BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 60

[Amelia]

Gassho, Kokuu

Sat today

[Matt]

"Tommorrow there's a feast on Mount Tai. How will you go?"

I strive to reach Mount Tai daily. At work I am consumed with finishing an impossible list of tasks, often working frantically to get as much done as quickly as possible. Likewise on the weekends I have a list in my head of all that needs to be done before I can relax and enjoy life.

Ryutetsuma and Isan seem to be in no hurry. They have nothing to prove. I get the sense they are enjoying themselves. I feel that I often take myself too seriously and so would do well to learn from the example of these elderly masters.

Gassho
Matt
#SatToday

[Tairin]

As always it is interesting to read everyone's thoughts on the koan. Thank you


Personally it was Wick's commentary that resonated with me.

....when your life and people, even those close to you, goad you, or criticize you, how easy is it to just let go?

Certainly something I suffer from. Hard to take criticism or harsh comments, accept them, and then let them go without attaching to them by carrying them around.

I agree that by laying down Isan is letting go rather than reacting and potentially escalating the exchange. As for the actual exchange, I think it has a friendly vibe to it but I think Isan and Ryutetsuma were testing each other's ability to not attach to the words being spoken.

Gassho
Warren
Sat today

[AlanLa]

I will not play today. See yourself out.

[Risho]

Case 59 never ends, and so we lay down Case 60, Ryutetsuma's Old Cow ...

One of the few Koans to prominently feature a woman, and she gets called an "old cow"! Hmmm. For a Way beyond Preferences and Distinctions, maybe just a little sexism in Zen and all Buddhism (although perhaps just of reflection of the conservative, traditional Indian, Chinese, Japanese and other Asian countries where these folks lived). What do you think about that? Shishin Wick believes that the reference to "Old Cow" is actually to a symbol of wisdom and one's True Nature. Still, the Zen world, Buddhist Sutras and these Koans are rather a sausage festival.

In any case, as Shishin Wick points out in his commentary, the fact that it would be physically impossible to travel so far away as "Mount Tai tomorrow" has a message for a Sangha such as ours which transcends here and there, time and distance. Do you taste, or have experienced, how Enlightenment transcends time and space? Thus Kyozan is quoted as saying (to modernize), "if you beat a drum in China, they dance in Paris".

Was Isan's lying down such laziness and surrender? Or was it more a "no need to do, all has been said and done" statement?

Even though Isan lay down and the Old Cow left, do you feel that they met on Mount Tai or not?

Gassho, J

SatToday

Apologies, I'm still playing catch up. Thank you all for your responses. It's funny how much everyone influences my practice here. I take it for granted, but sangha is so important to my practice.

1. Sexism - I would like to hope that we are going to evolve out of this, just like we will hopefully learn to live with and truly respect people who are different from our "tribe".

Sidenote: I love how the Japanese language converts Chinese names. I didn't realize this was "Iron Grindstone" Liu until after reading the commentary. I've always had a softspot for her; I know this is all based on what I've read, but I picture her as a spitfire that didn't take crap.

2. Do you taste, or have experienced, how Enlightenment transcends time and space? I think so; I don't know how to explain it, but during zazen there are times when there is no differentiation; then I notice and it's gone. It comes and goes, comes and goes.

3. Was Isan's lying down such laziness and surrender? Or was it more a "no need to do, all has been said and done" statement?

I feel inspired by Dogen. lol

The Buddha, Patriarchs, Matriarchs, Bodhisattva's, Mahasattva's all knew what it was to lie down.

True lying down is not dependent on standing, sitting, or lying. There is standing-lying down, sitting-lying down, lying down while active, lying down while inactive.

Zazen is a vigorous act of inactivity. In zazen, we drop all thoughts of here and there, right and wrong, sitting or standing. This is true lying down. This beyond good and evil is true good. This lying down beyond sitting or standing is true lying down. That does not mean that good and evil are meaningless; we should always strive to be good, but it's that the good may more readily spring forth if we learn how to walk while lying down.

When you are fully engaged with this, not worried about past or present, all energy here and now, this is lying down as Isan did. That's why zazen is so awesome. It allows us to focus all of our energy here and now and learn how to lie down without any distraction. We can extend this same attitude into all that we do. We can also apply what we learn in whatever field we have experience in and apply it to zazen, lying down.

But know that lying down is not lying down. Sitting zazen by trying to empty your head of thoughts or stop thoughts is not true zazen. That is zombie zen. Similarly, lying down to give up or avoid things is not true lying down. This would be the exact opposite of what Isan did.

True lying down is the vigorous activity of all the ancestors and can only be realized by not trying to sit properly; however, this does not mean that we can do whatever we like. So while there is no proper way to sit, we should endeavor to practice zazen wholeheartedly so that we do not sit improperly.

It's like when you practice a profession. After years and years of honing your craft, maybe after 10 years, you start to see it, you learn that to be fully engaged in what you are doing, cutting through to the problem and solving things is lying down. It is only through facing failures and getting back on the cushion, not giving up, that we learn how to lie down.

We earn a place among the ancestors with this lying down, and only then can we offer our unique gift to the world. So although, externally, lying down may seem like it's some non-chalant, lackadaisical response to the world. There is no outside and inside, and it is only through effort that we learn how to lie down as Isan did.

Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

[Byokan]

... I feel inspired by Dogen. lol

The Buddha, Patriarchs, Matriarchs, Bodhisattva's, Mahasattva's all knew what it was to lie down.

True lying down is not dependent on standing, sitting, or lying. There is standing-lying down, sitting-lying down, lying down while active, lying down while inactive.

Zazen is a vigorous act of inactivity. In zazen, we drop all thoughts of here and there, right and wrong, sitting or standing. This is true lying down. This beyond good and evil is true good. This lying down beyond sitting or standing is true lying down. That does not mean that good and evil are meaningless; we should always strive to be good, but it's that the good may more readily spring forth if we learn how to walk while lying down.

When you are fully engaged with this, not worried about past or present, all energy here and now, this is lying down as Isan did. That's why zazen is so awesome. It allows us to focus all of our energy here and now and learn how to lie down without any distraction. We can extend this same attitude into all that we do. We can also apply what we learn in whatever field we have experience in and apply it to zazen, lying down.

But know that lying down is not lying down. Sitting zazen by trying to empty your head of thoughts or stop thoughts is not true zazen. That is zombie zen. Similarly, lying down to give up or avoid things is not true lying down. This would be the exact opposite of what Isan did.

True lying down is the vigorous activity of all the ancestors and can only be realized by not trying to sit properly; however, this does not mean that we can do whatever we like. So while there is no proper way to sit, we should endeavor to practice zazen wholeheartedly so that we do not sit improperly.

It's like when you practice a profession. After years and years of honing your craft, maybe after 10 years, you start to see it, you learn that to be fully engaged in what you are doing, cutting through to the problem and solving things is lying down. It is only through facing failures and getting back on the cushion, not giving up, that we learn how to lie down.

We earn a place among the ancestors with this lying down, and only then can we offer our unique gift to the world. So although, externally, lying down may seem like it's some non-chalant, lackadaisical response to the world. There is no outside and inside, and it is only through effort that we learn how to lie down as Isan did.

Risho,

this made my head spin and I had to go lie down. Thank you so much. This is very helpful.

Gassho
Byōkan
sat today