BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 31

[Jundo]

Some folks asked about the long silence since our last Koan. But is not the silence also speaking? If you do not think so, please go back to Koan 1 ... where the Buddha gave up on his talk and went back to bed ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?9674-BOOK-OF-EQUANIMITY-Case-1

So ...Case 30 never ends, yet now comes ...

Case 31: Ummon's Free Standing Pillar

Another Koan on the dance of Relative and Absolute ... Ummon sings of Buddha and a stone pillar mingled, one. In response to the rhetorical question "what level of insight am I expressing", the Koan is filled with many images just the most natural happening, conveying how natural it all is ... . This is not the first time that Ummon (aka Yumen) responded with a very concrete worldly object, for in other Koans he described Buddha as "a garden of flowers", "the five senses and the mind", "the hedge surrounding the privy", and of course, a "dried shit stick".

The Verse sings ...

It has never been concealed ... it's affirmed without affirmation (for what affirmation is needed or possible when we transcend relative views and opinions) ... it is adequacy without adequacy ... it is three feet or sixteen feet (or any feet at all), according and fitting all kinds, sizes and situations.

Questions:

- Tell me about somebody or something in the world that you have a very hard time experiencing as "Buddha". Next, tell me why you are mistaken!

- Express how, in life, inadequacy is quite adequate. Give an example from your life.

- Now, express what is both and neither adequate or inadequate, fully transcending yet holding all adequate and inadequate human views and stone pillars.

Gassho, J

PS - I will be in Korea for the next two weeks, but will still be checking into the Forum daily.

[Geika]

It's hard to see anything as strictly "not Buddha". I might be stuck in emptiness. If I encounter something that deeply upsets me, the word I may think is, "misguided".

I wonder if I'm being honest with myself? There has got to be something out there that, when I meet it, completely dissolves my zen filter. I will have to watch myself.

Inadequacy,
Adequacy,
Say them enough and they no longer make sense.
They no longer sound like words
One becomes the other
Or they both become the same

I do dishes slowly at work:
Inadequacy
But I do dishes well at work:
Adequacy

There is a hard-to-see picture in my mind
Of inadequacy bleeding into adequacy
Oozing into inadequacy again
But I can't really look at it because it is always changing,
And I can't show it or explain it

Adequacy, inadequacy:
Neither of them look like real words anymore.

[MyoHo]

The old Buddha, teaching while lying down
still expounded the Dharma while dying.
The pillar of the teachings stands forever erect.
So the number of activities is one.
The last and the first,
Only one and all the same.

The inevitable reality of life is death.
Clouds gather in the South Mountain
Rain fall over the north Mountain
In this lifetime, in this great opportunity,
there is no time to waste.


When doing something as a true human being, with all your attention, being and hart. How could it ever be inadequate? A tea bowl made by a master, holds perfection because of it's imperfections. It is beautifully because of it's flaws. Zen teacher Jundo with makeup and Mickey Mouse ears on Beautiful.

Working on this way of looking at the world, is my practice. And in this I am very inadequate sometimes .

A toilet paper is hardly Buddha, not until you have been a long way from a toilet for way too long. The the stick is close Buddha supreme!

Gassho

Enkyo

[Shugen]

On a bad day, I see Buddha in nothing. On a good day, I see Buddha in everything. They are both wrong. It's not the everything or nothing, it's the I.

Sometimes the size of my house is inadequate. There will always be something or someone better off. There will always be someone or something worse off. I have a house.


Shugen

[Nameless]

"When doing something as a true human being, with all your attention, being and hart. How could it ever be inadequate? A tea bowl made by a master, holds perfection because of it's imperfections. It is beautifully because of it's flaws. Zen teacher Jundo with makeup and Mickey Mouse ears on Beautiful." - Thank you Enkyo, very very true.

To answer the other question, I have in the past held raw hatred toward my uncle, who is a narcissistic, psychologically abusive drug addict who has caused those in my family immense amounts of suffering, especially my Grandmother. Throughout practice and Meta meditation after Shikantaza, I have begun to realize that he is suffering like the rest of us. In fact, he has caused such pain to others because he is in agony himself. Bound by negativity, cynicism and a closed mind. Never happy, never satisfied. Though I have loathed him, he has Buddha-nature just as well do. He is a slave to his attachment and cravings as many of us are. How can I be angry, how can I hold such hatred for him especially when the hatred is only causing me harm and has prevented me from realizing the Buddha within me in the past?

This man is not a narcissistic, psychologically abusive drug addict, these are merely labels, not part of his true nature or his true self.

Gassho, John

[Myoku]

Thank you for carrying this study on, Jundo,
knowing time is tight I much appreciate it.

I generally not have a hard time seing someone as buddha, in fact the most difficult persons I perceive as my teachers,
they challenge me and my understanding, they test how much its in my bones and not just my mind. However, I loose
the clear view pretty easy when something frightens me, when fear comes up my view is not so clear anymore.

I'm not sure if we are mistaken at all, a view is always a more or less deluded view.

- Express how, in life, inadequacy is quite adequate. Give an example from your life.

I feel like not knowing is a good inadequacy to our world of having answers all around; picking up any kind of magazine and you got many answers to many questions, and its all inadequate to life. In my life I always carry answers with me, like: When my son drops his glass with orange juice I have to tell him to be more careful. Buts that might not be adequate. An adequate response might be to show understanding that the glass just slipped through his fingers. But once again even this might be inadequate. The only adequate response is the one that comes up naturally from a "buddha mind" right in each moment.

Btw, I feel this koan much emphasizes our interconnectedness, so thank you Jundo for broadening my horizon when visiting Korea,

Gassho & Thank you everyone
Myoku

[Myoku]

... wonderful Amelia, really like it, especially

There is a hard-to-see picture in my mind
Of inadequacy bleeding into adequacy
Oozing into inadequacy again
But I can't really look at it because it is always changing,
And I can't show it or explain it

_()_
Myoku

[Myosha]

Q1 The probation officer. Mistaken because there is nothing in need of fixing or changing.

Q2. Two sides of one "coin" e.g. living and death.

Example: Saving a drowning woman's life who then commited suicide two weeks later.


Gassho,
Edward

[Shokai]

Q - Tell me about somebody or something in the world that you have a very hard time experiencing as "Buddha".

People who are nit picking and controlling.

Next, tell me why you are mistaken!

Then I see how selective memory can be.

Q - Express how, in life, inadequacy is quite adequate. Give an example from your life.

Two sides of the same mouth; but I give what i can.

[RichardH]

Tell me about somebody or something in the world that you have a very hard time experiencing as "Buddha". Next, tell me why you are mistaken!

Someone who is very insightful, who points out an intimate personal fault, but it does not last. There is no one who can't be experienced as Buddha after stepping out for a stroll. Taking things personally is a mistake, but there it is. It happens less.

Express how, in life, inadequacy is quite adequate. Give an example from your life.

No painting is adequate. It is never perfectly balanced. Yet that inadequacy is adequate because a perfectly balanced painting would be a dead painting. The imbalance is its life.


Gassho Daizan

[Kaishin]

- Tell me about somebody or something in the world that you have a very hard time experiencing as "Buddha".

An employee at work, one of my staff members. Very hard to experience this person as the Buddha right now.

Next, tell me why you are mistaken!

I can't accept being mistaken...not yet...maybe never..

- Express how, in life, inadequacy is quite adequate. Give an example from your life.

Well...I'm here. I am quite inadequate in many ways. But adequate enough to be here, practicing, walking the path as best I can.

[Jundo]

- Express how, in life, inadequacy is quite adequate. Give an example from your life.

I just noticed that my question above was a bit inadequate. I meant to add ...

Now, express what is both and neither adequate or inadequate, fully transcending yet holding all adequate and inadequate human views and stone pillars.

Gassho, J

[Myosha]

Zen



Gassho,
Edward

[Heisoku]

Express how, in life, inadequacy is quite adequate. Give anexample from your life

I cannot do it all. I cannot solve every problem. I cannot provide enough. I cannot do life for other people. But that’s OK. I can do all that I can and in this doing know that it is enough and in truly living my life as me, know that I am living it to the fullest.

Express what is both and neither adequate or inadequate,fully transcending yet holding all adequate and inadequate human views andstone pillars.

Steadfastly sitting zazen.

[Myoku]

Thank you Heisoku,

I cannot do it all. I cannot solve every problem. I cannot provide enough. I cannot do life for other people. But that’s OK. I can do all that I can and in this doing know that it is enough and in truly living my life as me, know that I am living it to the fullest.

this is awesome. Thank you &
_()_
Myoku