The Platform Sutra: Sections 12 + 13 and commentary, p125-132 (131-138 on Kindle)

[Kokuu]

Dear all

This week we will look at parts 12 and 13 of the sutra and Red Pine's commentary.

The first section of the Platform Sutra is the best known, with most people having previously heard about the poetry contest and Huineng’s humble background, even if not his flight with the robe and subsequent hiding out.

So, now we continue with part two of the sutra in which Huineng, having laid out the autobiographical detail in section one, now begins to talk about the dharma, telling everyone present that they are connected through many past lifetimes. He says that what he will be teaching them is not something that he has discovered but rather that which has been passed on, ancestor-to-ancestor.

Huineng tells everyone that they already possess what they are looking for – their buddha nature – and that this nature does not differ between the ignorant and wise, but that the wise have woken from their delusion.

Dōgen echoes this in Genjōkoan saying, “Those who totally realize delusion are buddhas. Those who are totally deluded about realization are ordinary people.”

Red Pine says that Huineng taught for forty years and only taught one thing – awakening to our true nature of perfect wisdom (prajnaparamita). It has similarly been said of the Buddha that he taught just suffering and the end of suffering.

In part 13 Huineng makes a statement that should be familiar to anyone reading Dōgen – that practice and wisdom are not two separate things. Buddhism is often portrayed as having three limbs – ethics (sila), sitting practice (dhyana) and wisdom (prajna) – with wisdom coming as a product of sitting practice resting on a foundation of ethical conduct. Huineng’s words depart from this traditional understanding and set the foundations for the Zen which is to follow, and sudden awakening rather than gradual awakening.

Questions
1. How do you see the idea that we have all been connected through many lifetimes?
2. Huineng says that there is no separation between practice and wisdom, as does Dōgen. Should ethical conduct also be seen as not separate from those two?

Wishing you all a good week.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Chikyou]

1. How do you see the idea that we have all been connected through many lifetimes?

Makes sense to me. It’s hard for me to explain how I feel that this is true, but I feel that this is true.

2. Huineng says that there is no separation practice and wisdom, as does Dōgen. Should ethical conduct also be seen as not separate from those two?

I think that if you have wisdom, ethical conduct is inevitable. Therefore if practice and wisdom are one, ethical conduct is included by default.

Gassho,
SatLah
Chikyō

[Seiryu]

I have a copy of this book, so I am happy to jump in, catch up, and just absorb

Huineng’s words depart from this traditional understanding and set the foundations for the Zen which is to follow, and sudden awakening rather than gradual awakening.

It takes a long time for a tree to grow, it takes a long time for the fruit to ripen, for all the conditions to come together, for all of creation to dance and move in just to right way to enable that fruit to come into what it is…and then…suddenly….it falls

Questions
1. How do you see the idea that we have all been connected through many lifetimes?
2. Huineng says that there is no separation between practice and wisdom, as does Dōgen. Should ethical conduct also be seen as not separate from those two?

1. “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” ― Carl Sagan. One can get very esoteric in regards to past lives, future lives, but in a very concrete way, I feel that, quite literally, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for everything and everyone that has happened before me. I owe my very existence to everything that has taken place before a single thought ever formed in my little head.

2. When this moment is seen as just this moment, when we can penetrate and see that all is exactly as it is and there is nothing we need to do to make it such, naturally the attention shifts from self to other. The fragrance of practice is morality, the fragrance of morality is practice, how can they be separated? To have practice without morality is to practice with an intellectual ideal and not from direct experience. To have morality without practice is to be directed by emotions and ideas often coming together from outside sources. As of now, I don’t think ethical conduct could be separated, as it is all looking at the same thing expressed in different ways.

Just thinking out loud with this one.

Gassho

Sat/Lah

[Kokuu]

I have a copy of this book, so I am happy to jump in, catch up, and just absorb

Please, feel free to.

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” ― Carl Sagan

That's one of my favourite quotes!


Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Onsho]

1. How do you see the idea that we have all been connected through many lifetimes?

200 years ago, a baby laughed. The mother smiled, The passer by wrote a poem about that smile. The poem inspires songs to be written and happiness snowballs through time. Now, I’m here steeped in the joy of the world. I have learned joy through the connections of many lifetimes. The seeds of that joy have been watered by everyone along the way. I water them now just as I did, when I was the baby, mother and poet.


2. Huineng says that there is no separation between practice and wisdom, as does Dōgen. Should ethical conduct also be seen as not separate from those two?

I recall Sekishi saying something along the lines of – When we sit Zazen, we are following the precepts perfectly.- So I would venture to say dhyana + prajna = sila