Realizing Genjokoan - Chapter 5 - Middle Portion

[Jundo]

Well, let us wait a few weeks, until after Jukai.

In Zen, going slow or sitting in one place is lovely. It is a time to appreciate.

We will pick up again after the Jukai readings in a few weeks.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Meitou]

Thank you Jundo and everyone for your patience.
Gassho
Meitou
Satwithyoualltoday lah

[Onka]

Thank you Jundo. I appreciate the pause. Having gotten used to Okumura's writing style I'm better able to appreciate the content so want to do it justice by not rushing. Thank you all for your patience.
Gassho
Anna
st

[TyZa]

The discussion of the substrate of reality is really interesting. Reading Jundo's concepts from the book he mentioned, made me think of this last weekend. Maybe a little off topic, but with talk of reality and what we think of as individual things that aren't really things but deluded interpretations of "things", I felt this image come back to my mind. I was in a park near a creek. The creek was calm and all the water appeared as one thing. It was calm and seemingly still and frozen in time. A few meters after that and some rocks got in the way, not a part of the water, but made the water ripple and babble. Little distinctive crests of water were formed of various sizes and shapes and came in and out of existence from the "one" thing of water. Eventually, that part of water moved past the rocks (but the totality of the water was still there) and all that commotion and individuality of the water slowly returned into a indiscernible solid oneness of water again. But for those rocks as hindrances, the substrate of water would not have been able to make (appear to make) all these unique forms of splashes and crests.

Regarding these pages of the book. What really resonated with me was on page 66. "No one can truthfully say 'I have become buddha' because there is no such thing as an independent 'I' that can do things outside of its connection to others. . . . our practice manifests Buddha."

This is my first deep dive into Master Dogen's works besides Brad Warner's Don't Be a Jerk book, which I enjoyed. But Rev. Okumura's text is so thorough, I'm really humbled by the teaching. I can't see the whole forest yet (probably never will!) but it's nice to "feel" like these concepts I've learned are starting to come together into something I can't quite put into words, but can only experience. Since it looks like we'll pick up after Jukai, I definately want to reread these chapters again (and take more notes! haha). It feels like one of those texts that needs to be read many times.

Gassho,

Tyler

SatToday