Grass Hut - 21 - "Unsurpassable"

[Jundo]

Dear All,

We now move to the latter portion of Chapter 16, "The Foundations of Freedom: Unsurpassable".

- Any Big Words this week ... on Buddhism, Zen, here at Treeleaf, somewhere else, on any matter ... that truly moved you this week?

- Take a quick, unimportant, mundane and monotonous task of everyday ... something like putting the key in the door ... and without thoughts, sense the Unsurpassable. Then, using words (as best one can manage) briefly describe here how the task was different this time.

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Joyo]

Thank you, Jundo. These words moved me....

"The way we practice Zen is to put the emphasis on letting go of words, on sitting meditation that allows the mind to see words come and go and frees up some space between them, and on complete nonverbal attention to simple tasks, like putting the key in the door to your house"

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[ForestDweller]

I've been thinking a lot lately about routine and what an amazing practice it is. Many people hate routine and are constantly looking for distractions from it. I've come to see routine as the gateway to freedom. By "making a habit" of the most important priorities (relationships, zazen, spiritual study, for example), we are guaranteed that we will move forward in our most critical areas of development. Once routines are established, we can afford deviations from them for unexpected priorities; then we can snap right back to the framework that guides our lives. That realization has been mundane but practice-nurturing for me lately. ^^ForestDwellerSatToday^^ - CatherineS

[Nindo]

This part of the Fukanzazengi has always touched me:

Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep, you stumble past what is directly in front of you.

Still, I will wander off to the mountains this weekend and hope I won't misstep

Gassho
Nindo
sattoday

[Kaishin]

The other night, I was playing with our dog in the backyard. I looked at the sky and for a moment was struck by the Unsurpassable - something transcendent, peaceful. Everything just-as-it-is. An amazing clarity.

Then I was snapped out of it in pain, as the dog bit my hand trying to get the Frisbee from it, as I was standing there like an idiot.

-satToday

[Byrne]

All things. Just this.

It's been a rough week for me. When shit gets real, I utter those words to myself and for a moment at least, I've been finding a bit of clarity and peace.

Gassho

Sat Today

[Getchi]

Hi all, my copy has finally arrived and im glad to be joining you!

Not sure if this is quite what you meant Jundo, but just recently my wife and I were arguing (which is pretty rare) when she said to me "you can be right or you can be happy, which do you want to be?". I suddenly found myself shaken, so convinced was I about my "rightness" that I had stopped thinking about our shared happiness. In a microsecond my perspective shifted and I saw some of "my" conditioned response as not being anything "me" at all. I almost cried I was so happy to be able to recognise it and act in a way "I" would want to be.

Picking up my childrens shoes and putting them in the cupboard, felt kind of like that warm feeling knowing that this is one of those rare precious moments that all our life is made of. Picking up and putting away, I know one day I would give anything to be able to do that for them again. It was perfect and subtle and complete. Im grateful to feel that now, when we are all so young. I dont really have the words for this lol




Gassho
Geoff
SatToday

[Jeremy]

"Bah humbug!"

"If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "Every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding. He should!"

ST

[AlanLa]

I leave my house every day looking straight ahead on my way to my car, maybe I look around for the dog to check that she's okay, but I am going, moving somewhere with a very clear goal in mind. I get to my car and open the door and begin to get in and my eyes go up and I see the sky and... I am gone. I can be gone like this from seconds to minutes at a time. I have been so gone that people have asked if I was okay or needed help. This doesn't happen every day or only with certain types of sky (though some more than others), and it's not a seizure because when it happens, I am there at the car in the sky with the trees and the breeze as everything. And when it's over I get in the car and go on about my business. It's not a big deal at all, and I never thought of it as being "unsurpassable" or spiritual or transcendent in anyway because I haven't really put any words to it at all. It's just something that happens. Now that I've read this chapter and answered Jundo's question about it, it's probably ruined.
Damn

Oh well, moving on. I am sometimes moved by the moon at night when I am out walking the dog. There are times when it's in just the right place at the right time in the right phase that it's so beautiful it just stops me in my tracks so I can linger and look at it until the dog starts pulling at me. This is nothing like above; this is pure gawking. Other times it's just there doing it's usual moon business. Regardless, I almost always greet it with, "Hello, Buddha." On our first retreat Jundo had a dharma talk where he described how we are all buddhas and also made out out moon stuff, thus the moon is also buddha (okay, that's the very short version of a much longer and bigger talk, but you get the point), and I have always been moved by that, so I say hello.