BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

[Jundo]

Case 3 never ends, yet now comes ...

CASE 4 - The World-Honored One Points To The Earth

A temple is built by a blade of grass, every grass-tip and every grain of dust holding all the earth, all the Buddha's body, all time and space ...

Our theme here at Treeleaf is "All of Life is our Temple" ...

Can we learn to see every bit of this life and world, every inch, as Sacred, one's Practice Place, the Temple?

QUESTIONS: 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?

In fact, what part of your life do you feel could never be Sacred, one's Practice Place, the Temple, no matter how much you try?

Gassho, J

https://youtu.be/BI4-230geDs

PS - A couple of notes:

- We've decided to close (lock) the discussion on older 'Book of Equanimity' threads after 2 or 3 weeks so that we all are together, and don't have a dozen conversations going on at once. Newcomers can just jump in where we are, and also read the Koans and discussion that came before.

[Rimon]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Both locking the discussion and having a more relaxed schedule sound like a very good idea to me. Thank you Jundo and Taigu

About case number 4, I have to admit that while other koans do resonate more in my mind, I found it difficult to make this one sing for me. It sounded more like a riddle and the solution is "of course, yeah, everything is sacred, sure, sure." and that was it.

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.

I'd say, therefore, that what is sacred for me is the context surrounding me, and what can never be sacred is also the context surrounding me.

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.

I'll sit with that

Big gassho to all of you sacred people

[Amelia]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

If there's anything I can't see as part of the temple, I haven't found it yet. *sweep, sweep*

[Gary]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Sacredness is in the eye of the beholder.

Gassho
Gary

[Hans]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Hello Jundo,

you ask about parts of our lives.

As long as there are still parts, we carve heaven and hell into the flesh of this realm. Letting parts and non parts be, temple pillars arise - made of manure and broken deams....and sacred texts turn into the toilet paper for the blessed ones who realise the Way.


Gassho,

Hans Chudo Mongen

[andyZ]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

In fact, what part of your life do you feel could never be Sacred, one's Practice Place, the Temple, no matter how much you try?

I think this is an excellent question. It's where "the rubber meets the road" and the "real" practice begins for me. I shall sit with that.

[RichardH]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

This koan brings to mind the wonderful story where the Buddha, sitting under the Bodhi tree, is confronted by Mara who declares that he has attained True Awakening. He boasts about the highest Gods and Heroes he can call to witness... great heavenly beings, vast cosmic beings. He boasts about the world historic magnitude of his Great Enlightenment. Then he says to the Buddha “... and who do you call to witness?!” The Buddha just reaches down and touches the Earth.... the solid , sane, ordinary, ground. He feels the cool dewy grass on his finger tips, breaths out, and smiles.

In fact, what part of your life do you feel could never be Sacred, one's Practice Place, the Temple, no matter how much you try?

The selfish, stupid, parts. The parts where I clearly see that acting-out is unwise, but act-out anyway. I can't say they can never be sacred, but it is not easy.
"Ultimately" it is all sacred. But just nodding to that won't do.




Gassho, kojip.

[Risho]

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?

[RichardH]

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?

... I took "sacred" in this context to mean "suchness". All is emptiness/form .."just so"....at-once, including relative good and bad, sacred and mundane. The question for me has always been.. How to live both the perfection of everything "as such" including both "bad" and "good".. while honoring good as good and bad as bad? If you fall into Emptiness and negate conventional value.. there is a problem. If you fall into Form and absolutize conventional value .. you also have a problem. So.. both at-once is "sacred" in the context of this koan. .... or so it looks from here.

Gassho, kojip

[Jiken]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Easy to become one sided. To have a definition of what is sacred and not

Shinkai once wrote

Emptying trashcans
I vow with all beings
to note how every item
was vital once

For a police officer it is often said that nothing is sacred so

Standing on the brink of heaven and hell
I vow with all beings
To remember the infinite in my encounters
Until they are no more

Daido

[Risho]

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?

... I took "sacred" in this context to mean "suchness". All is emptiness/form .."just so"....at-once, including relative good and bad, sacred and mundane. The question for me has always been.. How to live both the perfection of everything "as such" including both "bad" and "good".. while honoring good as good and bad as bad? If you fall into Emptiness and negate conventional value.. there is a problem. If you fall into Form and absolutize conventional value .. you also have a problem. So.. both at-once is "sacred" in the context of this koan. .... or so it looks from here.

Gassho, kojip

Thank you!

Gassho,

Risho

[Myoku]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Can we learn to see every bit of this life and world, every inch, as Sacred, one's Practice Place, the Temple?

If we unlearn to see the world as this and that ... yes.

QUESTIONS: 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?

Not seeing the wonder everything can seem ugly, unworthy, not sacred, depending on my mood.

In fact, what part of your life do you feel could never be Sacred, one's Practice Place, the Temple, no matter how much you try?

I thought for a couple of minutes, but could not think of any. The more difficult life is, the more I actually feel it IS a place of practice. Not that I'm particularly good in dealing with difficulties, rather the opposite, but I see the chance of practice in every moment, sometimes only when the moment is over.

On a final note: I think "life is our temple" is the most wonderful reminder, a reminder that our practice has to live, a reminder that the cushion is the start, and the center, but not the end.
_()_
Myoku

[Shohei]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

QUESTIONS: 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?

In fact, what part of your life do you feel could never be Sacred, one's Practice Place, the Temple, no matter how much you try?

Gassho, J

Hi
There are lots of times I forget, lots taken for granted and plenty of times I looked for something/someone/some time to be sacred.
The kids and my family are one of the many practice places, same with my work(there, traveling to and from), and my coworkers and well there is nothing more or less sacred, nothing is beyond or below, all just this, and this.
My practice place is not trying to make anything other than it was, and there is where I bump in to the sacred, the non-sacred.

A place that I feel could never be sacred, a practice place or temple is in my self. That, is then, a great place to practice, to learn to let myself just be (while, of course realizing and doing the work that needs to be done!)

Anyways I am not so eloquent and a bit rambling but this koan tickles me so.

Gassho
Shohei

PS not to be nit picky but why are we doing the book club off the book club form (and feel free to whack me if this has been already discussed )

[Graceleejenkins]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

See the temple in everything. See the all in everything. See the one in everything.

I also liked how Buddha’s faint smile indicates that he appreciated Indra bringing that thought to mind, maybe an inside joke.

Gassho, Grace.

[Dosho]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

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