BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

[Hoyu]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Not to get semantical, and this isn't really a response to the koan because I haven't delved into it yet. But on the point of everything being sacred. I've heard that before... But for something to be posited as either sacred or mundane it has to be compared to something. For something to be considered sacred isn't it considered sacred only because of what we consider to be mundane? So if everything is sacred, and nothing is mundane, then doesn't sacred loose its meaning? You might as well say everything is mundane. Don't you need one to have the other?

_/_

Was not the blade of grass already a temple before it was pulled from the ground? If so, I think my response, had I been the Buddha, would have been to say, "Why did you just rip my temple out of the earth?"

Gassho,
Dosho

_/_ _/_ _/_

[Shugen]

BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

I have a hard time seeing "the sacred" in my work. I have an easier time seeing it in my family. But... It's all me and sometimes it's opposite.

Ron


Shugen

[Shokai]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Buddha points to earth.
One temple is erected,
One faint smile; not two.

[Jundo]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Just some non-thoughts to toss in the pot ...

Soooo, I guess it's difficult to me to find this sacredness in all things. I tend to view things as very instrumental, tools to arrive to one goal and don't pay attention to the object, to the moment.

Sometimes, if conditions are right, -alone in the woods, after plenty of zazen- I can feel it.

What does your feeling or not feeling have to do with it? Is the Sun no longer shining just because you can't see it, when it is nightime or hidden behind the clouds?

Same happens with people. A person can be a gift from the gods one day and an insufrible bastard the next one. Plus it sounds pretty difficult to thing about myself, my Buddha nature as something sacred. It activates all the alarms against selfish pride and being a pretentious snob. I know that's not the right way to interpret it, but it's difficult to convince my mind that it's just this.

Gift from the Heavens Buddha is Buddha. Insufferable Bastard Buddha is Buddha. Where does the Sun go when seen or not seen?

And I would not feel like a proud snob about being Buddha. Master Yunmen said that Buddha is just a "dried shit stick". So, when you call yourself Buddha, also please call yourself just a "dried shit stick"!

Of course, don't forget that "dried shit stick" is Sacred, a Temple, Buddha! 8)

Not to get semantical, and this isn't really a response to the koan because I haven't delved into it yet. But on the point of everything being sacred. I've heard that before... But for something to be posited as either sacred or mundane it has to be compared to something. For something to be considered sacred isn't it considered sacred only because of what we consider to be mundane? So if everything is sacred, and nothing is mundane, then doesn't sacred loose its meaning? You might as well say everything is mundane. Don't you need one to have the other?

My Teacher sometimes said that, even though in Zazen we drop all small thought of "good" or "bad", Buddhism is yet somehow an optimistic, positive view of life which mysteriously finds a subtle Good (Big "G") in putting aside all small human judgments and views of life's "good" and "bad" (nonetheless, we try to do good and not do bad). I sometimes say that one finds a Wholly Holy Wholeness, a Peace of One Piece which holds all the world's wholes and holes, peace and war, all the broken pieces of life. A Diamond (Big "D") Buddha that is both the saints and the insufferable bastards, the diamonds and dried shit. A Purity (Big "P") found when sweeping aside and sweeping in both human views of the "pure" vs. "impure", "clean" and "unclean" (yet we clean nonetheless, because nobody wants to live in a polluted world, and make a mess out of life).

Thus, "Sacred" (Big "S") may be encountered subtly right in/as/through-and-through both the human eye's images of what's "the sacred" and "the mundane".

Something like that.

Was not the blade of grass already a temple before it was pulled from the ground? If so, I think my response, had I been the Buddha, would have been to say, "Why did you just rip my temple out of the earth?"

But how can this Wholeness be torn? Pulling grass, pulling weeds ... nothing ever pulled apart. But if you don't take some action to build the temple, it will never get built! :shock:

If you leave the grass where it grows, that is the Temple. If you leave the weeds where they grow, that is the Temple. No need to do anything to make the Temple the Temple. Nonetheless, we do our best to pull life's weeds and nurture the rest, otherwise the Temple cannot be built. As Kojip said ...

"Ultimately" it is all sacred. But just nodding to that won't do. ... How to live both the perfection of everything "as such" including both "bad" and "good".. while honoring good as good and bad as bad?

Yes, EVERYTHING is the Temple, the Sun, Buddha, Sacred ... but yet we must build the Temple each day by our words, thoughts and actions.

Just some non-thoughts to toss in the pot.

Gassho, J

[Jinyo]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

life is our temple - and it is a vast space. Is all of this space sacred?

The difficulty I have is that the temple I experience is not an 'open' space - there are many rooms,
long corridors, spaces filled with light and shade - and sometimes what seems like total darkness.

We have been on holiday the past 2 weeks. Holidays are a mixed affair - odd trips out to the coast or into the
lovely countryside here - with days of recouperation inbetween - as I can't physically sustain. I find this diffficult
- a reminder that my life is very circumscribed by illness.

Yesterday - we went in search of wild flowers - the fields and hegerows are amazing just now. One field looked as
though it had been snowed upon - but it was the white tips of hundreds of white daisies about to bloom. It's easy to feel the sacred
in these situations.

But later - lying in my bedroom - feeling really sick - that's the challenge. Yet I know that this too is also sacred - not pretty, not nice -
pretty shitty really, but part of the fabric of life.

Later - an email from a friend whose father has died - and whose husband is battling cancer. Another room in the temple - where we learn empathy,
consideration, care and concern.


Gassho

Willow

[Heisoku]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

"....But yet we must build the temple each day with our words, thoughts and actions."

'Who is this person who can be master in any place and meet the source in everything?'

The only way is to be the way, to be pure presence, surely?
That is harder! Leaving all traces of differentiation aside, just being, but not getting caught in the sacred or mundane... And I am still caught in this!

Hixon writes in his Mother of the Buddhas," The enlightened and enlightening art of the bodhisattva is to move in the transparent sphere of conventional characteristics and harmoniously functioning causality, while remaining totally merged in the signless and causelessness of sheer Reality." p149.

So the last words in case 4 are so encouraging for me!
'Everywhere life is sufficient. Just be who you are, and don't restrict it.'

[Thane]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Hi folks
Just a quick observation Jundo this thread doesn't seem to appear under the book club tab so some people might miss it.

I enjoyed this case and i am surprised at how much i am getting from these koans. Each one has a line or two that have really helped my practice. For me the koan points out that everywhere is our temple. I particularly like the line in the appreciatory verse 'where ever you are be content with your role'. This speaks to me as i can slip into thinking some roles are easier or more comfortable to practice in than otheres. The koan is a reminder that in every
role we are in our temple.

Jundo asks the question 'What place, action or person in your life could you come to see as Sacred, one's Practice Place, the Temple, though presently hard to see as such? For me the work situation is probably the place where i can find it hardest to recognise the temple. Certain colleagues can be difficult.

Jundo i thought it was intetesting that the last sentence of the main case finished 'The World Honored One smiled faintly' Is there any significance in the Buddha only smiling faintly?

Its been great to read everyones comments. They are all very helpful.

In gassho

Thane

[Jundo]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Hi folks
Just a quick observation Jundo this thread doesn't seem to appear under the book club tab so some people might miss it.

Jundo i thought it was intetesting that the last sentence of the main case finished 'The World Honored One smiled faintly' Is there any significance in the Buddha only smiling faintly?

Hi Thane,

Thank you for noticing. Everything is just where it is, yet I moved this thread back where it should be. (Another Koan). 8)

As to the Buddha's smile, yes there is Every Significance.



Gassho, J

[Rimon]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Just some non-thoughts to toss in the pot ...


What does your feeling or not feeling have to do with it? Is the Sun no longer shining just because you can't see it, when it is nightime or hidden behind the clouds?

Great point Jundo. You just gave me a new perspective. I was paying too much attention to the "have to feel" stuff.

And I would not feel like a proud snob about being Buddha. Master Yunmen said that Buddha is just a "dried shit stick". So, when you call yourself Buddha, also please call yourself just a "dried shit stick"!

Of course, don't forget that "dried shit stick" is Sacred, a Temple, Buddha! 8)

Diamonds and dried shit stick, all together. This morning I smiled while cleaning the toilet with the shit stick. I guess I'm in the right direction, whatever that is

Yes, EVERYTHING is the Temple, the Sun, Buddha, Sacred ... but yet we must build the Temple each day by our words, thoughts and actions.

Indeeeed!

Gassho from my dried-diamond-shit-just-this-nature

Rimon

[alan.r]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

This koan has me considering gratefulness. To me, to be present is to be grateful; when one is present, one is grateful; when one is present, one is in the temple (though never out of it, either). With practice, zazen, even in times of struggle, this gratefulness comes through. There are some sad things in my world right now, which I won't bore anyone with, but even in and among sadness there is a sense of gratefulness, just to be there with that sadness and with another who is also sad - it took me (and is still taking me) a long time to know that it's okay to feel bad and that I never leave the temple, and because of that, even difficult things, even ugly things, shine and are ultimately beautiful.

_/_

Alan

[Kaishin]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

I have a co-worker I cannot stand, do not even want to be near. Exceedingly negative, bitter, rude, obnoxious... people describe him as a "psychic vampire."

I must keep reminding myself that interactions with him are not to be avoided or internalized as irritation and negativity, but rather embraced as the very temple of practice. Very, very, very difficult practice.

[mr.Lou]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Worshiping in the blanket temple.
https://<div class="videocontainer w... </a> </div>

[Amelia]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

I have a co-worker I cannot stand, do not even want to be near. Exceedingly negative, bitter, rude, obnoxious... people describe him as a "psychic vampire."

People like this have often had a hard time, which causes them to create a really hard shell and zap energy from others. Thank you for choosing to be patient with him. Perhaps you will even shine some light on his behavior for him. You have a great opportunity for compassion there.

[Thane]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Jundo i thought it was intetesting that the last sentence of the main case finished 'The World Honored One smiled faintly' Is there any significance in the Buddha only smiling faintly?

Hi Thane,

Thank you for noticing. Everything is just where it is, yet I moved this thread back where it should be. (Another Koan). 8)

As to the Buddha's smile, yes there is Every Significance.

Gassho, J

Dear Jundo

The Buddha smiling faintly could mean the following i think. The Buddha acknowledges Indra's action of erecting a temple from a blade of grass but smiles faintly as the blade of grass is no more a temple than the grass, earth, trees, people all around where He is standing. The faint smile acknowledges Indra's action with out marking it out as special?

I wonder if the faint smile also signifies that Indra's action, although not wrong, was unecessary? The temple was there anyway without the blade of grass?

Gassho

Thane

[Jundo]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Dear Jundo

The Buddha smiling faintly could mean the following i think. The Buddha acknowledges Indra's action of erecting a temple from a blade of grass but smiles faintly as the blade of grass is no more a temple than the grass, earth, trees, people all around where He is standing. The faint smile acknowledges Indra's action with out marking it out as special?

I wonder if the faint smile also signifies that Indra's action, although not wrong, was unecessary? The temple was there anyway without the blade of grass?

Gassho

Thane

Hah! Makes on wonder why the Buddha's smile was even necessary, and why they Buddha bothered to request a temple be built!

Gassho, J