BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 10

[Jundo]

https://youtu.be/Nx524SbP2mM

Case 9 never ends, yet now comes ...

CASE 10 - Joshu See Through The Old Woman

So, this mountain called Mt. Taizan is still very famous in China as a religious pilgrimage site, said to be the place where lives the Bodhisattva Manjusri (a Bodhisattva of Wisdom). Monks would come to a crossroads near the old woman's tea shop and ask directions to the mountain. She would reply "Straight ahead". When the monks would then set off straight ahead down the road, toward the mountain, she would say something like, "Is that what you think it is about?".

So, we walk ahead diligently, straight ahead ... but where will we truly find what we are looking for? On some touristy mountain? In the next book we read or youtube talk we watch? In the tea shop? At the crossroads? In the monk? All of the foregoing, and no place at all? Where does Manjusri really live?

So Joshu goes to check out the old lady, and says he sees her "through and through". Does that mean that he has seen her for a charlatan? A Zen poser (like those folks all over the internet who engage in "Zen Speak" and cheesy imitation "Dharma Combat")? Or, "poser" or not, in seeing "through and through" has he seen right through the lady, no lady to see, and thus straight ahead into Joshu and she him? Has he seen everyone and everything, and no place at all? Has he seen clear straight through to Manjusri and the mountain?

QUESTION - On your spiritual searches, where are you looking? Are you looking in the right places? Where do you think the mountain and Manjusri are to be found?

One other thing nice to mention about Koans like this is the respectful, central place it appears to give a gifted lay person, even a woman! (That was quite something in the Ordained Priest dominated, "man's world" of traditional Chinese society back then).

Gassho, J

[Kaishin]

QUESTION - On your spiritual searches, where are you looking? Are you looking in the right places? Where do you think the mountain and Manjusri are to be found?

- I'd like to say that I "Only go straight, don't know" as Seung Sahn puts it.

But the truth is I'm more often like the monks, always seeking the mountain on the horizon. Whether in a book, video, podcast, or right here on at Treeleaf--always searching, searching.

Which is fine, we need to do some searching to function in this relative world. But it's in zazen that I can set aside this searching mind, this endless grasping, and just sit with things-as-they-are. I think my searching-to-zazen ratio is too high!

For now, I'm just a monk lost on his way to the mountain. But tonight I will sit in its shadow.

_/\_

[RichardH]

QUESTION - On your spiritual searches, where are you looking? Are you looking in the right places? Where do you think the mountain and Manjusri are to be found?

I'm not on a spiritual search, just an endless worldy one, one damn thing after another, all very heartfelt. Manjushri and the Mountain are on it too.

...all too zen-clever a response, but it is true.

Gassho.

[Mp]

Thank you for this Jundo ... it instantly made me go "hmmmm, let me think about that one".

Gassho
Michael

[Risho]

I oscillate like everything in the universe, sometimes I'm at peace, sometimes not and I grasp for an answer "out there".

This reminds me a Dogen quote: "Guanyin is found amid hearing, considering, practicing, and truly verifying the mind. Why seek appearances of her sacred face within a cave? I proclaim that pilgrims must themselves awaken. Guanyin does not abide on Potalaka Mountain."

But all zenny quotes aside, I do grasp, even trying to use zazen to feel at peace... Using it as a means to an illusory end.

Gassho,

Risho

[Myozan Kodo]

Hi,
Like Kojip I really don't feel like I'm trying to go anywhere. And yet I am going. Not thinking about it.
Gassho
Myozan

PS there is an old guy who wrote a book in the nineteenth century about the Pyrenees mountain range in southern France, where I am at the moment. He wanted to "be" the mountain. So, he had his friends bury him up to his neck on the tallest peak one stormy night. They dug him out the next day, alive and, by all accounts, very rugged.

[Shogen]

QUESTION - On your spiritual searches, where are you looking? Are you looking in the right places? Where do you think the mountain and Manjusri are to be found?

If you're on a spiritual journey to a special " Holy Place " then the direction straight ahead is as good as any. When you become weary from your search and pause to rest you may discover what you where looking for was with you the whole time. Dogen's life long search for the core of his practice was discovered in Shikantaza. What better teacher could we ask for to set the example of a spiritual journey within our very self. Shikantaza and ease of living go together like toast and butter. bows, Shogen

[Heisoku]

QUESTION - On your spiritual searches, where are you looking? Are you looking in the right places? Where do you think the mountain and Manjusri are to be found?

A long time ago before I knew anything about Buddhism I went to Wutai Shan (Mt Taizan) with a dear friend on something of a pilgrimage for truth. It is one of the most beautiful places I have been and includes a 2000m escarpment!!! We climbed all 4 peaks looking at stuff. We looked at many of the temples including the stupa containing a relic of the Buddha. It was a really beautiful time. I even met Manjusri in the form of a very old wizened single-toothed monk wearing tattered robes looking like a beggar, who on SEEING us laughed, and laughed in a way that you knew he was laughing at you and the whole YOU! I will never forget this. Being laughed at for looking for 'truth' in the external world!! What fools!!
Well at least it stopped me from running around looking outwards!

Image.jpg A real turning point.

[alan.r]

QUESTION - On your spiritual searches, where are you looking? Are you looking in the right places? Where do you think the mountain and Manjusri are to be found?

A long time ago before I knew anything about Buddhism I went to Wutai Shan (Mt Taizan) with a dear friend on something of a pilgrimage for truth. It is one of the most beautiful places I have been and includes a 2000m escarpment!!! We climbed all 4 peaks looking at stuff. We looked at many of the temples including the stupa containing a relic of the Buddha. It was a really beautiful time. I even met Manjusri in the form of a very old wizened single-toothed monk wearing tattered robes looking like a beggar, who on SEEING us laughed, and laughed in a way that you knew he was laughing at you and the whole YOU! I will never forget this. Being laughed at for looking for 'truth' in the external world!! What fools!!
Well at least it stopped me from running around looking outwards!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]494[/ATTACH] A real turning point.

Man, that's such a wonderful thing.

[Heisoku]

Well I must own up to feeling really piqued by the guy at the time! At least I can laugh at that silly youth now!

[galen]

Just keep going, straight ahead...

As pointedly possible, at the level of sentient beingness, of our present awareness, that we have attained in `this world.

Just keep going, straight ahead... its seems there is nothing more to say or do.




galen

[galen]

Thank you, Jundo.


Is there a wrong place to look?

Can a so-called wrong, show what is right?

Just keep going straight ahead....




galen

[Shohei]

QUESTION - On your spiritual searches, where are you looking? Are you looking in the right places? Where do you think the mountain and Manjusri are to be found?

I have been the monks a bit hurt by her kind and clear words. Straight ahead, if you we are seeking some thing greater outside ourselves to add to our collection of holy things and places...yep keep going... a great lesson ahead
Joshu had seen through her and his words were exactly right but may still have fell on deaf ears.

Here I have heard the teaching repeated over and over - you already enlightened, practice nurtures this seed and mistakes(realizing them and getting back up) provides fertile ground.
The moment we grasp at some other person/place/thing or idea in hopes it will provide us with the "answer" we are quite lost. Couldn't be clearer yet I have often forgot this or had little faith in this simplicity and gotten it all muddied up looking for a Mountain or Bodhisattva.

Gassho
Shohei

[Jundo]

Thank you, Jundo.


Is there a wrong place to look?

Can a so-called wrong, show what is right?

Just keep going straight ahead....




galen

Hi Galen,

Yes. When hiking up and down this Buddha Mountain ... every step by step is Buddha Mountain.

Yet, some paths are better than others, for some lead into poison ivy or off a cliff! Though there is ultimately no place to fall ... many chances to stumble and fall.

So long as one can get back up and on the trail, one can find a better path.

Gassho, J

[galen]

Hi Galen,

Yes. When hiking up and down this Buddha Mountain ... every step by step is Buddha Mountain.

Yet, some paths are better than others, for some lead into poison ivy or off a cliff! Though there is ultimately no place to fall ... many chances to stumble and fall.

So long as one can get back up and on the trail, one can find a better path.

Gassho, J

Thank you for that kindly timely insight , Jundo.

I also wonder if we really have a choice other then to get back up and onto that ever chugging train, which goes nothing but straight forward. I seemed to have fallen into the deepest separations between those ties while hearing the train flying by overhead, like many, and yes I wanted to give up and say to the hell with it whats the use, but then again, the only alternative is death or suicide (been there many years back). To grab that handle on the boxcar, of that ever racing train and pull ourselves back up, is the only `real choice we have. I will admit, there has always been something tucked deep inside that does keep me forever searching, and not giving up, and then to find there are ways forward, and that is probably why most of us are on this site. That deeply tucked something, seems to be the Buddha's beckoning and patience, to better direct the Way into our heart of hearts.

From some of my religious and metaphysical studies over the years, I really like the concept of everything be`ing a blessing. The so-called wrongs, mistakes and even when hurting someones feelings, come back at you for the lessons that only Kama, what goes around, can teach. As you and most of us know, to know what is this so-called right, for the most part, it seems we have to know this wrong first. And besides, it seemingly is all perception and a judgement, and a lot of time another's projection. Thank you for letting me do my speech and your kind words.




galen