LIVING by VOW: The Heart Sutra - pp 177-185 (Stopping at No Attainment)

[Shugen]

Let’s keep dancing....

I found quite a lot in this section that spoke to me...

Shohaku gives us some background information on the Heart Sutra and continues to explain some of the key Buddhist philosophy it contains. But, he also reminds us that it is important to “go beyond the study of his…[Buddha’s]… teachings as recorded in scripture “. To make the truth of those teachings our reality, that even going “beyond Buddhism” is still Buddhism.

Shohaku also gets more personal. He describes how the sand shifted under his feet when he had to return back to Japan and how that experience changed his practice, his zazen, making it “free of ignorance and selfish desire”. He reminds us that there is no “bad” zazen, that even our “mistakes” and struggles are a part of our practice.

I would say, for me, what really stood out, what keeps circling around in my mind is this quote:

“Eliminating the negative is less important than nurturing the positive. We can be free from selfish desires without fighting against them when we are trying to help others. This is a more joyful way to practice”.

Did anything stand out for you?

Gassho,

Shugen

Sattoday/LAH

[Mp]

Thank you Shugen. =)

Gassho
Shingen

Sat/LAH

[Tairin]

Thank you Shugen.

A few things caught my attention in this section

I wanted to live a better life than ordinary people.

Reading this admission shocked me but if I am completely honest there is a bit of this in my own practice. I am a quiet practitioner. If someone wants to know about my beliefs I may discuss in some small detail but otherwise I just try to live my life. Obviously my family in the house knows and my wife sits daily with me. But I have to admit that part of me is doing this so I can be a better person than I would be otherwise.

This aspiration is called bodhi-mind. When we practice with this Way-seeking mind we are confronted with a terrible contradiction. The aspiration that motivates us to find a way of life free of suffering is merely another selfish desire. We substitute a desire for emancipation or enlightenment for the desire for fame and wealth

I definitely realized this contradiction long before I read this passage. I think this is why Shikantaza Zazen appeals to me more than say Koan based Zazen. I did study Koans for a short while but I found it impossible to not desire to solve the puzzle. My ego got in the way. I wanted to show I was smart and understood. Shikantaza takes away my ego's opportunity to latch on to something. I am literally just sitting. I am not trying to solve a puzzle or prove anything.

I think additionally this is one of the interesting aspects about TreeLeaf. No one here sees me. No one can verify that I am or am not sitting. No one here can verify my practice. Somehow that is truly liberating. I am free to practice without a checkmark or gold star from Jundo or anyone else. If I choose to sit or not sit is totally on me. I choose to sit

When we directly see and experience the Buddha's truth in our own lives, his teachngs and the scripture are irrelevant. The truth becomes a vivid reality. Seeing the reality of our lives with our own eyes through our practice is the wisdom that see emptiness. This is the wisdom that is called prajna.

In other words "All of life is our temple". To me this speaks to the seemingly dual definition of Dharma meaning both as the Buddha's teaching and the reality of all things. Open your eyes and look around. There are teachings everywhere if you put down your baggage and just see.

It occurs because we can never make the world completely conform to our desires.

I think I made this comment on the last section too. Part of the stress in my life was my desire to be in control. I tried to plan for every eventuality and analyze things to death so there was no surprises. But the universe is too complicated and the interactions too complex for any one person to control it all. There are just things beyond my control. It was the last car we bought that really settled this for me. When buying our previous car I poured over every car's manufacturing specification, I read every review and comparison. It was draining. The new car I took a simpler approach. Once we narrowed it down to the 2 cars we wanted I decided that I wasn't going to compare them. I'd assess each car on its own merits. It was liberating. I've used this approach repeatedly since. Does the outcome of the decision I need to make actually matter? Is it my need to control or can I let it go?

Hopefully my ramblings make sense.


Tairin
Sat today & LAH

[Seishin]

Just my two pence on this section, which I'll keep brief as I feel I could go on for ever.

In summary i follow the need of dropping Buddhism is Buddhism but what struck me is the same reference Tairin makes above, regarding Bodhi Mind. Reading this passage has generated lots of conflicts, contradictions and a whole library of Catch 22.

The section on Bodhi Mind has made me question my motives and "desires" for practicing. Do I have a desire to be a better person ? Yes its why I'm here and practicing, trying to follow the Eightfold Path. Is that desire strong enough to actually be a hindrance? I don't know. While I make progress in trying not be attached to "normal" desires, am I becoming too attached to the desire of following the path? I don't know. And on and on and on. Always the same answer.

So I pressed ahead into the next section and maybe things are a little clearer but I still don't know. Anyway, desire or not attached or not I will keep on practicing, until i learn to let go of such thoughts or they dissolve of their own accord.

Thank you.

[Shugen]

“I don’t know” and the “Catch 22” are a huge part of practice. How do we handle two seemingly opposite ideas at the same time? What do we do when we really don’t know what to do?

Gassho,

Shugen

Sattoday/LAH


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[Jishin]

Chop wood, fetch water.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_ , LAH

[aprapti]

“I don’t know” and the “Catch 22” are a huge part of practice. How do we handle two seemingly opposite ideas at the same time? What do we do when we really don’t know what to do?

Gassho,

Shugen

Sattoday/LAH


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That's the big question, Shugen. Zen Master Shin’ichi Hisamatsu called this the ‘fundamental koan’ . Nothing will do. What do you do. i have been pondering this one the last weeks, after the shooting.


coos
std

[Geika]

Desiring to be a better person isn't a hindrance to practice. The hindrance is the suffering caused by mistakenly thinking that we are not already the better person we think we are trying to be.

Gassho, sat today, lah

[Eishuu]

I enjoyed this section. I imagine that most of us have mixed motivations for practice, some of them selfish...is it necessary to have a completely pure motive? Will the motivation be purified through practice itself? We can't necesarily purify our ego driven motives conceptually, we'd just get into knots. I like the emphasis on the positive, on helping all beings...I think the Bodhissatva Vow is helpful there.

What I like about Shikantaza is that the ego driven part of me ends up banging it's head against the wall.

The line "Isn't the desire to eliminate ignorance caused by ignorance?" really stayed with me and is something I want to reflect on. In Shikantaza, if we are letting go of thoughts and desires then maybe this big knot of ego starts to untangle by itself..?

One thing that did confuse me was why Okumura talked about not being able to practice because of health issues. Many of us here practice lying down. Why is there such a strong connection between posture and practice in many Zen circles?

Gassho
Eishuu
ST/LAH

[Tairin]

One thing that did confuse me was why Okumura talked about not being able to practice because of health issues. Many of us here practice lying down. Why is there such a strong connection between posture and practice in many Zen circles?

My guess is it is a simple matter of tradition and this-is-the-way-it-is-done-ness.


Tairin
Sat today & LAH

[Seishin]

Desiring to be a better person isn't a hindrance to practice. The hindrance is the suffering caused by mistakenly thinking that we are not already the better person we think we are trying to be.

Gassho, sat today, lah

Thank you for this Geika.

Jishin - you cannot of heard my chainsaw way out in Texas, could you ?

[Jishin]

Jishin - you cannot of heard my chainsaw way out in Texas, could you ?

[emoji2]

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_ , LAH

[Kokuu]

Hi all

Shohaku Okumura offers such wisdom in his commentary on the Heart Sutra and this passage particularly stuck out for me:

"The lessons of the four noble truths are straightforward. We spend out lives trying to fill the emptiness we feel. When we succeed we are happy and feel as if we are in heaven. When we fail we are miserable as if we are in hell."

This is such a wonderful way to approach the noble truths that we can all understand. Instead of dealing with what reality gives us and opening up to the good and bad feelings of life, we construct a layer on top trying to cover up impermanence and dukkha. When one fun thing ends we look for the next. Finished a Netflix series? Find something else on Sky or Amazon Prime. Ended a relationship? Get straight back onto online dating sites to get the next hit of feeling good.

I once saw a book about stress and anxiety called "Too Tired to Keep Running, Too Scared to Stop." This phrase seems to sum up the experience of a lot of people in the western world. We don't want to stop and feel what is actually going on. Let us instead live vicariously through our favourite film stars and musicians and interactions on social media that give us dopamine hit after dopamine hit.

The Heart Sutra tells us that all of these are (literally) empty experiences. That being the case, so is everything else. However, if we just sit we can see that all of this beauty and magic around us arises and passes, seemingly from nowhere. We don't need to keep grabbing onto experience, just let it rise and fall in its own time.

Stop. Sit. Be.

That is all there is.

All this being said, I am a novice priest who often gets things wrong so take the above with a cellar full of salt.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Meishin]

Gassho
Meishin
Sat today LAH

[Geika]

A whole cellar, huh, Kokuu? [emoji14]

Gassho, sat today, lah

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