Grass Hut - 37 - "One Taste"

[Jundo]

Dear All,

Without obstruction, we come to Chapter 30 ... One Taste/Are Only To Free You From Obstructions ...

Has this Practice helped you find freedom in and as (not only from) obstructions? How?

What do you think I might means by "in and as (not only from) obstructions"?

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Risho]

Dear All,

Without obstruction, we come to Chapter 30 ... One Taste/Are Only To Free You From Obstructions ...

Has this Practice helped you find freedom in and as (not only from) obstructions? How?

What do you think I might means by "in and as (not only from) obstructions"?

Gassho, J

SatToday

This practice has helped me in a lot ways. One way in particular has to do with anger. I really don’t like when things don’t go my way, and I still get angry. But I’m better able to drop the anger and laugh it off. I’m more able to see the bigger picture. Here’s an example: we recently bought a new TV, and within a couple of weeks a blue line right down the middle! It really didn’t bother me much; I think prior to practice, I would have really let this get to me. But I sort of joked about it. There’s war and violence and poverty; how in the world could I be angry about a broken TV? It’s a luxury to just be able to own a TV or have the time to watch a TV. Or when my wife and I get into little arguments; I just start laughing when I catch myself grasping too much. Prior to practice, I would have boiled for hours, but now the anger comes and it goes.

In obstructions, I think is a very cool way of putting it. Just like Jundo teaches and Ben states, and the Heart Sutra states (“Nirvana is here and now”) and practice teaches, the only reason things appear as “obstructions” is because we feel separated. I come into situations with expectations. That’s a healthy and human way of doing things. It’s normal, but what isn’t normal is not being able to see the expectations for what they, just models you create in your mind to help you do something. Being able to see reality separate from those expectations, to not grasp them so tightly, and to be able to adjust without adding any vitriol from our thoughts, speech or action is a healthier mode of living that Zen provides. Most of the time, these “obstructions” are not a big deal.

In the Heart Sutra, we chant "No suffering, nor cause or end to suffering". But there is also suffering, yet maybe there is no suffering if we do not separate, if stop wanting things to be other than they are. Perhaps the Heart Sutra could substitute the word "suffering" for "obstruction". There are obstructions, but there are also no obstructions from another perspective, and if we can pierce through obstruction/no-obstruction that is something very special. Then that is being, acting, living right here, right now! Not living through a filter, just living or maybe just...

Going back to putting things in perspective, have you ever been in a crazy traffic jam, and you get angry because “traffic should not be as it is right now; it should be going faster”? You finally come to the source, and maybe there’s an ambulance with families sitting on the side of the road. They no longer have vehicles, some of them may be going to the hospital, someone may have lost their life. All of a sudden, what obstruction? That's an extreme example, but really what obstruction anyway? When ideas of loss and gain are dropped, that's living in the obstruction, that's living in life. Not a life of ideas, but a life of what's here and now.

Obstructions are an entryway into practice where we do realize they are not obstructions at all. I feel like practice has expanded my view. Oh yeah, I blow up, and I have a contracted view of things, grasping, etc, but I can see it; I can drop the pettiness. That’s a real magic to this practice; it just shows how selfish I can be, but instead of feeling guilty, you open to that selfishness and let that in too without pushing or pulling, feeding it or pushing it away/feeling shame.

It’s by facing these things that we can grow beyond them, relate to others who also have the same pettiness and realize that these negative things shouldn’t be used as value judgments against others. We realize that other people are just trying to be happy too, and they/like we often act out of habit, which often times does more harm than good. It’s like the parable of the boats floating in the water. Here comes a boat, and it’s going to ram into your boat, and you don’t like it, and you get really, really angry. But once it hits you, you realize it’s empty.

Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

[pinoybuddhist]

Today at lunch my daughter was not in a good mood (major understatement!). She's been sick for several days, and she was hungry AND sleepy, which made her cranky. She kept crying the whole time. I caught myself wishing things weren't so, caught myself wanting to be somewhere else, somewhere and someWHEN else: in a moment of happy lunch with nonsick noncranky daughter who laughed and behaved and felt the way I wanted her to. And I remembered the very last line of Shitou's poem: Don't separate from this skin bag here and now. Don't try to escape into the fantasy of "I wish things were different". And that was what I was trying to do: escape. Separate from skinbag-moment-child. So I took a breath and I let the fantasy go.

Samsara cannot be escaped from. But it is in samsara that we attain freedom. Nirvana is already here. So we stay here. We stay with obstructions and maybe on the one hand we try to do what we can to deal with them, - on the other hand, what obstructions? The lotus of freedom blooms in the mud of obstructions.

Gassho,
Raf
Sat today

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[Shinzan]

One thought helps me with the many everyday obstructions: "Wow, they wouldn't be acting like that unless they were in a lot of pain........"
Helps me attune to the sensations of pain in their body, as well as the pain in me. The "wow" part helps me slow down to listen more slowly.

Just sayin' _/st\_ Shinzan

[Getchi]

Dear All,

Without obstruction, we come to Chapter 30 ... One Taste/Are Only To Free You From Obstructions ...

Has this Practice helped you find freedom in and as (not only from) obstructions? How?

What do you think I might means by "in and as (not only from) obstructions"?

Gassho, J

SatToday

Hoping this makes sens;

What do you think I might means by "in and as (not only from) obstructions"?

This practice has given me the legitimacy to practice in real life what I previously thought was true and beneficial to all sentient beings. Maybe the Dharma Gate is closer then our noses? I think you might means that we need to stop thinking, and start being.

I practiced other Dharma Traditions before, but none gave the initimacy of, and space for, my humanity that this does.

How can we be different to our frustration, our anger , our fear? And when could we ever be wrong?


SatToday
Geoff.

[AlanLa]

I have lived where I am now for longer than anywhere in my adult life. The job I have now I have held longer than any other job in my life. This sounds so stable, yet I have applied for a new job that would involve moving far away. Why? My obstructions are that very stability. I am restless, a bit tired of the same old, looking at greener grass over there. It's all in my head. If I don't get the job, I think I will be fine staying where I am. The crisis will pass, and I can rededicate myself to making the same old newer and better. If I do get the job, then I will have all sorts of new challenges, so I need to be careful for what I wish for. I wrestle with the choice daily, and there won't be any resolution until sometime this spring. Until then it is obstructions as practice, as freedom because this choice provides great fodder for practice. My old self would be running away as fast as I could and greatly disappointed if I couldn't. My new "self" recognizes the dilemma and sits with it. Everything will work out in the end, one way or another.