Case 56 never ends, and so we carry off to Case 57, Genryo's One Thing ...
A love song or poem, no matter have well written and expressed, can never capture the actual experience of live romance and heartbreak. Yet, we do love our love songs.
No written description or movie, no matter the budget for special effects, can truly convey the emotions and sensations of getting on a rocket and riding into space. However, for most of us earth bound folks, that is as close as we can come.
Likewise, Zen Practice-Enlightenment is to be truly known in the bones and lived. It is to be known first hand and lived, not merely described. Saying that "all is one" does not cut it. Saying all is "not one not two" is missing the mark. Saying "it is so one beyond one that there is not even one ... yet there is and all the countless things" dances around it. One has to actually live this romance to understand, nonetheless the love songs are the best we have sometimes to share the experience.
Fortunately, while space travel and walking on the moon may be beyond most of us, and something few will know, the "Moon of Enlightenment" is open to all of us I believe with practice and realization. Suddenly, the meaning of the "love songs" of Zen will become clear in one's heart. Phrases such a "not one not two" actually start to make sense and, most importantly, the "proof is in the pudding" face of this Path is proven by its actual walking.
I love the image in the Preface of "raising your voice to quiet an echo", not realizing that the voice is the source of the echo. We ride an ox looking for an ox, like a dog chasing its own tail. Do we not realize that all we see is the ox as is the trail, rider and riding itself, that the dog is tail from head to foot, and that both silence and words and echo is the Buddha Preaching?
Gassho, J
SatToday
A love song or poem, no matter have well written and expressed, can never capture the actual experience of live romance and heartbreak. Yet, we do love our love songs.
No written description or movie, no matter the budget for special effects, can truly convey the emotions and sensations of getting on a rocket and riding into space. However, for most of us earth bound folks, that is as close as we can come.
Likewise, Zen Practice-Enlightenment is to be truly known in the bones and lived. It is to be known first hand and lived, not merely described. Saying that "all is one" does not cut it. Saying all is "not one not two" is missing the mark. Saying "it is so one beyond one that there is not even one ... yet there is and all the countless things" dances around it. One has to actually live this romance to understand, nonetheless the love songs are the best we have sometimes to share the experience.
Fortunately, while space travel and walking on the moon may be beyond most of us, and something few will know, the "Moon of Enlightenment" is open to all of us I believe with practice and realization. Suddenly, the meaning of the "love songs" of Zen will become clear in one's heart. Phrases such a "not one not two" actually start to make sense and, most importantly, the "proof is in the pudding" face of this Path is proven by its actual walking.
I love the image in the Preface of "raising your voice to quiet an echo", not realizing that the voice is the source of the echo. We ride an ox looking for an ox, like a dog chasing its own tail. Do we not realize that all we see is the ox as is the trail, rider and riding itself, that the dog is tail from head to foot, and that both silence and words and echo is the Buddha Preaching?
Gassho, J
SatToday
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