Realizing Genjokoan - Chapter 3 - P 42 to end of Chapter

[Heiso]

Yes, this chapter really pulls together the opening 3 sentences for me. It takes the concept of emptiness right to the heart of our practice: the cycle of samasara and nirvana and shows that these too are empty of seperate existence.

It really highlighted the concept of the pathless path and goal-less practice, of how to seek an escape is just ego and the importance of the radical acceptance that everything just is already with nothing needing to be added of taken away. That, as we chant, nirvana is already here.

I like how Okamura Roshi describes that goal-less practice as opening the hand of though and just facing what we have to face and that sitting zazen can be the whole body and mind seeing the emptiness of itself in practive.

Another point about this section isthat it also confirmed that by trying to understand the Buddha's teaching through intellectual understanding alone we are creating even more samsara - this seems to fit with my own approach to reading Dogen. When I just let go and went with the jazz, things made a lot more sense ( I recommend John Coltrane's album 'A Love Supreme').

Sorry, those notes seem a bit random - I jotted them down a while back but forgot to type them up.

Gassho,

Neil

StLah

[Shonin Risa Bear]

I like these notes, Neil.

Gassho
Doyu sat today

[Tokan]

Hi everyone. I'm coming to this thread a bit late so I will briefly pull out a few things from the book so far that have been particularly poignant for me. Before I do so though, I wish to say that I am ever grateful to those who dedicate a great deal of their time and practice to presenting Dogen's teachings in such an everyday manner. Secondly, I am grateful to those who steer such works away from a purely intellectual understanding of the texts, to their relevance (if not their necessity) for guiding our practice. Thirdly, I am grateful to all past, present, and future teachers and sangha members who keep these teachings alive through their practice.

Although the wind’s nature is always present, to “feel the wind” we must “wave a fan.”

It may sound silly, but it took me a long time to understand this response in terms of the necessity of practice in the realisation of practice-enlightenment. I had previously ‘understood’ it, but on this rereading it struck me between the eyes like an arrow. So I wave my fan and try to drop all thought of waving the fan.

We must use self-identity to live responsibly in society, but we should realize that it is merely a tool, a symbol, a sign, or a concept. Because it enables us to think and discriminate, self-identity allows us to live and function. Although it is not the only reality of our lives, self-identity is a reality for us, a tool we must use to live with others in society.

This aroused an acknowledgement in me of the ‘two extremes’ of practice that Buddha taught, and that the ‘self’ is no more than what we should expect to have, having been born human.

Nirvana is the way of life that is based on awakening to the reality of impermanence and lack of independent existence. It is not a special stage of practice, nor is it a certain condition of mind; it is simply the way to live one’s life in accordance with reality.

No need to speak about the above paragraph, I am grateful to have been saved from the delusion of attaining or ‘chasing’ nirvana, as in….

Mahayana teachings such as the Heart Sutra, however, emphasize a different expression of reality. From the perspective of prajna, if we think there are fixed places or conditions called “samsara,” “nirvana,” “delusion,” and “enlightenment,” our practice becomes merely an attempt to escape from what we think is undesirable. In this situation we cannot be released from samsara and delusion, because in trying to escape them we actually create them.

Dōgen says that the five aggregates are not obstacles to awakening, because they are themselves manifestations of impermanence and lack of independent existence; they express the reality of all beings and are therefore prajna.

I have to say I’ve never been a fan of the practices (?Theravaden) of considering this body, and all its component parts as objects of disgust. I understand they may help to break attachment to the body, but I prefer to just accept it for what it is, and I believe this is what Dogen is telling us.


Realizing Genjokoan - Chapter 3 - P 42 to end of Chapter

If we don’t find nirvana within samsara, there is no place we can find nirvana. If we don’t find peacefulness within our busy daily lives, there is no place we can find peacefulness.
And…

Dōgen’s answer to this question was “just practice”; not because we want to escape from samsara, not because we want to reach nirvana, but just practice right now, right here without any agenda. With this kind of practice, nirvana is already here. Of course when we practice in this way, samsara is still here too. So within this practice, at this moment, both nirvana and samsara are present.

All I can do is sit with that thought, and then let that thought drop away too.

This book, on this reading, has drawn me deeper into Dogen’s practice, I am seeing that Dogen’s practice is, in some ways, apart from Buddhism, yet never departing from the Buddha’s enlightenment. There doesn’t seem to be much I can say, just bow, sit, eat, and be buddha.

Tokan

Gassho, sattoday, LAH

[Shonin Risa Bear]

Wow, Tokan. _()_

Gassho
Doyu sat and lah today