The Platform Sutra: Sections 14-16 and commentary, p133-140 (138-145 on Kindle)

[Kokuu]

Dear all

This week we are looking at sections 14,15 and 16 and the accompanying commentary.

Here, Huineng tells his audience to always practice with a straightforward mind (one practice samadhi) and warns them against preaching about one practice samadhi with their mouth while not practicing it. He also notes that a practice based on passivity and not-thinking is not the way.

Huineng goes on to explain that the relationship between meditation and wisdom is like that between a lamp and its light. The lamp is the light’s body and the light is the lamp’s function.

The distinction between the direct and indirect path is presented here as the difference between those with sharp and dull minds rather than a difference in the practice itself. Time is not the issue, but the attitude of the one who practices.

Questions

1. What is straightforward mind and how do you practice with it?
2. Does the lamp and light simile work for you?

Wishing you all a good week.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Chikyou]

1) In one sense, One Practice Mind seems like something to aspire to, but not something that’s able to be maintained (or should be maintained) throughout all aspects of life all the time. In another sense, it seems to be saying this: there are no separate practices. Zazen is zazen, kinhin is zazen, samu is zazen. We don’t do zazen, and then kinhin and then samu. It’s all zazen.

2) I actually really love this. It really brings it home for me.

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō

[Houzan]

Finally catched up with you guys.

1) One practice samadhi is wu wei, effortless action, sincere action, effortless effort, it’s letting the river take you while trying as best as you can to stay clear of the rocks, its radical equanimity but not inaction, it’s like the aikido master perfectly leveraging the opponent’s force to propel action. It’s what Jundo talks about in Zen master’s dance when he comments on non-thinking: “…as the thoughts and emotions drift through the mind like clouds migrating through the open sky, the clarity and light of the sky illuminate those same thoughts. They become lighter, translucent.” It’s something that is with us all the time, but how we practice this is by sitting. By sitting this lightness bleeds into our daily tasks, and it lets us deal with what is right here and now without adding anything, i.e. a “straightforward mind”.

2) It’s ok. I think Red Pine put it well when he writes that it works well as long as we don’t pressure test the analogy. TNH would probably have said something like “meditation consist of non-meditation elements and wisdom of non-wisdom elements”, which works better for me.

Gassho, Hōzan
satlah

[Onsho]

1. What is straightforward mind and how do you practice with it?

Straightforward mind resonates with me by means of “an upright mind”. Its one way that our mind can function were we drop this/that, self/other, subject/object, even relative/absolute and practice in the waters of thusness/suchness. To me straightforward mind is HALF of the 8 fold path. Look to Right effort, Right action, Right intention. Right means straightforward, Right means upright.
As for practicing with it, I try to let perceptions tell me who and what they are, before I tell me what they mean.


2. Does the lamp and light simile work for you?

They’re like a tree and its leaves. When there’s a tree,
there’s leaves. When there’s no tree, there’s no leaves. The
tree is the leaves body, and leaves are the trees function.
They have two names but not two bodies.

Gassho,
Onsho
satlah

[Taigen]

Questions

1. What is straightforward mind and how do you practice with it?
2. Does the lamp and light simile work for you?

1. I liked Red Pine's other possible translations: "Honest, sincere, or direct." To me, it is mind without pretense, that does not need to justify itself, that shows and is present with what is. To borrow from another book I'm reading, it's experiencing the world as it actually is without being caught up in the "symbolic web" that creates our "social reality."

2. I'm neurodiverse (ASD) so sometimes the similes are more work for me than just saying the thing. I liked Red Pine's explanation of "using the lamp of meditation to fill the ten directions with the light of wisdom." If I could paraphrase I'd say something like, "meditation and wisdom help you engage with the world sincerely and directly." *shrugs* It's not perfect either, but it's easier for me to get ahold of (my literal oriented brain still can't decide if it makes sense to describe the lamp as the "body" of light. Does light have a body? Feels more like a photon would be the body of the light and the wave would be its function.... Yep, time to put the metaphor down, we're missing the point).

Gassho,
Taigen
SatLah

[Hoseki]

1. What is straightforward mind and how do you practice with it?
2. Does the lamp and light simile work for you?

1. I've read the commentary a few times and I still don't really know what's meant by straightforward mind. It makes me think of shikantaza so maybe it means a radical equanimity as thoughts and feelings arise and fall.

2. I like the simile of the lamp and light a lot. For a lamp to be a lamp it has to be lit. That's what it's made for. But we can't have the light without the lamp and without the light what do we have? We would typically say it's a lamp, or it's an unlit lamp and that's true. But we could also say a oddly shaped vase, or a paper weight or a hollow hunk of metal. The lamp could be all of those things and in a sense I think it is all of those things and more. But when the lamp is lit it's doing what a lamp does. It fulfills it's lamp-ness or we could say it's lamp-ing. It's not that it isn't a paper weight, we could surely lay the lit lamp on some paper, but for our purposes it's doing what a lamp does. So the context and my intentions determine it's thingness. What it is is determined by my engagement with it. I guess my point is that without the light it's undefined or ambiguous. So if I just stare at the unlit lamp I'm seeing it in it's thusness. Maybe I think of it as a lamp or maybe I don't but I'm not clinging to those determinations. Of course, if someone was color blind their experience of thusness of the lamp would be different but I don't think that's a problem. I think that's just how things are.

Gassho,

Hoseki
Sattoday/lah

[Hosui]

Thanks Kokuu and everyone here for helping make this study part of my current practice

1. Straightforward mind is where I "fuzzy-up" (Jundo's phrase) in zazen the borders between me and all dharmas (phenomena), which I put into practice via the constant smile on my face at the amazing world we're all in!
2. Yes, the lamp/light simile does wonders in helping me see clearly that original face in the shaving mirror of samsara.

Gassho
Hosui
sat/lah today

[Choujou]

Questions

1. What is straightforward mind and how do you practice with it?
2. Does the lamp and light simile work for you?

1. Just this.
2. Too much distinction. No lamp or light. No no-lamp, no no-light…

Gassho,
Choujou

sat/lah today

[Kokuu]

Once again, you didn't let me down with your great answers and I learn something from all of you every week.

1. Yes, I think that straightforward mind is just doing this next thing, without pretence, drama or adding anything extra. It very much seems like the active side of Zazen and taking the same mindset into work and life.

2. Absolutely fine whether this works for you or not. As Huineng, and some of you, point out, these kinds of similes can be helpful but they are just a pointer and break down if pushed too far. I was at a Zen group recently where there was a talk on The Identity of Relative and Absolute and it was pointed out that in that work Shitou Xiqian gives a whole bunch of similes - the foot before and foot behind in walking, two arrows meeting in mid air, a box and its lid - in the hope that something will hit the mark for us. But it is important to remember they are just similes and not the truth.

So, tomorrow we move on to sections 17 and 18. See you there!

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Kaitan]

1. What is straightforward mind and how do you practice with it?

This reminded me to mindfulness, and I thought about it in terms of effortless effort. Just like when we come back each time in zazen I can recognize this straightforward mind in my daily life.

2. Does the lamp and light simile work for you?

It worked well until Red said that there can be lamps without light and light without a lamp. I don't know why he jinxes it. Though later he references the Heart Sutra, which helps.


Gassho

stlah, Kaitan

[Tairin]

Thank you Kokuu.

Firstly I have to say how much I am enjoying reading the Platform Sutra. I can see the consistent message from Huineng, through Dogen, and to Kodo Sawaki. Of course this includes Jundo :-)

1. What is straightforward mind and how do you practice with it?

I understand "straightforward mind" as being the accepting mind. Accept what is without layering on preferences or aversions. Accept what is without clouding that with the would/could/should be's. Which doesn't mean to settle either. To paraphrase "things are perfect the way they are, and they could use a little improvement"

1. Does the lamp and light simile work for you?

It works well enough as a metaphor but even as I read it I knew that metaphors are never perfect. Absolutely there can be lamps without lights and light without lamps. Like the finger pointing at the moon, best to not cling too tightly to the actual words of the metaphor but instead appreciate what it is attempting to illustrate.


Tairin
sat today and lah