? It’s not a relevant question. We shouldn’t compare with others. It’s enough to blossom wholeheartedly, just as we are. That’s what I felt after Sawaki Roshi died.

In conclusion, I’m living out the life of the whole heaven and earth, the absolute reality, regardless of whether I accept or reject it. The point of our practice is to manifest this life suffusing the whole heaven and earth, here and now. In this practice, there’s no judgment of success or failure. If there’s success and failure, I’m comparing myself. Since everything I encounter is part of my life, I shouldn’t treat anything without respect. I should take care of everything wholeheartedly. I practice this way. Everything I encounter is my life.

Uchiyama Roshi, Kosho (2014-11-04). Zen Teaching of Homeless Kodo (Kindle Locations 3636-3653). Wisdom Publications. Kindle Edition.

[Geika]

Thanks so much, Kaishin. Gassho

Sat today

[Jundo]

It won't change anything about you! But the meaning of your life will become clarified.

Hi Kaishin,

Lovely. Gudo Nishijima Roshi, in the book of his which I translated, had a passage in which he played on Sawaki's famous "good for nothing." When old Zen teachers like Nishijima (Dogen and others all the way back) would "play with" or "improve" the words of an prior Teacher, it was often meant to honor or play a musical riff from the other Teacher's words, not "correct" it. This was such a case.

Gassho, J
SatToday

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Gudo: Kodo Sawaki Roshi, when he was instructing me in Zazen many years ago, used to say that every time he was asked by some student, What benefit will come to me from doing Zazen, he would answer in a booming voice … Nothing comes from it at all!! Sawaki Roshi would admonish all of us against the attitude of viewing Zazen as a means to a goal other than Zazen itself. He wished to strongly emphasize the sacredness inherent just in Zazen, that Zazen should be done simply to be done, without ulterior objective or purpose at all.

Sekishin: But to tell us to do something that will come to nothing, that has no purpose. It has to sound like a great waste of time and energy!

Gudo: Yes. Sawaki Roshi used to boom, Nothing comes from it at all!! It was his way to touch and draw out in the people to whom he was speaking the spirit of sacredness inherent in Zazen. On the other hand, when I myself am asked what will come from doing Zazen, I like to answer … Everything can come of it!! I believe that this is also the case, just the same as Master Sawaki’s words.

If I am asked, “Will Zazen serve as a means to calm my mind?” then I answer, It certainly will! “Will it restore my health?” I answer, Absolutely! “Will it make me a person who can get things done, who will be a great success? “ Yes! I answer. “Will I become someone who is not fearful even in the face of terrible tragedy and looking death in the eye?” You will become that person! … and so on, and so on, I answer. In response to any such question, if the answer represents a change in a good and positive direction, then we can say that Everything can come of Zazen!!

Sekishin: But come on!! How can you claim that? Is there any panacea like that in this whole world?

Gudo: Yes there is, and that is Zazen. But please listen very closely to what I am saying: if we inquire into how we will each become through our Zazen, the answer is that we will, each of us, become but our Self, our True Self. A fundamental concept of Buddhism is that each human being, each of us, is a wonderful existence, lacking not one thing at all, not one thing in the least from the start.

Thus, “Will Zazen serve as a means to calm the mind?” Returning to our Original, True Nature, what is there ultimately in need of calming? In the wholeness of this world, where is the friction between you and things if not separate from things as they are?

“Will it restore one’s health?” When one discovers one’s Original Face, nothing in the least lacking …. what need ever be restored? One’s health is always precisely one’s health.

It is the same for each and everything desired. It is the same for being the person who can get things done, who is a success or one not fearful in the face of tragedy and death. For with not one thing to be added, nor one thing to be taken away, all that needs to be done is already done, all success right in hand just here and now, and there is never the slightest thing to fear.

This is the meaning of our reclaiming our True Self. Therefore, that which can be attained by one through Zazen is none other than our Original Face, That which you were before even your Mother and Father were born. It is called by such names and others.

http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Chat-Buddhism-Master-Expanded/dp/0692374337/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

[Washin]

Yes there is, and that is Zazen. But please listen very closely to what I am saying: if we inquire into how we will each become through our Zazen, the answer is that we will, each of us, become but our Self, our True Self.

Thank you

Gassho,
Sergey
sattoday

[orangedice]

Thank you Kaishin. That did actually help.

Gassho,
June
#SatToday

[Jika]

[JHost1214]

When I tune my guitar inside the warmth of my home, I begin by tightening each string and as I do it begins to sharpen, as I loosen it, it becomes flat. As I reach each string's balance it becomes harmonious, when all strings are in harmony I can create tuneful music. Yet if I take the same guitar, that has been tuned to harmony in my warm home, outside in the cold it will become un-tuneful. When the strings are in tune to the conditions in which they are being struck, tuneful music follows.

We must not only be "mindful" of our "strings", we must also be "at one" with the environment that we seek to practice in. my interpretation of this important lesson, for what it's worth.

May peace find us all,
Jordan

Sat today

[Doshin]

June, Thank you for asking the question. The answers were good for me and I bet many others.

Gassho
Doshin
Sattoday

[Byokan]

When I tune my guitar inside the warmth of my home, I begin by tightening each string and as I do it begins to sharpen, as I loosen it, it becomes flat. As I reach each string's balance it becomes harmonious, when all strings are in harmony I can create tuneful music. Yet if I take the same guitar, that has been tuned to harmony in my warm home, outside in the cold it will become un-tuneful. When the strings are in tune to the conditions in which they are being struck, tuneful music follows.

We must not only be "mindful" of our "strings", we must also be "at one" with the environment that we seek to practice in. my interpretation of this important lesson, for what it's worth.

May peace find us all,
Jordan

Sat today

Jordan, wonderful! Thank you for this, I love it, you've played a note that sounds just right to me.

At the same time maybe we can also tune not only our strings, but our ears as well... to hear the beauty and harmony of the untuned string, of the broken string, the missed timing, the “wrong” note, the silence. Each perfectly sounding the time, place, and conditions that produce them. The cacophony of many different tunes being played at once. Hearing the perfection in all, knowing that all these sounds together are resonating as the song of this universe. Even as we do our best to mindfully play a tuneful tune with the instrument at hand.

Gassho
Byōkan
sat today

[Jishin]

Hi,

I hear perfectly with or without hearing aids after banging on a guitar in my youth and a loud grand piano when a little older.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_


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