Opening the Hand of Thought - Chapter 8 Part 1

[Jishin]

Opening the Hand of Thought - Chapter 8 Part 1

Do the Bodhisattva Vows or other Vows play some part in your Practice?

Brad Warner summarizes the precepts in his new book as "Don't be a jerk."

I think this is a simple, understandable and memorable way to provide guidance to practice. Who knew taking and maintaining the precepts would be this easy?

My one cent.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Hoseki]

Hi Folks,

So I wanted to explore the idea of "practicing Buddhadharma only for the sake of Buddhadharma." I think that this an important because it outside the discriminating mind but still within mind. I should note there isn't an inside and outside of mind but it helps to get the gist across. So to practice Buddhadharma for the sake of Buddhadarma is to open the small self. I say open because the small self doesn't go away or is bad its just overused. Its like a collection of habits and we have one for every occasion! Or maybe like a muscle that's been tense for too long (I'm thinking of you urethral sphincter when I wake in the night and I have to pee but can't) but when one is able to open the hand of thought they are able to relax this muscle.

I also this ties into the precepts and how they lead to liberation. When emptiness is realized how would one act? Would you act at all? I think so, because we wouldn't be empty of garbage like a recently changed garbage can but full of air like a recently changed garbage can. To be empty is to be full in the widest sense. I'm no long seeing myself as this what-have-you (a husband, a father, predator, a customer etc...) but as a manifestation of the Buddhadarma. The precepts help us determine a course of action that supports the opening the hand of thought as well as promoting the well being of ourselves (small-self) and others which is included in the Buddhadarma. This is possible because we can use the precepts to counter balance our habits that have been either developed over time or are of a more primal nature.

Anywho, just my thoughts. My apologies if it seems like gibberish I was having a bit of fun.

Gassho
Adam
Sat today

[Risho]

I've overcommitted myself to too many books per the norm, so I'm playing catch up. lol

What is the meaning to you of "No gaining, no knowing" and "The expansive sky does not obstruct the floating white clouds"?

In one word, "Freedom".

These are very related concepts (no gaining and the expansive sky), when we are trying to grasp and fix an idea of how things should be we suffer. Zen is just really, really awesome because it's all about just sitting, just doing what we are doing. Even if we are angry just be angry, which is also very, very difficult. Every time I sit, without fail, I drift off and have to come back, get into a story about how I want things, justify myself or how I "won" something. But I have to come back. But this isn't bad, this is zazen! At the same time, you can't just be lazy, so it's impossible to get this right! And that's the point. You try and give it your all knowing you will not get anything. But by doing so, you do get something fantastic, but if you focus on getting, you miss it. It's weird.

I really like the part earlier on in the book, where Uchiyama Roshi says this going away and coming back (although obviously we haven't gone anywhere) is zazen. However, our logical minds would take the leap to think that hey we'll just stop thinking and that's it. But according to Roshi and Jundo, that's a mistake to think that if we just stay "here" that's zazen. It's not! That grasping onto one thing.

It's suffering because nothing sits still to be grasped. When we live out of ideas and prescribed notions, those are all the problems that brought us to practice. Ultimately they aren't problems at all, when we drop them. That's when "the expansive sky does not obstruct the floating white clouds".

Nothing is hidden, nothing is obstructed! It's right here, but hard to see because we get in our own way, we get stuck in our heads.


How is awareness of "impermanence" and that all phenomena without "independent substance" a key to Liberation? It sounds like it they would be quite the opposite.

In our minds, to live, we need to know the rules. But then we take it too far. It's like when you go to the store, and they just used to have original Doritos and so someone thought wouldn't it be great if we created 100's of flavors of these corn chips? No it would not, although cool ranch Doritos are great. Objectively they are horrible and chemically engineered to seem "great" but the food science has worked on me. lol

The point is, this is similar with our logic. We think that if something works here we can apply it to everything. But we just don't know. IN reality, things are changing and impermanent, and by accepting and more importantly realizing that it decreases our suffering because we are living life, not living in some fantasy.


Do you believe that observance of the Precepts are also a key to Liberation?

I do. It's hard, and this theme comes up again and again during Jukai study that in our Judeo Christian culture we want to think of the precepts as rules or commandments that if we do them we'll be good little zennies. But that's not it.

The precepts are examples of what living a balanced life looks like. Of course, they are impossible to keep, which also makes the Bodhisattva path fun because although we all vow to uphold them, we can only really do them in our unique way. So there is no one who can give us the answers, we have to figure them out, but I'm getting off on a tangent.

Each of the precepts shows us what the liberated life is, and what does freedom mean? What does liberation mean? Does it mean that you are free to do whatever the hell you want? Maybe that is freedom from an egoistic point of view, but I think (and for the life of me I can't remember where I just read this) real freedom comes from a place where you resist things that are harmful and express yourself in ways that are helpful.

And the precepts are nice guidelines to give us examples of living a helpful and full life. A life that isn't narrow by selfishness, a life that is expansive and open to what's going on, to be available where we need to be instead of complaining that our needs aren't being met.


What do you make of "practicing Buddhadharma only for the sake of Buddhadharma"?

I think this is the same point as "No gaining, no knowledge". Zazen isn't about getting, it's about giving ourselves freely to life. It's about sitting with things as they are, to accept how they unfold, to watch our tendencies and thoughts. I can't write about it any more, but we don't ever sit zazen. Zazen sits us.


Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

[AlanLa]

What pops into my head when I read this chapter is the idea of perfection. What is perfection? It is an idea that people become a slave to. It is the idea that he/she/us can in some way be the expansive sky without clouds. It is a prison. It is a cause (the cause?) of suffering. It is something to let go of, to be liberated from, because when you do that, when you open your hand of thought, your idea, when you free yourself form that idyllic prison of perfection, then you can finally taste some freedom. But that's not why I practice. I don't practice to be free. Practicing is freedom.

Perfection sucks. I have no interest in being any version of an expansive sky void of clouds. I am a cloud, dammit! And I float around in the sky that surrounds me. Sometimes I bump into things, sometimes I storm, sometimes there's very little of me there at all, and it's all fine. I am part of the sky. I give the sky texture. The sky needs me, and this cloud that I call "ALAN" needs the sky.

Do the precepts help me to be more or less of a cloud in the sky? Well, that's a silly question, but I try to keep them the best I can anyway.
Do I practice only for the sake of Buddhadharma? Hell, I don't know. I'm just a cloud. Cloud_sky.jpg