Let's see what we have in the Storehouse ...
We will take a little intermission from "The Zen Master's Dance," and in a couple of weeks, will begin the great Homeless Kodo's "Too You" ...
... but in between, I would like to invite everyone to some more Koan play in the playground of the Book of Equanimity (also known as the "Book of Serenity"). I encourage everyone to purchase Rev. Wick's wonderful, down to earth commentary as it is so good, well worth the read, but in the meantime a copy is available here to examine (Book page 295 here):
Today, we search through the Storehouse of Case 93 - Roso's Not Understanding:
The Preface is saying (in fancy language) something like "pearls before swine," implying that poor Roso does not recognize the Jewel (Buddha Nature, Enlightenment) that has been his all along. It refers to a story from the Lotus Sutra about a man who had a jewel sewn into his clothes but did not know it (I do that sometimes too, usually finding it at the bottom of the washing machine later.
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The Main Case:
Old Buddhist lingo often talks about Buddha Nature, or Enlightenment, as like a "wish fulfilling Jewel," for when one realizes that one is the universe, it is hard to lack and desire anything in the universe since one already is and has everything in the universe. So, what more might one wish for?
The rest of the Koan talks about the "Storehouse," but I actually think that Rev. Wick is a bit off base here. Other commentaries I have looked at, including by Rev. Wick's own teacher, disagree, and I agree with their disagreement!
Rev. Wick relates this to the "Storehouse Consciousness," an important Yogachara Buddhist teaching that describes basically how data comes through each of our senses from the outside world, then meets another part of our consciousness which creates the fundamental sense of a "self/other" divide between ourself and the rest of the universe. On top of that is the Storehouse Consciousness which basically holds the seeds (good, bad and neutral) produced by our past Karmic actions, and those seeds perfume and color how we perceive life and where it is likely to go from here (You might think of those in modern terms as something like our memories and inherited or developed psychological tendencies and proclivities which we now carry around as our psyche, between our ears, and which now color how we live. For example, we may have a tendency to extreme anger which is like a seed in our psyche, developed during our difficult childhood or in our inherited make-up, so we now live as a person who easily angers ... although we can learn to replace that angry seed with other nicer seeds, like tolerance and foregiveness.)
Actually, the other commentaries don't talk about that. Rather, they interpret the Koan as talking about the "Treasury" of enlightenment, our Buddha Nature (the same "Treasury," for example, as in the name of Master Dogen's Shobogenzo, "The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye.") THAT is the jewel that Roso has which he does not realize he has (and is)! Of course, there is a sense in which Wick's "Storehouse" and this "Treasury" are the same, because when that "self/other" divide is transcended, and the ugly seeds in the "Storehouse Consciousness" are replaced with nice seeds which lead us to act in peaceful, generous, loving ways like Buddha, then we act and encounter life like a Buddha and thus realize the Treasure that is our Buddha Nature! However, I rather feel that Rev. Wick's commentary could have made that clearer.
Now, in enlightenment, when the "self/other" divide is transcended, we experience a world in which there are separate things (you, me, this and that and everything), and also no separate things (because all is just wholeness.) That is the meaning, I feel, in the Koan's saying that the "give and take of you and me" is the Treasury, but so is the "no give and take."
Roso asks about the jewel, not realizing that he has the jewel ... that he and all things -is already- the jewel. So, when he asked about the jewel, the teacher called his name ("Hey, Rosso, you, dumb ass") trying to get him to realize this ... and Roso missed it, like pearls before swine.
The Appreciatory Verse says that everything is the Treasury in this divided world of you and me, right and wrong, gain and loss. In fact, it is that system of consciousnesses, including the Storehouse Consciousness, which causes us to divide the world up like that, and to start weighing and judging it, into you and me, right and wrong, gain and loss, etc. Our Zen practice, of course, is a method to leap past all the measures and divisions, even as we are still living in this world of measures and divisions.
The last lines refer to a King who bestowed treasure and an Emperor who lost a treasure, a jewel, but found it when he sent his blind advisor, named "no form," to find it. It is finding what was never lost, seeing what is not something distant to see or find somewhere distant, so a blind man who does not look for form is perfect for the job! It is something like saying that, if one is searching for silence, sending a deaf man would be appropriate, because the hearing cannot hear silence. It is a good reminder for us never to simply be intellectual about a Koan: In order to find the Jewel ourselves, we cannot merely think about where the Jewel is located, but instead must experience and fill with the fact that the Jewel is all and all is the Jewel.
The final lines about "turning the hub ... utilizing one's abilities ... musn't be negligent" probably mean something like one must be very skillful to find this Jewel that has never been lost.
QUESTION: What is the connection of our Shikantaza Zazen, in which we drop all search and goals, measures and desires except sitting itself, and finding the Treasure that cannot be found because never lost? Please explain (then, after explaining, go sit!)
Gassho, J
ST+LAH
We will take a little intermission from "The Zen Master's Dance," and in a couple of weeks, will begin the great Homeless Kodo's "Too You" ...
... but in between, I would like to invite everyone to some more Koan play in the playground of the Book of Equanimity (also known as the "Book of Serenity"). I encourage everyone to purchase Rev. Wick's wonderful, down to earth commentary as it is so good, well worth the read, but in the meantime a copy is available here to examine (Book page 295 here):
Today, we search through the Storehouse of Case 93 - Roso's Not Understanding:
The Preface is saying (in fancy language) something like "pearls before swine," implying that poor Roso does not recognize the Jewel (Buddha Nature, Enlightenment) that has been his all along. It refers to a story from the Lotus Sutra about a man who had a jewel sewn into his clothes but did not know it (I do that sometimes too, usually finding it at the bottom of the washing machine later.
)The Main Case:
Old Buddhist lingo often talks about Buddha Nature, or Enlightenment, as like a "wish fulfilling Jewel," for when one realizes that one is the universe, it is hard to lack and desire anything in the universe since one already is and has everything in the universe. So, what more might one wish for?
The rest of the Koan talks about the "Storehouse," but I actually think that Rev. Wick is a bit off base here. Other commentaries I have looked at, including by Rev. Wick's own teacher, disagree, and I agree with their disagreement!
Rev. Wick relates this to the "Storehouse Consciousness," an important Yogachara Buddhist teaching that describes basically how data comes through each of our senses from the outside world, then meets another part of our consciousness which creates the fundamental sense of a "self/other" divide between ourself and the rest of the universe. On top of that is the Storehouse Consciousness which basically holds the seeds (good, bad and neutral) produced by our past Karmic actions, and those seeds perfume and color how we perceive life and where it is likely to go from here (You might think of those in modern terms as something like our memories and inherited or developed psychological tendencies and proclivities which we now carry around as our psyche, between our ears, and which now color how we live. For example, we may have a tendency to extreme anger which is like a seed in our psyche, developed during our difficult childhood or in our inherited make-up, so we now live as a person who easily angers ... although we can learn to replace that angry seed with other nicer seeds, like tolerance and foregiveness.)
Actually, the other commentaries don't talk about that. Rather, they interpret the Koan as talking about the "Treasury" of enlightenment, our Buddha Nature (the same "Treasury," for example, as in the name of Master Dogen's Shobogenzo, "The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye.") THAT is the jewel that Roso has which he does not realize he has (and is)! Of course, there is a sense in which Wick's "Storehouse" and this "Treasury" are the same, because when that "self/other" divide is transcended, and the ugly seeds in the "Storehouse Consciousness" are replaced with nice seeds which lead us to act in peaceful, generous, loving ways like Buddha, then we act and encounter life like a Buddha and thus realize the Treasure that is our Buddha Nature! However, I rather feel that Rev. Wick's commentary could have made that clearer.
Now, in enlightenment, when the "self/other" divide is transcended, we experience a world in which there are separate things (you, me, this and that and everything), and also no separate things (because all is just wholeness.) That is the meaning, I feel, in the Koan's saying that the "give and take of you and me" is the Treasury, but so is the "no give and take."
Roso asks about the jewel, not realizing that he has the jewel ... that he and all things -is already- the jewel. So, when he asked about the jewel, the teacher called his name ("Hey, Rosso, you, dumb ass") trying to get him to realize this ... and Roso missed it, like pearls before swine.
The Appreciatory Verse says that everything is the Treasury in this divided world of you and me, right and wrong, gain and loss. In fact, it is that system of consciousnesses, including the Storehouse Consciousness, which causes us to divide the world up like that, and to start weighing and judging it, into you and me, right and wrong, gain and loss, etc. Our Zen practice, of course, is a method to leap past all the measures and divisions, even as we are still living in this world of measures and divisions.
The last lines refer to a King who bestowed treasure and an Emperor who lost a treasure, a jewel, but found it when he sent his blind advisor, named "no form," to find it. It is finding what was never lost, seeing what is not something distant to see or find somewhere distant, so a blind man who does not look for form is perfect for the job! It is something like saying that, if one is searching for silence, sending a deaf man would be appropriate, because the hearing cannot hear silence. It is a good reminder for us never to simply be intellectual about a Koan: In order to find the Jewel ourselves, we cannot merely think about where the Jewel is located, but instead must experience and fill with the fact that the Jewel is all and all is the Jewel.
The final lines about "turning the hub ... utilizing one's abilities ... musn't be negligent" probably mean something like one must be very skillful to find this Jewel that has never been lost.
QUESTION: What is the connection of our Shikantaza Zazen, in which we drop all search and goals, measures and desires except sitting itself, and finding the Treasure that cannot be found because never lost? Please explain (then, after explaining, go sit!)
Gassho, J
ST+LAH
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