Realizing Genjokoan - Chapter 5 - Last Portion

[Shinshi]

A monk asked Master Chao-chou, "Has a dog the Buddha Nature or not?" Chao-chou said, Moo!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Heiso]

I always find the water analogy refreshing .............. as is the water. I often see this as the epitome of "oneness". I can lay awake listening to the rain, thinking that the process of evaporation/precipitation and all the elements involved to make that happen, means the water I drink has been cycling this planet for eons and could have come from any of the four corners of the world. I imagine evaporation in the Pacific ocean, leading to rainfall in the Andes, flowing in rivers to the Atlantic. A tropical storm over the Indian Ocean resulting a downpour in Africa, rivers feeding the Mediterranean and the process repeating until a reservoir is filled in France and the water finds its way to my tap and eventually my glass, which is filled with the Universe and I with it, not I not us. Without the Universe, no Sun, no evaporation, no water, no us. True interdependence. Simples

That's beautiful, Seishin. I do appreciate a good pun too.

Gassho,

Heiso

StLah

[Heikyo]

This section of chapter 5 really resonated with me. Modern society conditions us to perceive ourselves as discrete entities acting selfishly in our own little bubbles, with a complete disconnect from everything around us. For me, this really gets to the core of what is wrong. If only more people could connect to our environment at a deeper level, we would be in a more compassionate world. As Rev Okumura says:

We are intimately connected to things in our environment, so much so that they are actually part of us. We are all the things that we experience; we are created by them.

[Onka]

I'm still catching up but am reading everyone's thoughts.
Gassho
Anna
Stlah

[Ippo]

Hello,

This is my first real taste of Dogen's writings. It is quite beautiful and I think the author has done a wonderful job.

Jundo, I remember several of us talked on an earlier thread about Thich Nhat Hanh's kind 'mechanical' and 'materialistic' way of describing oneness. I have to admit your descriptions about this and guidance are more natural to me as it feels more like an experience.

I think you illustrated that nicely here:

I drink milk which came from a cow, fed on grass nurtured by the sun.

becomes a single verb which is:

... drinkingmilkcowgrasssunIsungrasscowmilkdrinkinging cowsunIgrassdrinkingmilk ....

Reminds me of German somehow. Or scrambling the whole above even further ...

... irssgkoainnasisuarnkunckcdsindiIgIiriwlgngdnsnkusn mmkrwckmigrroglinoswilgs ...

which maybe is just this drinking right here in every swallow ...

Something like that.

In any case, one can experience or, at least, know deep in the bones that "I drink milk" is actually this immediate sweet taste of cows and field, sun and moon, all the world and the farthest star too, including all the past and future.

You see a glass of milk on a table, and your hand reaches out to grab it ... but the whole "loop" of "sun, grass, cow, milk, glass, table, light photons, eye, brain, thirst, desire, hand, reaching, tongue, tasting" is actually one single phenomenon ... one loop that embodies and includes the whole world as part of the process, even a moth fluttering in Tunisia 1000 years ago and a grain of dust on a planet several light years away. That loop is actually your greater "you" as much as your own nose or your own backside (but before it goes to your head, your "you" is actually just swept up in the process too, a link in the chain).


STLah

This just gives me a natural urge to sit not for any other reason than to sit...

Thank you for this thread and book, Wonderful.

Gassho,

Ippo

SatToday

[Ippo]

I'm still catching up but am reading everyone's thoughts.
Gassho
Anna
Stlah

I hope you're not reading ALL our thoughts

Gassho,

Ippo

SatToday

[Kotei]

Back at reading, too...

A good reminder for the interconnectedness, this eating and drinking and *itting business...
I like how we witness this with Oryoki, our meal chants and such.

When reading about this, I am always reminded on this "how many atoms of Buddha/Dschingis Khan/Jesus/etc. are in my own body" question.
I once looked it up on the net and found a calculation from a mathematician, who quickly came to the conclusion, that it's not about how the atoms from the dead corpse found it's way back into the world, but about how much the subject was breathing, eating, drinking, sweating, *issing and *itting during it's life.
There ist no 'my body's atoms', the question is wrong.

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Onka]

Good morning comrades
Two bits of this portion stood out to me, one in an identifying way and one in a rectifying way.
Page 59
"Our self-centeredness causes many problems for us and others, so we must practice in order to live naturally and peacefully in accordance with reality. The desire to rid ourselves of self-centeredness and live in accordance with reality gives us the energy to practice zazen and study Buddha Dharma."

and

Page 72
"At all times we have the potential to act with either magnanimity or egocentricity, to do either right or wrong. Both Buddha and demons are living within us, so we need to live our lives moment by moment, being led by vow and repentance."

These passages really stuck with me because I put a lot of pressure on myself. In every way this is self-centeredness and to find peace is what drives my daily practice.
This pressure I put on myself is, despite my reluctance to admit, driven by ego and the need to feel that I'm not a fraud or faking it (what?).
Anyone who knows me will agree that I do the vow part of the second statement pretty well but I mostly find accepting that repentance is ok to be challenge.

Anyway, just another barely coherent mind fart...
Gassho
Onka
stlah