Grass Hut - 30 - "What Do You Depend On?"

**RichardH** · 10-04-2015, 04:43 PM

I have no idea.

But bullshit is going to rise anyway.....and i need to say I know that everything called "I, me, and mine" is not mine, and that every fiber of this body and mind belongs to "the world" or "that" or whatever... dissolving without remainder and that "I" am baseless and have nothing to hold, and having nothing to hold there is letting go and forgetting, and in letting go and forgetting something fearless and sovereign is born.

Just a burst of words from standing and painting all day. Joyful Nonsense

Gassho
Daizan
Sat today.... Standing too.

**Myosha** · 10-04-2015, 05:58 PM

Originally posted by Jundo

Hi,

How does one "depend" on such which is never apart and is all around ... something which cannot be "leaned on", because "never faced or turned away"?

Gassho, J

Hello,

Don't know.

Gassho
Myosha sat today

Mp · 10-04-2015, 06:53 PM

Wonderful, thank you Jundo. =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

**Jishin** · 10-05-2015, 03:03 AM

Hi,

It depends on who you ask.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

**ForestDweller** · 10-06-2015, 06:48 PM

Well, of course, I don't know either, but words will out! As we tread water, we just have to try to explain. So here goes. The "dependence" to me is a feeling of free-fall, letting go backwards without seeing what is underneath, and absolutely knowing that the falling will continue forever as will the raising up with a thousand hands. I'm struck that our interdependency so often manifests as reciprocity. We know on every level that we rely on others and on space/time itself, but we're often quite busy with our own dramas of the day that we forget how absolutely not-independent we are. Still, we know, and so comes the reciprocity -- the greetings when we encounter one another, the return dinner invitations, the letting the other driver go first, and on and on. If we look closely, we are always giving and being given to. We are in relationship, like it or not, with all that is. Like the fish swimming in her watery home, we are mostly unaware of this reciprocal atmosphere, yet we practice it, even "lean on it," time and time again. It is how we say to one another, "I am here, too." "I see you." "I fear I will suffer; therefore, I wish that you not suffer." "I hope for happiness; thus, I wish for your happiness." Is this not the genesis of "right view" and "right intention"? Is this not the impetus for compassion and generosity? ^^ForestSatToday^^ CatherineS

**ForestDweller** · 10-06-2015, 06:50 PM

Jishin, really? ^^ForestSatToday^^ CatherineS

**Jishin** · 10-06-2015, 06:58 PM

Originally posted by ForestDweller

Jishin, really? ^^ForestSatToday^^ CatherineS

Are you asking me or me?

Gassho, Jishin, ST

**Rich** · 10-06-2015, 08:55 PM

I rely on the will to be present, the will to live. Otherwise I would never return from my dreams and delusions. It's a mystery because I don't really know what it is and if it's fabricated I had to do it to live.

Thanks Catherine, always enjoy how you describe things.
Jishin, I call that me and mini me. 😊 -)

SAT today

**Risho** · 10-07-2015, 04:25 PM

By dropping the separation. Zazen has taught me how distracted I am, and I like the distraction. Sometimes, I do almost anything to avoid "now". So sitting, settling are very good practices for me. Rich, I like how you put "I would never return from my dreams and delusions." They are so tasty and inviting! hahahaha

Catherine: ditto for what Rich said.

Gassho,

Risho

**Jika** · 10-08-2015, 07:11 AM

I agree with Daizan. Only put it upside down.

My approach (resulting from personal experience before meeting Zen or Buddhism) would be, that usually we perceive of ourselves as depending on or up-on conditions.

Like standing on Eiffel tower, looking down, and being amazed how this was constructed, built, is being maintained, not simply keels over.

Having ever been to the ground, there is forgetting, and a vastness that is carrying everything, without discrimination.
Then layers can be added to vastness, like layers of paint, Daizan, maybe, making an "I", making distinctions, making thoughts and plans.

So I depend on many things, like carrying my meds around and making sure they don't run out.
While depending on nothing.
Crazy gap.
I'm only approaching to see things mix.

Gassho,
Danny
#sattoday

**Jundo** · 10-08-2015, 04:36 PM

I came across a lovely passage by Homeless Kodo Sawaki (from the amazing book "Commentary on the Song of Awaking" ... more about that book in the near future) ...

Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Commentary-Song-Awakening-Kodo-Sawaki/dp/1937385612

... in which he comments (in his often rough and salty, but also sublime way) on this "Buddha" upon which we rely but which cannot be found ...

Gassho, J SatToday

----------------

To put it another way, it is not in seeking Buddha that we will find him. He will be there when you have ceased searching for him, when you are no longer anything other than one with him and you have forgotten him, when you've stopped forcing your poor incompetent brain to function and you go to the dojo to practice under a master to understand that which cannot be explained in words.

When I was a young monk, I often asked for explanations, and they always answered that one cannot talk about it. Now I know that one says nothing. However, there's a big difference between saying nothing and not being able to talk about it. When I was young, I got myself entrapped once by an old sake brewer with an audacious and innovative spirit. One day he asked me, "Sawaki, what's zen?" I answered, "You can't explain it with words." Then he said to me, "It's the same for sake. I studied physics and chemistry and research on the fermentation of alcohol. Now I apply my knowledge and I make good sake. I can explain the technique of manufacture, but that's not sufficient. One can explain only that which is explicable. In addition to that, there's all that one cannot explain with words. It's in doing this that one understands." This intelligent man had given me a good lesson. What cannot be spoken can be expressed otherwise. Even a mute can express himself when its a question of a physical experience.

No matter what quantity of words is absorbed by those who don't practice with their bodies, it will all come to nothing. Consequently, if you seek the Buddha without practicing, you cannot find him. You can
neither visualize him，nor call out to him，nor seize him with the mind, nor seek here or there. So Buddha，where are you? Where are you?

The master with whom I practiced when I was young once said to me, "You're like a person with shit on his nose asking everyone else ''Who farted? Who farted?"" He said this to me because I was extremely eager to get satori or find the Buddha. Sotoba [the poet] spoke in more poetic terms:

Drizzling rain on Mt. Lu The waves of the Zhe river.
Before visiting there, I felt discontented in many ways.
Having visited there and returned,
There is nothing special.
Drizzling rain on Mt. Lu.
The waves of the Zhe river.
We go to seek very far away that which has always been near.

**Risho** · 10-08-2015, 05:09 PM

Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

Mp · 10-08-2015, 05:55 PM

Lovely Jundo, thank you ... look forward to hearing more about this book by Sawaki Kodo. =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

**Joyo** · 10-09-2015, 01:45 PM

I have some reading to catch up on! Thank you, Jundo.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today