BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

[Rich]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

This would be a good place to build a temple.

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

That would be you all.

[Thane]

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

Indeed! :shock:

Gassho

Thane

[Risho]

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?

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?

To me, these questions all point to a duality in which we normally see the world from a logical point of view, and life and death are the ultimate duality.

I'm not too old; I'm 36, but I sometimes ponder my death. When I hear the question of how do you incorporate something into your life as practice even though you would never consider it sacred, I think of my death.

From one perspective, I've been habitually trained to treat myself as separate, independent and standing on my own in this world. And although I am an individual, nothing I do could ever come about without all the other things that came together to bring it about. Thich Nhat Hanh talks a lot about interdependence, and I'm approaching this in the same vein. As much as we are individual entities, that individuality only comes about through everything being inter-related.

Death sometimes scares me. I will no longer exist one day. I mean when I honestly acknowledge that truth, it is very frightening. How the hell can death be sacred. But when I think of everyone here who supports me. When I think of all the other sentient beings who have already died. When I take off my horse blinders, and try to view the universe from a larger view, it seems less scary. When I think about that we are all in this together, it doesn't seem so "serious" anymore.

Hell it makes me want to do my best because I'm here for a limited time. It makes me want to do what I do fully and completely, and no matter what life brings not to ignore part of it because it does not appeal to my "likes". So practice to me is allowing the experience of life to be experienced. To notice when I'm resisting or grasping, and not try to change it, but notice it and allow it to fade away of its own accord... but it isn't something that is mastered. Life is dynamic, so I practice it over and over again.

I don't think that anything can be excluded from practice. Literally, I believe that if we separate practice from anything, that is not true practice. True practice is living this great and mysterious life. You think you have an answer to this? You are not living. Life is not dead and pre-planned. This is life.. again, again, new and again.

Gassho,

Risho

[Jundo]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Thich Nhat Hanh talks a lot about interdependence, and I'm approaching this in the same vein. As much as we are individual entities, that individuality only comes about through everything being inter-related.

Death sometimes scares me. I will no longer exist one day. I mean when I honestly acknowledge that truth, it is very frightening. How the hell can death be sacred. But when I think of everyone here who supports me. When I think of all the other sentient beings who have already died. When I take off my horse blinders, and try to view the universe from a larger view, it seems less scary.

Yes, we are all inter-related. Thich Nhat Hanh uses a story about paper ...

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are.

If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We now the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger’s father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.

Looking even more deeply, we can see we are in it too. This is not difficult to see, because when we look at a sheet of paper, the sheet of paper is part of our perception. Your mind is in here and mine is also. So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper. You cannot point out one thing that is not here-time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper. That is why I think the word inter-be should be in the dictionary. “To be” is to inter-be. You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.

Suppose we try to return one of the elements to its source. Suppose we return the sunshine to the sun. Do you think that this sheet of paper will be possible? No, without sunshine nothing can be. And if we return the logger to his mother, then we have no sheet of paper either. The fact is that this sheet of paper is made up only of “non-paper elements.” And if we return these non-paper elements to their sources, then there can be no paper at all. Without “non-paper elements,” like mind, logger, sunshine and so on, there will be no paper. As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it.

From: The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra

However, even such images do not capture how intimate is our wholeness and inter-penetration with the grass and stars and trees and, most especially, every creature ... not only now, but that has ever or will ever live throughout time.

I would say that Thich Nhat Hanh, like most Mahayana Buddhists, does not just speak of "interdependence" and "inter-relationships" (though there are those too) ... but also "Inter-being" (Thich Nhat Hanh's coined phrase) in the most whole, intimate and single sense ... whereby you are Risho and you are me and you are Thich Nhat Hanh and you are paper and you are sun and you are the rain and you are the logger and you are birth and you are death and you are the universe and you are the horse and you are the blinders too ...

... and you are also not you or Risho or me or "Thich Nhat Hanh" or birth or death or the universe or the horse or blind and all the rest ...

... and and thus are the Blade of Grass, and the Dust, and the Temple ...

Gassho, J

[Shokai]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Thank you Risho and Jundo for pointing to that and sharing. _/_

[alan.r]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Death sometimes scares me. I will no longer exist one day. I mean when I honestly acknowledge that truth, it is very frightening. How the hell can death be sacred. But when I think of everyone here who supports me. When I think of all the other sentient beings who have already died. When I take off my horse blinders, and try to view the universe from a larger view, it seems less scary. When I think about that we are all in this together, it doesn't seem so "serious" anymore.

Hell it makes me want to do my best because I'm here for a limited time. It makes me want to do what I do fully and completely, and no matter what life brings not to ignore part of it because it does not appeal to my "likes". So practice to me is allowing the experience of life to be experienced. To notice when I'm resisting or grasping, and not try to change it, but notice it and allow it to fade away of its own accord... but it isn't something that is mastered. Life is dynamic, so I practice it over and over again.

I don't think that anything can be excluded from practice. Literally, I believe that if we separate practice from anything, that is not true practice. True practice is living this great and mysterious life. You think you have an answer to this? You are not living. Life is not dead and pre-planned. This is life.. again, again, new and again.

Gassho,

Risho

Death is often frightening! That moment is frightening, I think, because it is so unknown. What happens? I'm going to be gone? Me? And then there is that "me" trying to hold tight to itself. Realizing that, there is the moment, just the moment, just presence, just being. When we are in the moment, when we are the moment, completely present, I don't know where death goes. It's not here and I don't know what to be frightened about because there is nowhere else to be and that ego-I is a bit quieter. Like you say, not so serious. Jundo has already given a wonderful teaching from Thich Nhat Hanh and then added more beautiful words. I don't want to muck that up too much, but I must add that I love what Suzuki Roshi says about death/life: that we are like a stream that becomes a waterfall. When the stream falls over the edge and becomes a waterfall, individual droplets form. We are those individual droplets, existing for a moment, seemingly alone, isolated, yet there is never a moment when the waterfall is not the stream, when the droplet is not the stream, and eventually, the droplet lands and just goes back to what it was and what it is, the stream. When I think about death and suffering, which seems to be more and more often but not in a morbid way, I love everything, everyone, because we are all droplets, heading back to the stream, the stream which is not there at all to begin with yet goes on flowing.

What a gift to be in this temple right now.

Gassho,
Alan

[Rich]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Alan, thanks for sharing the stream story. I really like that. Remindes me of the question of where was I before I was born? In the stream ofcause.
I'm thinking it would be nice if the spirit had. Some individual consciousness so dying would be more acceptable.
The point I would like to make is that my views about life and death have changed a lot over a lifetime so holding them lightly seems like the best approach.

[Risho]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Gassho is all I can say and all I can do. As always thank you for your thoughtful responses.

Gassho,

Risho

[alan.r]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

The point I would like to make is that my views about life and death have changed a lot over a lifetime so holding them lightly seems like the best approach.

Yes to holding them lightly. And in zazen, to not holding them at all. :wink:

(ps: that's the first smiley i've ever used; i've lost a long battle, but not the war).

-a

[Ekai]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

For the most part, I see the sacred in the good and the bad, the darkness and the light. There is something to be learned in any situation or person even during difficult times. Painful and challenging events will always be a part of life but I try to choose how I relate to those times with mindfulness and compassion. Sometimes I choose to respond unwisely and other times I choose wisely. It comes and goes but I do the best I can. It's gets better with practice but there's lots of room for improvement (I am sure my husband would agree)!!

The one thing that's most difficult for me as mother is when I see or hear about child being abused physically and mentally. It breaks my heart when children are in deep pain at the hands of someone's malicious actions. Especially if it's a person they trust and love. It's hard to understand how someone can intentionally hurt an innocent child. I just pray for loving kindness and healing for all beings involved to be free from suffering.

Thanks for everyone's posts.

Gassho,
Ekai

[Heisoku]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

The one thing that's most difficult for me as mother is when I see or hear about child being abused physically and mentally. It breaks my heart when children are in deep pain at the hands of someone's malicious actions. Especially if it's a person they trust and love.

I wholeheartedly agree Ekai and totally understand this as a father. As a teacher I see that it is often the damage done by ignorance that causes the most widespread trauma...ie: neglect and emotional abuse ......which is often unintentional but has its root in the childhood experience of the parents....so many schools end up looking after two sets of children, the one's in the classrooms and those collecting them.

I just pray for loving kindness and healing for all beings involved to be free from suffering

.

May all beings be free from misery and suffering.

Gassho.

[BrianW]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

One point that may seem a bit odd but for me it is easy to see the sacred in the dogs I have owned…loyal, affectionate, unconditional love.

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."

Sometimes a fine line between acting compassionate towards someone behaving in this way and standing up to this person, especially if he or she is harming others. That being said what I have trouble with seeing as sacred is when I find myself acting in such a negative way towards others.....that part of myself does not come out often, at least I hope not, but when it happens I have a great deal of difficulty dealing with it.

Gassho,
Jisen/BrianW

[Shogen]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

The " Choice " of action is sacred. Each action leaves our footprint which can never be sacred. gassho Shogen

[andyZ]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 4

Hi everyone,

I was thinking of this koan and the "Ordination Tribulation" thread. So there's this letter from the SZBA that directly/indirectly has a reference to this sangha. Seeing that situation as a place of practice, or "sacred temple" is exactly what this koan is about for me. What our response should be? How can it be in such a way as not to promote mistrust and misunderstanding? Or to paraphrase rev. Wick "how can we erect a temple out of this letter from SZBA"? I don't have all the answers to those questions, btw, I just think it shows that we don't have to go far to "meet the source in everything" it's always right here.

[Kyonin]

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*

Deep bow.