BOOK OF EQUANIMITY- case 23

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  • Taigu
    Blue Mountain White Clouds Hermitage Priest
    • Aug 2008
    • 2710

    BOOK OF EQUANIMITY- case 23

    544d89c28c4c2d3c5d97c7dcb3e15643[1].jpgWhenever 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
    Last edited by Taigu; 01-12-2013, 02:17 AM.
  • Jishin
    Member
    • Oct 2012
    • 4821

    #2
    i am...

    Comment

    • Shokai
      Dharma Transmitted Priest
      • Mar 2009
      • 6393

      #3
      I remember facing a shoji screen and hearing a temple bell thank you Taigu
      合掌,生開
      gassho, Shokai

      仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai

      "Open to life in a benevolent way"

      https://sarushinzendo.wordpress.com/

      Comment

      • Mp

        #4
        I share the words of silence.

        Gassho
        Michael

        Comment

        • RichardH
          Member
          • Nov 2011
          • 2800

          #5
          Practical ones.

          Gassho, kojip.

          Comment

          • Jakudo
            Member
            • May 2009
            • 251

            #6
            Mu!
            Gassho, Shawn Jakudo Hinton
            It all begins when we say, “I”. Everything that follows is illusion.
            "Even to speak the word Buddha is dragging in the mud soaking wet; Even to say the word Zen is a total embarrassment."
            寂道

            Comment

            • Shogen
              Member
              • Dec 2008
              • 301

              #7
              Originally posted by Taigu
              [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
              "What Is"/"Original Mind." Perfection without equal or opposite. Gassho Shogen

              Comment

              • Taigu
                Blue Mountain White Clouds Hermitage Priest
                • Aug 2008
                • 2710

                #8
                By the way, the so called wall is not a wall, but by now you should have that one figured out.


                The fool

                Comment

                • Shokai
                  Dharma Transmitted Priest
                  • Mar 2009
                  • 6393

                  #9
                  When sitting zazen I face a door which btw, is not a gate
                  合掌,生開
                  gassho, Shokai

                  仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai

                  "Open to life in a benevolent way"

                  https://sarushinzendo.wordpress.com/

                  Comment

                  • Daitetsu
                    Member
                    • Oct 2012
                    • 1154

                    #10
                    There is no tile.
                    no thing needs to be added

                    Comment

                    • Mp

                      #11
                      There is no wall.

                      Gassho
                      Shingen

                      Comment

                      • Daitetsu
                        Member
                        • Oct 2012
                        • 1154

                        #12
                        Hey Shingen - I wonder whether Taigu hits us with his stick on our heads now and asks us where the pain comes from, hehe...

                        Gassho,

                        Timo
                        no thing needs to be added

                        Comment

                        • Shokai
                          Dharma Transmitted Priest
                          • Mar 2009
                          • 6393

                          #13
                          Pain is just a label for a physiological sensation
                          合掌,生開
                          gassho, Shokai

                          仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai

                          "Open to life in a benevolent way"

                          https://sarushinzendo.wordpress.com/

                          Comment

                          • Mp

                            #14
                            Originally posted by LimoLama
                            Hey Shingen - I wonder whether Taigu hits us with his stick on our heads now and asks us where the pain comes from, hehe...

                            Gassho,

                            Timo
                            Hey Timo ... like Shokai just said, "Pain is just a label for a physiological sensation" ... there is not pain. Guidance comes in many forms.

                            Gassho
                            Shingen

                            Comment

                            • Jeff
                              Member
                              • Dec 2012
                              • 37

                              #15
                              How can traces be swept away, the footprints be eliminated? Water.

                              As I am contemplating this my mind asks is zazen the water? Does zazen create the water? Are they both water?

                              Too many words and too much thought.

                              Gassho

                              Jeff

                              Comment

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