BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 7

[andyZ]

Brilliant koan. As rev. Wick says - "he offered no toys to play with" yet he did left them. The silence or the blank spaces that Jundo left...but what does it mean?! Our minds are just too eager to play even with that. "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"

[AlanLa]

Sometimes there are no words, and sometimes the most powerful thing you can do with someone is to remain silent and let them be with themselves. Yet very often we feel like we have to say something, and that's often a good way to mess things up.

Generally, it's pretty easy to get into trouble by talking. We've all done it, right? But it's pretty hard to get into trouble by not talking. Think about it.

Finally, this case reminded me of Jundo's occasional sit-alongs where he doesn't say anything and just does zazen. He's our own Yakusan.

[adrianbkelly]

I work with cancer patients & often have to sit with them when they receive bad news. I used to dread having to do this, wondering what I could say, but have found with experience that just sitting quietly with patients, just being with them, is often enough. By not trying to pre-empt how people will react or to prompt them into speaking, it somehow seems that when it is time to talk the appropriate words will come naturally.

[Jiken]

This...is enough

Daido

[BrianW]

The story of the farmer regularly drying his field reminds me of the suburban need to keep one's grass green during the heat of summer. I have fallen prey to this desire more than once and even now I look out and part of me would like the lawn to be green. You know, that pesky "self" part! But as I look out on the hues of yellow and brown that inhabit my lawn, I see calmness, because the grass has simply decided to go to sleep while there is no water and will return just as green once the fall rains arrive. Meanwhile, the bright green color on my next door neighbor's the grass seems to be saying, "Hey, this guy is keeping us all awake! Can you get him to quit it?" For many a green lawn is a symbol of serenity and I fall into that trap too, but what others call "dying" and "ugly" I attempt to see clearly as a living thing taking a much needed rest. And it does not need to say a word to show us its true nature...just look.

Or, as Forrest Gump Roshi would say, "That's all I have to say about that."

Gassho,
Dosho

Nice application Dosho……I am with you on the lawn issue. The green lawns in our neighborhood look “plastic” to me. I am really into just letting be what is as far as the lawn…..I would most likely let our lawn go all natural (e.g, turn into a field, if it was allowed.)

I once enormous sunflowers in the yard (Paul Bunyan), that grew to 10 – 12 ft tall. As they died and decayed, I found it to be so beautiful….I would just leave them up over the winter and only cut them down when it was time to plant. I felt the sunflowers were a great lesson in no birth ….no death. As stated in the reading “The Tao abides in non-doing yet nothing is left undone.”

Gassho,
Jisen/BrianW

[Myozan Kodo]

Hi,
When the writer Samuel Beckett had a job teaching French in Trinity College, Dublin, his teaching often consisted of him just staring out the window in silence, not being sure what to say to the students. He didn't last in the job long.
Gassho
Myozan

[Heisoku]

How can we say anything when we just are?

[adrianbkelly]

I suppose a danger in this is when thunderous silence is used to hide the fact that you don't know what you are talking about. It's easy to appear wise & profound if you just nod sagely!

In my own case, I'm a very shy, quiet person, & it's so easy just to keep quiet, because I'm scared to speak up & draw attention to myself.

You can hide behind words & silence equally!

_/\_

Ade

[Ray]

Gassho

[Jundo]

A time to talk and explain, a time to be silent.

A time when silence speaks with a Buddha's tongue, a time when silence is just being tongue tied.



Important to know which is which.

[Nenka]

Nothing to add.

Gassho

Jen

[Koshin]

There is another saying here in Mexico that fits somehow:

"Al buen entendedor, pocas palabras", something like "to the the wise, few words"

Sorry, I said too many words. Shutting up now.

Gassho

[Mp]

A time to talk and explain, a time to be silent.

A time when silence speaks with a Buddha's tongue, a time when silence is just being tongue tied.



Important to know which is which.

Thank you Jundo ... so true.

Gassho,
Michael