Grass Hut - 8 - Who Is This Person

[Ansan]

One has not been aware of thinking using a pronoun. One will attempt awareness of such and report back. Nice experiment!

Gassho
Ansan

SatToday

[Jinyo]

Neat - will try and report back.

Gassho

Willow

sat today

[Byrne]

Jundo,

This exercise has been amazing. Removing the I and me from the thoughts caused me to consider the wider scope of the feelings I was having. Thinking "Feelings of irritation" rather than "I'm feeling irritated" had me thinking about the chain of events and feelings that led me to that state. It's as if the "I" was anchoring the sentiment down, making it difficult to see beyond the immediate experience. What was even more revealing is when I removed the "you", "he", and "she" from my dealings with other people. My wife wasn't feeling well yesterday and was a bit irritable. She got a little snappy and instead of thinking "she's irritated" I just thought "irritation" separate from her or me. Some of the causes for the feeling suddenly became very clear and obvious. I started to talk to her with that perspective in mind and both her and my irritation started to dissipate pretty quickly. It brought out a compassionate side in me and her as well. I'm going to keep trying this out in different situations.

I used to tour Japan and Taiwan every year with a punk band. I studied the Japanese language a bit and got a very very very basic grasp of the mentality that goes along with how the language is structured. Doing this exercise I wondered if perhaps English's need for pronoun is actually a boon to this exercise. Since we aren't used to not using them, taking them away seems to change the meaning of the statements. But from practicing it, the meaning hasn't changed at all. The meaning of the feeling is the same, but not being distracted by the pronoun reveals how unfixed and impermanent the feelings are. The context of an experience is expanded beyond my own selfishness. Thank you very much for this. I'm very excited to see what I else I discover.

Jundo, do you think Japanese speaking people experience something similar from not using pronouns like we do? Or is the implication of the self in the grammar is as much a hindrance as using them?

Gassho

Sat Today

[Jundo]

Jundo, do you think Japanese speaking people experience something similar from not using pronouns like we do? Or is the implication of the self in the grammar is as much a hindrance as using them?

Gassho

Sat Today

Hmmm. Well, Japanese society is certainly more group oriented, and individuals tend to assert their independence and personal needs/wants less. That is certainly reflected throughout the Japanese language.

Gassho, J

[Rich]

This is related.
SAT today

Desire for Fame





The problem of “I, my, me” mind is that it looks for happiness but finds only temporary satisfaction. It is unstable, weak and easy to destroy by external, impermanent circumstances. Fame easily becomes infamy. Success easily becomes defeat. Attachment to and constant desire for them make our minds crazy, never satisfied and always hurting others.

That's why Buddhism instructs us to meditate correctly and get insight into this old “I, my, me” habit. It is originally empty and doesn’t exist outside the deluded mind. When we realize its emptiness and delusion, desire for fame—and all other desires as well—lose their power and control over our lives. Dissatisfaction turns into complete mind. Our true self doesn’t need any acclaim or applause. It is always here and now, present and ready to help and love others. Then all beings reflect and return our love, and we are already bodhisattva celebrities without even knowing or being concerned about it. That’s correct fame!


Excerpt from Desire for Fame: Unsurpassed Humility by Andrzej Piotrowski JDPSN

[Ansan]

When I first tried to replace "me, my, I, myself" with "one," it felt very odd and, stiff, like a Victorian elitist. I went to bed with that. I don't normally say my thoughts out loud, but I found it easier to do so. Fortunately, my husband removed his hearing aids. "One is tired", I said, trying out various phrases. Then "tired." Sleep is a wonderful erasure of small-minded thoughts as well as an enhancer. I awoke to realizing that letting go of the attachment to self in this manner was extraordinarily liberating. One began speaking to Panda, Bamboo and Retes, the animals in the household. Listening to the sound of the voice as one fed them, one became even more aware of the present. Writing like this is disconcerting but the experiment is working. In preparation for Zazen, "one is just sitting" became a very powerful mantra. This experiment resounded especially because of the current reading from "Opening the Hand of Thought" by Uchiyama Roshi.

The use of "the" instead of "my" has the same effect. Recently, "my" computer has been deleterious, promoting thought provocation and irritation. When "my" was replaced with "the", the computer no longer was a threat. It was just an it. One realizes that so much of the mind's secretions (Uchiyama's usage of that word is effective and memorable) are empty and loses all power. One feels clumsy at first but when it retreats to the thought process only, perhaps then one won't feel too inhibited with words. Perhaps the usage of Kanji without Kana and Hiragana might be the reason that pronouns are not used and are so effective as ideograms.

Yes, it is softening the fixed personal self. Softening as in becoming but not yet there.

Gassho for this teaching,
Ansan

SatToday

[Jika]

One has a text translation problem over here...

When Ben is quoting the "not me, not mine, not myself" advice, what is the difference between "me" and "myself"?
I can only come up with translations as an emphasize of "me, in person" ("Please, don't try it without me, I want to see it myself!").
Probably not necessary to get each word to see what the whole thing is about.
But then, would be interesting to understand the detail.
One is hoping "my" train won't be late.

Gassho,
Danny
#sattoday

[KellyRok]

This one is a slow learner, needing time to truly let things trickle and sink in. One feels this activity should be worked on for a whole week.

Shall keep one posted...

Gassho,
Kelly/Jinmei

[Nindo]

When Ben is quoting the "not me, not mine, not myself" advice, what is the difference between "me" and "myself"?

Me = Ich
myself = Selbst
??

Gassho
Nindo

[Byrne]

I don't want to get into any political debates, but for all y'all in other countries, there are very violent protests in Baltimore MD right now over an endemic problem of police violence against black people. The media and many people are watching the footage and saying, "Those people are committing violence" and I'm seeing that what would be better is if people watched it and said, "There is violence." Without the personality attached to the act, we are prompted to ask why and consider what is happening from more than one narrow perspective and inject a little much need compassion and humanity to a debate that sparks intense emotions. Looking only at the specific people is such a distraction from the real pain and suffering that is happening.

This is turning out to be a very profound lesson.

Gassho

Sat Today

[Ongen]

What a charming experiment. One will participate.

Gassho

Ongen
Sat today


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ernstguitar]

Hi Byrne,

I don't want to get into any political debates, but for all y'all in other countries, there are very violent protests in Baltimore MD right now over an endemic problem of police violence against black people. The media and many people are watching the footage and saying, "Those people are committing violence" and I'm seeing that what would be better is if people watched it and said, "There is violence." Without the personality attached to the act, we are prompted to ask why and consider what is happening from more than one narrow perspective and inject a little much need compassion and humanity to a debate that sparks intense emotions. Looking only at the specific people is such a distraction from the real pain and suffering that is happening.

yes, I agree (the austrian self :-))

and I would like to ask you something,
Jundo: "could you put in the text from the book you are discussing? I do not get the book in german. So I just have an idea of the text you are speaking."

The "I" is an idea, without that......"I try to do the experiment" is an Experiment with the I. There are a few significant intuitions: borderless, ego-less (nothing to show others), boundless (there is just one reason we´re alive: giving, but also like mentioned before: no inner Dialog, or not so loud.

Gassho,
Ernst

sat today

[pinoybuddhist]

Hmmm. Well, Japanese society is certainly more group oriented, and individuals tend to assert their independence and personal needs/wants less. That is certainly reflected throughout the Japanese language.

Gassho, J

There's also that Japanese proverb about the nail that sticks out getting hammered - an admonishment not to stand out too much.

When conversing in Japanese one gets accustomed to not using personal pronouns so one hardly notices it after a while.

Interesting thing tonight: the daughter was getting on this one's nerves so this one started asking silently "who is this that is getting irritated?" That feeling of being irritated was still there, but now it was just one of those weeds growing on the hut.

Gassho,
Raf
Sat today

[Jundo]

and I would like to ask you something,
Jundo: "could you put in the text from the book you are discussing? I do not get the book in german. So I just have an idea of the text you are speaking."

Hi Ernst,

I cannot copy the sections for many reasons, but some is available in bit and pieces at Google Reader ...

http://books.google.co.jp/books/about/Inside_the_Grass_Hut.html?id=c5BFAwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Nindo]

When Ben is quoting the "not me, not mine, not myself" advice, what is the difference between "me" and "myself"?

Hi Danny,
this is actually a standard formula that the Buddha used over and over in various sutras.
This article is a decent explanation, although not written by a Buddhist scholar. (Jaja, you knew I would dig up something, didn't you? )

Ernst, the book is available at Amazon.de. Did you mean you cannot find a German translation?

Gassho
Nindo
off to sit today