BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 50

[AlanLa]

I admit my grass hut is frail.
I admit my anger and peace are of my own making.
I think I fully admit working on my own crap.
If that was not clear before, I admit it fully now.
If that's not clear enough, let me be more clear,
I think the anger i need to sit with is my very expression of ignorance.
I try to live that (non) challenge every day.
Such is the type of practice my ignorance expects.

[Jundo]

I would like to recommend yet ANOTHER recent Steve Hagen talk on Just Sitting and Just This ... unadorned, unpretentious, straight and clear as it gets in explaining the crazy-sane whys of Shikantaza.

(If you haven't guessed, I am catching up on some Steve Hagen talks recently. Although he is semi-retired, I am going to approach him as a possible Guest Teacher for a Zazenkai her).

Recommended talk for all, I am going to post it a couple of places around the forum today ...

Practice-Enlightenment

http://dharmafield.org/talks/1724-practice-enlightenment/

I post it here, as a pretty good reflection on Just This and What's What.

Gassho, Jundo

SatToday

[Byokan]

Just this grumpy honest ass, I am happy to see the move to a new book because I was really tired of all the Zennie poetic crap that got posted here rather than the real work these koans are supposed to promote. I think that was a fail, but I will sit with that empty idea as i challenge people to tear down their grass hut.

Haa! What’s this?!


Guilty as charged, right here, on the poetic crap! But it is sincerely offered. I like grumpy honest ass; we do need a little more of that around here. Interesting that the anger seems more authentic/interesting than the beautiful experiences? Maybe that’s just what’s going on right now. I think sometimes the ‘real work’ is slogging uphill through mud and shit and swallowing broken glass. But it can be just as soul-shattering to realize oneness, beauty, or ‘just this’; it destroys ‘you’ just as much as the ‘real work’ with anger, pain, etc. Beautiful or disturbing, awestruck or angry, these are reactions to the same ultimate and whole Reality. Any reaction = separation. I try (and fail) not to attach to (or resist) the beautiful moments, any more than I attach to (or resist) my anger or pain, or identify with them as ‘me’. None of these experiences are more authentic. It’s all just this.


To answer Jundo’s original questions:


What’s This? -- The State changing all the paperwork for our Elderly/Disabled Assistance Program. Again! So now I have to spend hours and hours doing redundant paperwork instead of helping people face to face. Resistance. (Futile.)


Just This -- Realizing it all helps, and the only constant is change, and all rivers flow to the sea. So I put on my nikes and Just Do It (samu).


This’s What! -- My heart so joyful when all that stupid paperwork pays off and a client gets what they need; also, the moment they realize (you can see it in their eyes) that they do have the power to make choices and advocate for themselves. I want to stand on the rooftop and yell “YES!”

Gassho
Lisa
sat today

[Jundo]

Lisa,

I think sometimes the ‘real work’ is slogging uphill through mud and shit and swallowing broken glass. But it can be just as soul-shattering to realize oneness, beauty, or ‘just this’; it destroys ‘you’ just as much as the ‘real work’ with anger, pain, etc. Beautiful or disturbing, awestruck or angry, these are reactions to the same ultimate and whole Reality. Any reaction = separation. I try (and fail) not to attach to (or resist) the beautiful moments, any more than I attach to (or resist) my anger or pain, or identify with them as ‘me’. None of these experiences are more authentic. It’s all just this.

Lovely, lovely. Leaves me shaking.

I would just add ...

... Amid all the endless-beginingless paperwork and at the unhindered heart of red tape

... no old age, no lack, for all is "this"-abled ...

... no officials, no clients in need, no suffering, nor hours and hours of time ...

... nothing in the universe ever redundant, each totally a flowing step of the Great Program ... What's to resist? ...

... no payoff for the realization is in hand, always face-to-face Buddha.

... Standing on the rooftop, yelling "YES!"

... "Just Do It While Already Done!"

... and yet, and yet ...

... Constant clients in need, horrible bureaucracy, poverty and illness, pressing deadlines and constant delays, nearly drowning in rivers of basic needs, endless steps and kind-hearted work to be done.

Gassho, J

[Byokan]

... Amid all the endless-beginingless paperwork and at the unhindered heart of red tape

... no old age, no lack, for all is "this"-abled ...

... no officials, no clients in need, no suffering, nor hours and hours of time ...

... nothing in the universe ever redundant, each totally a flowing step of the Great Program ... What's to resist? ...

... no payoff for the realization is in hand, always face-to-face Buddha.

... Standing on the rooftop, yelling "YES!"

... "Just Do It While Already Done!"

... and yet, and yet ...

... Constant clients in need, horrible bureaucracy, poverty and illness, pressing deadlines and constant delays, nearly drowning in rivers of basic needs, endless steps and kind-hearted work to be done.

AH! Jundo, wow. Thank you.

Printing this out and putting it up at my desk!

Gassho
Lisa
sat today

[Risho]

Gassho Jundo and Lisa.

That's the rub. Nothing to fix, but you better not waste time and go fix it. hahahahah It's the ultimate zen joke.

Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

[Tai Shi]

When my 25 year old daughter came home from Japan and we had not seen her for 2 years. Tears of joy, your'e home!

[Tai Shi]

Elgwyn
Gassho
sat today

[Heisoku]

What's This? - Again and again yet not repeated.
Just This - Just Now.
This's What - ' '.

Gassho Heisoku
Sat today again and again