Book of Equanimity - Introduction

[Jigetsu]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - INTRODUCTION

I've been eagerly awaiting to start this book!

[Kaishin]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - INTRODUCTION

_/_

Looking forward to it!

[AlanLa]

Latecomer alert. I can't get the video to work. When I click on it above it says that the server cannot be found, so maybe that's a Treeleaf 2.0 issue? I have heard Jundo talk about koans in our Soto tradition before so I have an idea of the content, but it would be good to be on the same first page, so I tried another way. That first post mentions it is part of a zazenkai, but I went back to those and click on any of the videos I get a message saying they are private. So I am not sure what all is going on there.

As for why I am such a latecomer, as if anyone cares.... When the announcement came out about koan study with this book, I thought about, thought about it, and thought about it some more. I decided that I wasn't interested, wasn't interested, and wasn't interested some more. I think enough as it is, too much and too often (Jundo and Taigu remind me from time to time about this), as just my thinking about the possibility of koan thinking aptly demonstrates. So I kept dismissing it, but it kept nagging at me. Then I happened to check one of the threads and it reminded me of the dharma transmission books we read, which I really liked and got a lot out of, so I changed my mind and here I am. Maybe I can learn to think differently, or maybe it will help my practice, or both, or neither. See, thinking too much already

I fully and completely understand and support the closing if old threads so that latecomers like me don't distract from the progression of the chapters. I will read and catch up to those on my own, as instructed.

[Dosho]

Alan,

I believe the 2.0 conversion added an extra "http" in the link address. If you get rid of that, perhaps that will help. Take out "http//" and leave the "http://"

As for the video, I get the same message, so I'm as in the dark on that one as you.

Gassho,
Dosho

[Jundo]

Hi Al,

See if the links are linking now. Yes, a "technical non-difficulty" with longer links not working after the move here.

Also, the threads for Koans earlier than our most recent two are closed, simply to keep everyone focused on about the same Koans, and not have the threads jumping back and forth due to late folks like you!

However, one is never early or late! Jump in! Feel free to reflect on the earlier Koans privately, or you can write Taigu and me if you wish.

Gassho, Jundo

[AlanLa]

Now the link above directs me to a page that says the Treeleaf forum is at the new address but that's all. Also, I cannot get zazenkai video for 6/9 and back ("This video is private."), but the most recent ones from that date do work. So progress in a non-progress sort of way has been made.

Also, the threads for Koans earlier than our most recent two are closed, simply to keep everyone focused on about the same Koans, and not have the threads jumping back and forth due to late folks like you!

Yeah, I get it and support it. But, just to be difficult, wouldn't it be sort of a koan to have people jumping from koan to koan? Sort of like the ultimate koan?

Speaking of the ultimate koan, it seems to me that maybe the purpose of koans is to help us to accept that not everything has to make sense. But isn't logic a form of conditioned thought? Thus the purpose of koans is to break us out of such conditioning. For example, disability (my specialty) is often viewed as the result of bad karma and reincarnation issues to evil demons and such, even in today's modern times. But that's just a faulty logic system to replace the much harder to understand, "It is what it is, nothing more nothing less, dharma as dharma" characteristic that is constructed into existence by social conditioning. By the way, this would be my answer to case #1 (see how this latecomer snuck that in there ). I'll post something about that legless issue in case #6 in the appropriate place

[Jundo]

Speaking of the ultimate koan, it seems to me that maybe the purpose of koans is to help us to accept that not everything has to make sense. But isn't logic a form of conditioned thought?

Hi Alan,

Koans "make sense" and are "logical". Otherwise if they truly meant nothing, were simply a rejection of things having to make sense, and were simply absurdest, folks would not have bothered to write them, work with them, comment on them for hundreds of years. However, it is simply not our ordinary sense and divided logic, but a Sense and Logic that must be pierced.

Here is the broken link, now fixed. Please have a listen and let it listen.

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?9652-SIT-A-LONG-with-Jundo-Koan-Misunderstandings-Koan-Dogma

Gassho, J

[Mp]

Thank you for this teaching Jundo. I have ordered the book The Book Of Equanimity: Illuminating Classic Zen Koans and will drive into it when it arrives.

Gassho,
Michael

[AlanLa]

Yes, the link works now, and yes I understand that koans make sense in their own way. My point, poorly expressed, was that koan sense might just be another form of conditioned thought, a zennie form of conditioning, and that one of the purposes of koans is to help us let go of that traditional sense of logic that we have. In other words, they can help us see the other side of the logic coin, so to speak. Anyway, I will shut up now and go explore that working link.

[Daitetsu]

Just loved the introduction, thanks a lot for all your effort!
This really gave me a new perspective on this topic, as I had only known the typical Rinzai koan work.
I am going to order the book and give it a try...

Gassho,

Timo