BOOK OF EQUANIMITY- case 23

[Kaishin]

The wall is a frightening mirror. It's always reflecting, but usually I can hide from it through countless distractions. But in shikantaza there's no escape. And you're naked.


Gassho, Kaishin

[Jundo]

Is this forum only for certain members? I'm still reading and watching beginner's videos and teachings.
Jenell

Every-one is welcome!

Gassho, J

[AlanLa]

Face the Wall
Face your life

Sit with it
Sit with your life

Do the work
As non-work

Words always miss the mark
So face the mark
The unattainable mark.

[galen]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]846[/ATTACH]Whenever Roso saw a monk coming he would face the wall...

I let you read and take in the inspiring prose of Gerry Shishin. What is facing the wall after all? i still vividly remember the impressions and perceptions of my first sitting as a young teenager, some 35 years ago, and the endless game of my eyes sweeeping the whitish wall, both bored and amazed.

Expressing the path with words is pointless yet necessay. When people come and inquire about the Buddha Dharma what shall we say? Roso turned his whole body-mind into a living- silent mouth, speaking an eloquent silence, carving subtle clouds within and letting them dissolve. This is what precedes Kalpas and birth itself. The ground is naked there. The empty field made visible. Sitting facing the wall is displaying the seal of reality, it is the absolute realization that freedom doesn t have to give itself space to unfold, the the open quality, the spacious sitting- being makes even a simple wall as vast as this boundless reality we are and live in. The wall is a great cure to distraction, a very good way to cut any story short, give up the chase, and not being carried away but being redirected to just this. When we sit in front of the wall we meet heaven and hell, we transmigrate and go through all realms, we wake up to the very truth that we are the makers of all this. We sit with our own self-world in full view.

This practice is the ultimate practice, in all forms of Buddhism, its given for the most advanced students, in Zen we are all advanced and all beginners. We start where it ends. We end up where it always starts. Facing the wall in Dogen s words is another way to relentlessly polish the tile to make a mirror. To eat painted rice cakes. It trancends the dual and goes beyond oneness itself.

Whatever you say, it will miss the mark. So what words do you have to point at the pearl?

Gassho

Taigu

Today is my first read of your opening here. Thank you for your look at the wall, Taigu, tremendous!

Is there a link to Shishin?


Gassho

[galen]

Today is my first read of your opening here. Thank you for your look at the wall, Taigu, tremendous!

Is there a link to Shishin?


Gassho

Fooled again! I always refer to Shishin as just Wick, fooled once again and not the last.



Gassho

[Shogen]

When a monk approached Roso he faced the wall and gave the monk the honor of his complete attention. Gassho, Shogen