Grass Hut - 3 - Nothing of Value

[Joyo]

YOU are the doctor and you took an oath to never hurt a patient. Who lives, the good or the bad guy?

Gassho, Jishin, _/st\_

Hmm, I think it's easy to say in this situation that both have value, both deserve care, flip a coin, as they are equal. But if I got shot, and went to the ER, with limited resources to only treat one person at a time, and the dr started working on the person who shot me, I'd be seriously pissed. I got shot, and now you are giving the one who shot me the best medical care. Sorry, in that situation I would go with the victim. Yes, the "bad" guy may end up being good, the "good" guy may end up being bad. But in this situation, with limited resources and time, you've got to go with what you know, not with what you don't know. Nobody deserves to innocently get shot, then have the perpetrator get treated first.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[Jika]

I am all three.
Well, I'll never make it a cop, but I hope I have done not only bad things in life.
So, I'm all and noone, some of this will survive.
The original master is present.

I relate to your very natural feelings, Joyo: that's why we practice, isn't it?

Gassho,
Danny
whomustshutupnow

[Joyo]

I am all three.
Well, I'll never make it a cop, but I hope I have done not only bad things in life.
So, I'm all and noone, some of this will survive.
The original master is present.

I relate to your very natural feelings, Joyo: that's why we practice, isn't it?

Gassho,
Danny
whomustshutupnow

Hello, I guess I would say this has something to do with why we practice. But by practicing I would still have the same reaction, if I were ever in such a situation. To me, this scenario that Jishin has given us is not about someone having more value. Both people have value. HOwever, due to circumstances it is a moral obligation to treat the person that has been victimized. Would I do all that I can do to help the criminal as well? Absolutely I would. But this criminal has created this karma, and he/she would have to pay the price for it. Innocent victim comes first, and at the same time, I would do all I can do to help both people.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[Jundo]

Hi,

Two patients arrive at the emergency room in critical condition. There are resources to treat only one patient at a time and whoever goes first lives. The doctor is about to flip a coin to see who goes first but then he learns that the injuries are a result of a shoot out between a good guy and a bad guy. Who should be treated first? The good or the bad guy? Whose life has more value?

Gassho, Jishin, _/st\_

There are no "bad people" in the typical Buddhist perspective ... only victims of greed, anger and ignorance who act badly. All are victims of greed, anger and ignorance.

That being said, under the scenario you propose ... if one stretcher held a bad person (might as well make it "Hitler") and one a good person ("Schindler" of the List), I would save the good person.

Please recall that, when Ben speaks in the book of "nothing of value" he is simultaneously saying that EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY in the whole wide world has unlimited Value, each a shining jewel in its way, both the beautiful and ugly, the good and the bad as a Treasure.

Nonetheless, in this human world, there are things of relative value. If forced to make a choice, I would save the good or seemingly innocent victim.

Gassho, J

[Joyo]

There are no "bad people" in the typical Buddhist perspective ... only victims of greed, anger and ignorance who act badly. All are victims of greed, anger and ignorance.

That being said, under the scenario you propose ... if one stretcher held a bad person (might as well make it "Hitler") and one a good person ("Schindler" of the List), I would save the good person.

Please recall that, when Ben speaks in the book of "nothing of value" he is simultaneously saying that EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY in the whole wide world has unlimited Value, each a shining jewel in its way, both the beautiful and ugly, the good and the bad as a Treasure.

Nonetheless, in this human world, there are things of relative value. If forced to make a choice, I would save the good or seemingly innocent victim.

Gassho, J

Thank you for the explanation, Jundo.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[Jishin]

Please recall that, when Ben speaks in the book of "nothing of value" he is simultaneously saying that EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY in the whole wide world has unlimited Value, each a shining jewel in its way, both the beautiful and ugly, the good and the bad as a Treasure.

Nonetheless, in this human world, there are things of relative value. If forced to make a choice, I would save the good or seemingly innocent victim.

Gassho, J

Gassho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Jishin]

... if one stretcher held a bad person (might as well make it "Hitler") and one a good person ("Schindler" of the List), I would save the good person.

There are a lot of examples out there that that could have been used in this teaching. But I think this example is a good example of skillful means by our teacher (even more so for someone with my background whose grandparents lived in Berlin about the time of WWII)

Gassho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Kyonin]

Hi guys.

This is another topic that really hit the spot in me. Especially today when I was chanting the Heart Sutra.

Emptiness is no other than form...

Objects in the universe are there. They exist and are part of a huge system that we can't even begin to understand. It us, in our eternal need of relating to and learning about what surrounds us, who create labels and qualities for everything.

All things are naturally empty of meaning. But when we create values, then things get an identity and we can relate to them.

But what if we let go of values and just be part of the system? For a few moments that's what happens while sitting zazen. We drop values, labels and mental crap we usually add to things.

This morning I sat with that and I felt liberated. Free if only for an instant.

Now I have no idea if it all makes sense... Need to sit more with this

Gassho,

Kyonin
#SatToday

[Kaishin]

Thank you, Risho as always. Your mention of MLK Jr reminded me of one of my favorite quotes of his. It still gives me chills every time I read it. And I think its message of courage in the midst of death is very apropos to our practice:

"Deep down in our non-violent creed is the conviction there are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they're worth dying for. And if a man happens to be 36-years-old, as I happen to be, some great truth stands before the door of his life--some great opportunity to stand up for that which is right.
A man might be afraid his home will get bombed, or he's afraid that he will lose his job, or he's afraid that he will get shot, or beat down by state troopers, and he may go on and live until he's 80. He's just as dead at 36 as he would be at 80, and the cessation of breathing in his life is merely the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. He died... A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.
So we're going to stand up amid horses. We're going to stand up right here in Alabama, amid the billy-clubs. We're going to stand up right here in Alabama amid police dogs, if they have them. We're going to stand up amid tear gas!
We're going to stand up amid anything they can muster up, letting the world know that we are determined to be free!"

You can do what's right and live your life fully with courage, or you might as well be a walking ghost.

I think I'm still more ghost than human sometimes. Maybe that's why I practice.
Thanks,
Matt

[Ansan]

In Shitou's grass hut, he says there is nothing of value. In reading this, I asked myself if there really isn't anything of value.

There is a relative value of most things that we consider important in our lives. Certainly our own life is primarily of value. Without that, there is nothing, if we are existentialists. But while alive, there is one thing that has the highest value, because without it, there is nothing of value. That one thing is the mind.

While reading an article in the latest issue of the New Yorker, I realized how very important meditation, specifically Zazen, is. The article is about a woman who suffers from Encephalitis. The article strikes home for me especially because I am an artist too as she is. Once a professional illustrator, she no longer creates but continues to draw but they are meaningless graphs and patterns that she produces in proliferation daily. She remembers nothing. After brushing her teeth, she asks if it is time to brush her teeth again.

Our mind has value of the highest order, and is the most essential element in our lives. If our bodies are destroyed, we are dead. If our minds are gone, we are essentially dead. The mindless body is like my computer that is very squirrelly. While it is still functioning (like a body), it cannot complete tasks that, in its perfect (this can be qualified) condition performs as it should. But without certain capabilities (such the equivalence of a computer brain), it does not function reliably. My computer is just about useless to me as it is. Its value is relatively nil.

The mind, in its normal, healthy state of cognition, is of prime value to the individual (priceless, if we would consider talking about its monetary value). But that mind needs a rest, as does the body, in order to function properly. In Zazen, we rest the mind. Living in the present tense, we rest the mind. It regains its balance. And this increases its value.

I realize this is not what Shitou is referring to in the Grass Hut. The mind IS the grass hut. And metaphorically, nothing else is of value to the mind that is the mind. The mind at rest.

Gassho,
Ansan

#SatToday

[AlanLa]

I am late getting in here, but I have to tell you an unfinished story that I think totally fits with the grass hut metaphor.

Scene 1: I met a girl. We have been in a sort of bumpy orbit for about two years, as in we keep bumping into each other. During all this time, it turns out we were very aware of each other, but we only just actually met in a real sense very recently. It was a very powerful meeting. There is a very clear connection between us, and we both see it. She is very outgoing and dynamic with a physical beauty and personal magnetism about her that attracts lots of activity, adventure, and relationships. I, being the lonely, not beautiful, and getting too old to be adventurous sort, to be very self-deprecating about it, do not attract the kinds of activity that she does. But there is clearly something there for us.

Scene 2: My Buddhist practice has clearly permeated my life to the point that from the moment we met I knew she was impermanent. Circumstances in our lives prohibit that, and I am perfectly fine with that. I even encourage her moving on because of my practice perspective. We have only a small window of time to explore this connection we share, and she seems willing to explore it with me. BUT because I am the lonely sort, I immediately created a grass hut with her in it, and then I got very attached to this idea of her and I in this grass hut. Sure, our hut will go away, but at least we will have this time together. Such was my delusion that I sat with, and it was terrible.

Scene 3: It occurs to me during zazen that we haven't even grown any grass yet to make a hut. There are seeds, and they seem to be sprouting, but the future of our grass is very unknown at this point. Will there ever even be a hut? Who knows? On this sunny day here I realize that our grass needs time and fertilizer, and patience is part of my practice.

My point is you need grass to make a hut, and practice is what grows your grass.
Thank you for listening

[Nindo]

There's always grass Alan. Bring a blanket and have a picnic. Enjoy the company. Forget the hut. Forget the labels and dualities.
Wishing you good times together.

Gassho
Nindo
sattoday

[AlanLa]

Thank you. She is practice. She is a teacher.
As is all the grass that we grow with time and fertilizing practice.
BTW, the way I see it, Shitou's hut was made out of practicing grass.

[Jinyo]

Love the first line of the poem. It's like the breathing in and out of a gentle meditative breath.

'I've built a grass hut- - in breath .... where's there's nothing of value.' - out breath.

Even if we've just read the whole poem through once - that first line naturally equates to the mind. I don't tend to think on 'where's there's nothing of value' as primarily equating to
material objects.

But sometimes we do confuse our minds as a material object that we attach great value to - after all it's full of our attachments and desires and aversions. We want to greedily hold onto it!

Shitou offers us another possibility. Build a place of no value - where the heart can be open. If the heart is open to compassion 'good' judgements, ethics, naturally emerge. We don't have to
lay down our ability to prioritize.

I find just reciting the first line of the poem gives me an anchor and returns me to base.

Gassho

Willow

sat today

[Jika]

But sometimes we do confuse our minds as a material object that we attach great value to

Gassho,
Danny
#sattoday