BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 35

[Jundo]

Living this life, here and now, with all the trials and tribulations is "Enlightment." No imagination required just reality! Gassho Shogen

And yet, and yet ... also not the same nor different.

Is that "enlightenment"? Here is my answer: Time to head to Tokyo to retrieve our new cat. An animal rescue charity found her living in a park.

Gassho, J

[Shogen]

And yet, and yet ... also not the same nor different.

Is that "enlightenment"? Here is my answer: Time to head to Tokyo to retrieve our new cat. An animal rescue charity found her living in a park.

Gassho, J

The eternal dance Life/Enlightenment. An Ox Chaser has returned home with compassion for strays. Enjoy your new cat but you may have denied many a meal. Gassho, Shogen ( Not 1/Not 2)

[Rich]

Enlightenment without love and compassion is meaningless.

[Jundo]

Enlightenment without love and compassion is meaningless.

I might say that enlightenment without love and compassion is not enlightenment!

[Tiwala]

What is love, what is compassion?

Gassho, Ben

[Risho]

What a wonderful question! I don't know crap, but for some reason your question really resonated with me, and I feel compelled to answer it. I think it's something we all should ask/answer over and over; it's the core of this practice in my humble opinion.

Dogen said compassion is like grasping for a pillow in the dark.

Joshu said go wash your bowl.

There are stories of asking why Bodhidharma came from the west. It's the same question.

When you sit zazen that is the same question, and a way of answering it.

Conventional, and contemporary views of compassion, can be very overbearing and drippy.

If there is a homeless person on the street, give him a dollar or don't. But don't go doing it thinking you are special because you gave someone something. Don't get a hero complex.

That was my problem as a teen, young adult. I had a hard time adjusting to the "real world" after college (1997/1998). I used to practice martial arts in college, and I taught kids. I loved it. I felt it was my "passion". I didn't want to get a job at all. I wanted to be just like Bruce Lee.

But there came a point when I got into the working world, soon after college, where I got my heart broken by someone I loved at the time. A year before my grandma, my best friend died, one of my cats and dog died (also my best friends).

I don't say this to curry pity. I say this because it is only through those lessons that I stopped being as selfish, although I'm not kidding anyone; I still am. But I grew up, I started being genuine. There was a turning point where I no longer had the energy to put on this show anymore.

It was around that time I started getting heavily involved in Eastern thought (maybe not so coincidentally); there's something about the way of thinking that spoke to me.

I don't know what it is about suffering, but it is a great teacher; it opens you up and I realized a lot, but 2 of the main lessons were:

- I didn't give a shit about anyone but myself
- I needed to stop trying to be like someone and just be who I am; there is only 1 of me and I can't waste time.

I used to have a vision that my job in the world had to be so important, that I had to be some sort of hero; but that is just the fantasy of an immature and ego-driven person. I realized that my infatuation with martial arts was a fantasy, and although I still really have a fascination (and I do love it) with martial arts, it's not my identity any longer. I don't need it to be who I am. I just am who I am.

I also knew I wanted to be married to my wife when I met her. That is an uncanny feeling; you start getting to know yourself, and you know when something is right intuitively.

This relates to your question because compassion is dropping the false self. Or at least that was a major part of it for me. All these steps in our lives, this suffering, brings about compassion, allows us to empathize with others, allows us to realize other people are going through stuff and we can relate. This suffering also led me to zazen, to start becoming more introspective, to not disregard others feelings.

So the love I feel for my wife and family and friends. That is constant. It's not a grasping controlling love like my first love was. It's a deep, deep love where I feel like I can truly be myself.

That's how compassion is. It doesn't have to be this type of heroic, I'm going to save the world type thing. Clean your bowl. If you see litter, pick it up. Don't ditch work; go to work, do your best creative work. Pay your bills on time. Fulfill your obligations. Simple stuff; it's all in the basics.

Listen... seriously listen when someone is talking, give them your full concentration.

Offer a smile to someone. Say how are you doing. Don't allow emotions to take over during driving. Brush and floss your teeth. Are these mundane everyday things or is this your life?

So compassion and love... that's what zazen is all about to me. It's about dropping the facades and just being.

Gassho,

Risho

[Ishin]

I would just like to say that compassion and love aren't just nouns, they are verbs. I agree with what Risho said about not trying to make yourself a hero. You help others you care for others, not because you are trying to make yourself into something you are not, but because you see yourself in others. It's not a show, or a means of getting attention for yourself, its just naturally responding to a call to care for others.
Nothing wrong with role-models, to a point, though.

I really do NOT like hornets. Their creepy, they sting, they have no business on my back deck near my kids and pets. Yet, from this practice I can't just solve this problem by simply killing them anymore. I trapped the last one in cups and let it go. Some part of me just couldn't kill it needlessly anymore.

Gassho
C

[Kaishin]

Man, Risho, I wish I could articulate as well as you do. Good comments, as always. Going back to your original post, you said:

...I believe there is enlightenment, that does make everything ok even if it's not what we expect. In a deep, deep level we are ok with things as they are because we no longer have to fit them into our limited shape of what ok is

With that idea of enlightenment, how would you answer Jundo's questions:

...how will you know for sure when you have become, "Enlightened"?...How will you know when you have got it?

We have dismissed the idea of enlightenment being some idealized state of perfection, free from suffering. I think your alternative description is apt, but wonder--can we ever attain even this type of enlightenment? Does it matter if we don't? (I don't pretend to know the answers).

Thank you

[Risho]

Kaishin,

Thank you for your kind words... To be honest, I've only been practicing for a couple of years (I just took Jukai in 2010); I have no idea

Right now a lot of my practice is in good faith and trust with what Jundo and Taigu say, along with very limited experience (based on practice) that corroborates their teachings which strengthens that faith. So from my limited perspective, I would say I don't know; I sort of have an idea that there is nothing to be gotten, we already have what we need, it's ok as it is.... it's that realization which is what we "get".. but it has to be practiced because personally, I look for stuff outside of myself all the time; then I just have to drop it and come back, again and again. Sometimes I feel that relief, the stop of chasing, but most of the time that grasping mind is so present; sometimes when I sit I have to do all I can to stay put. Then at other times it's great. That's the mind... it's nice to be able to observe it doing it's thing and not controlling me.

So I dont' think there's anything to get; I understand that intellectually but my personal action belies that intellectual understanding a lot. When I get angry or greedy I'm trying to get something I feel is lacking, I'm trying to protect myself. So I just have to come back again and again. So these words I write sound good, but you can't rush experience. Me trying to answer that question would be like a virgin trying to give you sex advice hahahaha (sorry for the coarseness, but it's true).

Gassho,

Risho

[Shogen]

And yet, and yet ... also not the same nor different.

Is that "enlightenment"? Here is my answer: Time to head to Tokyo to retrieve our new cat. An animal rescue charity found her living in a park.

Gassho, J

Precisely where the rubber meets the road.

Gassho, Shogen

[AlanLa]

My understanding has always been that as soon as I feel "enlightened" I am not enlightened, so my practice is to (non)try to drop enlightenment.