BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 51

[Kotei]

Thank you,

more, and less to think, than I thought.

Will not write window above my windows, it would confuse my cats, they think it's a door.

Gassho,
Kotei sattoday.

[Toun]

Great comments and a lot of insight.

As I read the koan I tried to make sense of it by using "pure logic" and that's when things started to get a little rough for me. I guess you have to approach this sort of thing with the "heart" and just let the words and images speak to you. I find that it might be resonating with me on a deeper or more subtle level which goes beyond the senses...but then again I might be wrong!

Time to just sit with it.

Gassho
Mike

Sat today

[Jika]

Will not write window above my windows, it would confuse my cats, they think it's a door.

Gassho
Jika
#sattoday

[Marco]

After reading through the koan and notes a few times, a particular thought kept coming up for me. As I mentioned earlier, this is my first koan, and I feel like I am missing the mark hear. Nevertheless, here is what came up for me.

As an art student, I remember the emphasis placed on seeing the actual color of things. A task that, on the surface, seemed simple. However, it turned out to be very difficult. Here is how you can test this for yourself: Wherever you are, look at spot on an object, and decide on the color you think it is. Next, cup your hand into a circle, leaving just enough of a hole in the middle so you can peak through it. Now, look at the spot you previously picked through the hole in your hand. Most likely, you will find that the color is different than what you thought it was. For most of us, we tend to see color by what we think it is, rather than what it is. For example, we may know that couch is a greyish blue color (that’s what it said on the tag when we bought it!) so, when we look at it we think “bluish grey”. In reality however, the color of the couch is dependent on the environment in which it sits: is it sunny? Is there a warm yellow light in the room? Is there a red pillow on the couch? All of these things affect its actual color at this moment (as we perceive it). Even though I know this, I still get caught by this ‘illusion’ when I’m painting. I think most of our lives are like this; more often than not, we are viewing the world based on what we project on it, not what it is. So, for my novice mind, the window is the window in my mind (not the window) – the door, is the door in my mind (not the door).

Gassho,
Marco

[Jundo]

... The point is you never arrive at the other shore, because to arrive there is to conceptualize it as something separate from yourself, which it cannot be. This is why ongoing practice is important. The moment we say to ourselves that we reached a point in our understanding, we have demonstrated that we are deluding ourselves. You have to keep getting lost on purpose, by decentering your perceived understanding, with ongoing practice. As one of our four vows states, "I vow to transform all delusions, though delusions inexhaustible".

There is no coming or going because everything is in flux. WE are not products, but processes of transformation. This seems to me to be the nature of ongoing transformation: worldly dharma (the practice of zen) enlightens, but recognizing this "enlightenment" is buddhadharma's delusion. And so we get back into our vehicle on our way to noplace (buddhadharma in performance, rather than as a representation of something outside us).

Hmmmm. This resonates for me. Perhaps we may say that life is constant change, moving on and getting lost, for without such the world would be frozen, lifeless and stagnant. Yet, through this Practice we realize such which is beyond all change, always at home, cannot be lost. All at once. Nonetheless, although we can never be "lost" (in a Buddha Eye) even when "lost", we do our best in each choice of word, thought and act not to wander off into life's poison ivy of greed, anger and divisive thoughts in ignorance.

Dogen also said, “There is the principle of the Way that we must make one mistake after another” (Eihei Koroku, Dogen’s Extensive Record, p. 132). Get up and sometimes fall. Yet through this Practice we realize too that no "mistake" was ever possible, all the ups and downs each shine in their way, and there was no place to fall. All at once. Nonetheless, we do our best not to make mistakes in life, stumble and fall.

This is how I express "Practice-Enlightenment", and why we never put the raft down, even though there was no raft or river from the outset.

Gassho, J

SatToday

[John Mac]

Hi,

I've thought about this one, and sat with it this morning, to me it seems to be about the nature of arriving or being. How did you get here? ...my answer would be 'I've always been here', maybe I haven't realised, but I've always 'been' or to put it another way, I 'am'. Anything more is description of a process. Is it a very deceptively simple thing to recognise that all there is is to be and that outside of that there are only constructions? .....Maybe I'm looking to deep, I don't know. ...

[Kokuu]

Q: Where did you park your car?
A: Who said I ever turned off the ignition and got out?

[FaithMoon]

I'm envisioning the Book of Equanimity as a fleet of 100 rafts!

FaithMoon
st

[Kotei]

Each time, I read this case, it seems to throw light on something different.

Today, it seems to tell me about "taking the middle way".
Worldly dharma and buddha dharma, becoming one. No total enlightenment, no total delusion.
Talking about one and asking about the other... The answer is not to be found in just one.

Gassho,
Kotei sattoday.

[Jwroberts27]

Yet, through this Practice we realize such which is beyond all change, always at home, cannot be lost. All at once. Nonetheless, although we can never be "lost" (in a Buddha Eye) even when "lost", we do our best in each choice of word, thought and act not to wander off into life's poison ivy of greed, anger and divisive thoughts in ignorance.

Dogen also said, “There is the principle of the Way that we must make one mistake after another” (Eihei Koroku, Dogen’s Extensive Record, p. 132). Get up and sometimes fall. Yet through this Practice we realize too that no "mistake" was ever possible, all the ups and downs each shine in their way, and there was no place to fall. All at once. Nonetheless, we do our best not to make mistakes in life, stumble and fall.

This is how I express "Practice-Enlightenment", and why we never put the raft down, even though there was no raft or river from the outset.

Gassho, J

SatToday

Thank you very much, Jundo for your response. Perhaps then it can be said that you never arrive at the other shore, since you have always been on the other shore, despite perceived short-comings. The term "Practice-Enlightenment" really drives home what I am getting at. Not to get too bogged down in concepts and language, but I think "Practice" seems to be taking on two meanings: 1. Worldly action taken towards enlightenment, i.e., acting with wisdom and right seeing (mediation in the general sense of living life with awareness), and 2. as synonymous with "enlightenment", that is, such practice is not separate from "enlightened" action, or the non-river that is always flowing and in flux.

Could we say that Practice (1) (cultivating self-awareness) is the reminder of Practice (2) (thusness)? There was never someplace to go, since we have always been there/here. Still, we lose sight of this truth, and this is the reason to continue cultivating. We can say then, practice is just practice. We are not striving to understand something, since actually, we already understand it/and live it. We are just clearing the weeds in the lawn, so that we don't trip and fall over a sprinkler, cause that sucks...though that is part of life too.

But perhaps this maintenance metaphor is too simplistic?

Gassho,
John

SatToday

[John Mac]

Good morning friends,

In the course of contemplating this Koan, I was struck by this from Master Dogen, it seems particularly relevant.

'But do not ask me where I am going, as I travel in this limitless world,
Where every step I take is my home ' ~ Dogen.

[Ongen]

Hi all

DOES THE ZENNY LOGIC OF WHAT I DESCRIBE SEEM CLEAR OR CONFUSING TO YOU?

Yes it does

I am quite sure that Hogen was right when he said that stuff about the boat being in the river, the river being the river and the boat being the boat, there really is no other place it can be in.
I don't know about that Zen Eye though. It seems to me the boat being in the river is more reasonable than someone having some kind of Zen Eye.

HOW MIGHT IT HELP US LIVE OUR LIVES FREE?

If we see that the boat is in the river, we also see that our lives are nothing else than free. This reminds me of the story about Dogen who just returned from China and some fellow buddhists come to him and ask him what he learned there, and he answers them "I learned that my nose is vertical and my eyes are horizontal."

Gassho
Ongen

Sat Today

[Tairin]

I've been thinking about this one for the past 10 days and I keep coming back to this....

Does it matter how I came here (by land or by water)? i am here now. Turns out I have always been here, although like everyone getting here has been a journey. My journey to get here (by boat) is something I now need to leave behind me (not become attached to). I am here.

Gassho
Warren
sat today

[FaithMoon]

If you want to hear Maezumi Roshi's teisho on the cases in the Book of Equanimity, you can buy a (fairly) complete set of talks on a USB drive from here:

http://www.zencenter.com/Store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=37

Maezumi Roshi was Shishin Wick's teacher. To locate this particular case in the archive, you would search for Shoyo Roku 51. (The Book of Equanimity is also known as the Shoyo Roku.)