8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

[Jundo]

No where to walk, no place to go ... yet time to climb out of bed.

Nothing to say, spoken in silence ... yet why has the cat got your tongue?

You are neither one with it nor separate, so intimate that there is no place to look for "it". Yet the direction you walk in life, the words you choose to say or not ... make all the difference in the world! I often feel of "Buddha", "Mind" etc. ... like "dance" ... as verb more than just noun ... verbs of action realized though our words, thoughts and deeds. How we dance ... Buddha dance or delusion dance ... makes all the difference ... even though all is just the Buddha dance dancing

Do not get so caught up in Keizan's "mother's and father's are not close to me." His point is that true intimacy is not even concerned about being close or not close ... so close and intimate it is! (Keizan was actually a fellow who was a loyal son to his mother all his life, keeping her close by even in old age ... perhaps with a bit of a "mother complex" in fact. Read more here .... Faure p. 39
http://books.google.com/books?id=XxF0P7 ... er&f=false )

Thus, we can also penetrate "the Buddhas are not my Way" for "my Way is Buddha way" ... and "Way" is an active "way to go" as the most intimate "no place else you can go to find Buddha". Like the words "fire" and "flames", the flames need not go anywhere to find fire ... yet all actively burns (Keizan makes a similar point using two Japanese words that both me "eye"). And will you choose to be the Buddha's flame providing light in the darkness, or the flames of delusion which burn down the house of our lives?

In the preceding chapter on Buddhanandi, one might have thought that all words and debate about Buddha, Practice, Enlightenment are not "Truth". Yet here we are told that "no place to go" is not only lying in bed for 50 years with our lips sealed.

Cook p. 68, Hixon p. 69

Gassho, J

[Taylor]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

The 88 marks of a Buddha - height, weight, scent, etc...

If we think every Buddha smells sweet, we miss learning from those who smell like filth. If we think every Buddha glows, we miss learning from those who appear sullen and faded. If we think every Buddha must have the calmest, clearest mind, we miss learning from those who seem insane.

Just as much, if we think that Buddha's look like statues and must act in such and such a way, we miss ourselves and Buddha never sees his/herself in the mirror when we brush our teeth. It could never be closer than it already is. This Buddha doesn't know it yet. This Buddha has family turbulence, is leaving again for college in 7 days, and this Buddha has anxiety issues now and then. Shakyamuni probably didn't, Dogen probably didn't, Keizan probably didn't. But I am not Shakyamuni, Dogen, or Keizan!

I used to hold books so carefully, trying never to give them an improper look. Today, our book club books and the Rinzai-roku held my water glass to give me a free-hand as I opened a door. I don't think any of the authors would mind.

Gassho
Taylor

[Jundo]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

... and this Buddha has anxiety issues now and then. Shakyamuni probably didn't, Dogen probably didn't, Keizan probably didn't. But I am not Shakyamuni, Dogen, or Keizan!

Don't be so sure. One need not go very far in their writings to find that they had their own burdens and issues and quirks ... although they certainly seemed to have learned to carry them well.

Thank you, as always, Taylor.

Gassho, J

[Taigu]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

No place to go means that this place is perfect as it is. This place being perfect as it is doesn't mean that we should linger here forever. This place is the meeting and merging of the self and everything, the self changes, everything changes, and so movement takes place. This place is no specific location in space and time, it surely cannot be measured and has no bounds. At the same time, we may call it room, countryside, city, country. No place to go means perfection cannot be found through searches and journeys. The sole purpose of journeys is to exhaust the very illusion that anything worth it will come out of them. You are always back where you started. This place.

gassho

Taigu

[Tb]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

Hi.

This is a good one.
It could be said with the words, "you don't always get what you expect..."

A very good teaching, which we should take to heart.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[Janne H]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

Hi,

Hixon p.69, quote:

"with Buddha perception, discerns white radiance emanating from its inner chambers. He remarks to his companions: "A great being resides here.""

These words seem a little bit off, somewhat superstitious, does an awakened being emanate white radiance? Or is this just a way of telling the story, a variation of the awakened Buddha floting around on a cloud. Maybe the story just went around, one person telling the other, slitely changing the words, got accepted in the end when written down?

The name Buddhamitra "friend of awakeness" (as translated by Hixon) has probably been made up by the storymakers/keepers, as with many names in the other stories/records in this book, like Bodhidharma for instance. The names seem to be somewhat containing the story, or transmission. Am I on to something here, or did these persons really exist with these given names?

Janne

[Rich]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

"It is getting you to realize that your Mind is what it is"

"Think quietly about this: inside is not close, and outside is not separate"

It's OK to feel separate sometimes, with the fear and anxiety that often comes with separateness. The important thing is to just feel it, accept it, be it and return to your practice. I know I will never be a perfectly enlightened being but I will always be trying to practice.

I misplaced the Hixon book but expect to have it back in a few days.
/Rich

[Amelia]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

Hixon p.69, quote:

"with Buddha perception, discerns white radiance emanating from its inner chambers. He remarks to his companions: "A great being resides here.""

These words seem a little bit off, somewhat superstitious, does an awakened being emanate white radiance? Or is this just a way of telling the story, a variation of the awakened Buddha floting around on a cloud. Maybe the story just went around, one person telling the other, slitely changing the words, got accepted in the end when written down?

I do not know the answer to your question specifically, and I am not trying to bring any fluff whatsoever into this, but I do feel that I have seen a physical white radiance coming off of most anything alive. Call it an aura, ki; etc., but I can't really deny the presence of this "white radiance" in existence from time to time.

[Taylor]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

Hixon p.69, quote:

"with Buddha perception, discerns white radiance emanating from its inner chambers. He remarks to his companions: "A great being resides here.""

These words seem a little bit off, somewhat superstitious, does an awakened being emanate white radiance? Or is this just a way of telling the story, a variation of the awakened Buddha floting around on a cloud. Maybe the story just went around, one person telling the other, slitely changing the words, got accepted in the end when written down?

I do not know the answer to your question specifically, and I am not trying to bring any fluff whatsoever into this, but I do feel that I have seen a physical white radiance coming off of most anything alive. Call it an aura, ki; etc., but I can't really deny the presence of this "white radiance" in existence from time to time.

India was a magical land to the Japanese of keizan's time. The western heaven, I believe, it was called in the introduction. Thus things are a bit more fanciful :P more than likely stories handed down and changed, embellished maybe. But it's just as amazing that people don't radiate light, what with all the electro-chemical energy inside us 8)

Either way, light or no light, just a person doing their thing. Magically non-magical.

Gassho
Taylor

[Jundo]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

Hixon p.69, quote:

"with Buddha perception, discerns white radiance emanating from its inner chambers. He remarks to his companions: "A great being resides here.""

These words seem a little bit off, somewhat superstitious, does an awakened being emanate white radiance? Or is this just a way of telling the story, a variation of the awakened Buddha floting around on a cloud. Maybe the story just went around, one person telling the other, slitely changing the words, got accepted in the end when written down?

I do not know the answer to your question specifically, and I am not trying to bring any fluff whatsoever into this, but I do feel that I have seen a physical white radiance coming off of most anything alive. Call it an aura, ki; etc., but I can't really deny the presence of this "white radiance" in existence from time to time.

I personally am a skeptic and agnostic on such things ... and overall I do not believe in auras, ki and such, which I tend to see as hocus-pocus bunkum. Most "evidence" seems circumstantial, easily explained away or simply rumor. Folks believe all kinds of things! People like "special effects", in their Hollywood movies and in their religions.

That being said ... it all could be (I don't shut the door)! It is just not important or vital to my practice of Zazen.

For me, it is just as powerful to take such talk of auras ... or disappearing wine goblets, folks who suddenly walked and talked after 50 years silent in bed, mind reading and all the rest ... as symbols for the profound. Same for stories of Jesus' walking on water and turning loaves to fishes.

What Truth is that seeking to convey?

Gassho, Jundo

[Shogen]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

No place to go means that this place is perfect as it is. This place being perfect as it is doesn't mean that we should linger here forever. This place is the meeting and merging of the self and everything, the self changes, everything changes, and so movement takes place. This place is no specific location in space and time, it surely cannot be measured and has no bounds. At the same time, we may call it room, countryside, city, country. No place to go means perfection cannot be found through searches and journeys. The sole purpose of journeys is to exhaust the very illusion that anything worth it will come out of them. You are always back where you started. This place.

gassho

Taigu

Taigu
Thank you for your words of excellent teaching. (IMO) Impossible to linger anywhere unless of course we "desire" it. Gassho zak

[monkton]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

Hi folks,

when I read this one, I felt that it stood in a kind of symmetry or at least a thematic continuation with the previous transmission record. If I read that one right it was saying something like, "'truth' can't be talked about (because then it wouldn't be 'truth'), and not talking about it doesn't get you any closer to it because that's just another ploy to turn it into a mental concept". So there we had 'truth' flanked by two 'wrongs'.

This transmission seems to be saying, "So, you grasp 'truth', what then?" and provides examples of 'truth' flanked by two 'rights': In Buddhamitra's case it looks like it caused him to be stuck in a sort of rapture for 50 years, which is seen as being fair enough (but was it involutary? or was he scared of breaking the spell?). It takes Buddhanandi to come along and point out that he doesn't have to remain silently locked-in, because he can never be separated from it. And so 'ri' (right#1) becomes 'bi' (right#2) and 'inside' becomes 'outside' without actually changing.

I'm merging 'truth' 'reality' and 'essential mind' in a cavalier fashion here because to me it feels as if they cover the same ground in the texts, but if if that's wrong and there's a simple* way to express the differences in a zen context please let me know.

gassho,
Monkton

*emphasis on the 'simple'!

[AlanLa]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

I'm with Monkton on this. First we have a non-stop walking and talking descendant who, interestingly enough, finds a non-walking and non-talking heir. Hmm, opposites attract, don't they! So what I get out of this is a carryover from Taigu's discussion with Taylor in the last thread about non-abiding. Those who abide in walking/talking need to sit down and be quiet, and those who abide in non-walking/non-talking need to stand up and be heard. There is a middle way in there somewhere for all of us, and it is close, very close. It is intimate, very intimate! Some living Buddha may come up and point it out to us some day, but it is up to us to take those seven steps to where the Buddha is pointing in order to realize and actualize (as in make a verb out of it) our Buddha-hood.

Jundo, you need to invent a Buddha dance with exactly seven steps, a sort of Buddha tango. It can be our new Treeleaf ritual.

[Jikyo]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

Hi everyone,

The sole purpose of journeys is to exhaust the very illusion that anything worth it will come out of them. You are always back where you started. This place.

Thanks so much for this, Taigu.

This week, Hixon's "Inside is not close, outside not far" and Cook's "Think quietly about this: inside is not close, and outside is not separate" resonated with me the most. And I appreciated Hixon's reminder about Buddha nature/True Self/Original Mind being always present, as it is our true nature or natural state: "Yet this lotus of Wonderful Mind actually blossoms night and day, under all conditions." I love the last line of Cook's verse: "How can senses and their objects defile one's own nature?"

Gassho, Jikyo

[BrianW]

Re: 8/20 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Buddhamitra

If you desire to know essential mind directly, you must realize that you are neither one with Mind nor separate from Mind.

Sounds a bit like the one-beyond-oneness that Jundo speaks of.


On a different note:

I personally am a skeptic and agnostic on such things ... and overall I do not believe in auras, ki and such, which I tend to see as hocus-pocus bunkum. Most "evidence" seems circumstantial, easily explained away or simply rumor. Folks believe all kinds of things! People like "special effects", in their Hollywood movies and in their religions.

That being said ... it all could be (I don't shut the door)! It is just not important or vital to my practice of Zazen.

For me, it is just as powerful to take such talk of auras ... or disappearing wine goblets, folks who suddenly walked and talked after 50 years silent in bed, mind reading and all the rest ... as symbols for the profound. Same for stories of Jesus' walking on water and turning loaves to fishes.

Yes I pretty much look to the possible symbolism behind many of these stories. Sometimes an internet search reveals a phrase is actually refering to an abstract principle more than an actual occurrence. Read the Lotus Sutra about a year ago and wow...lots of magical things happening there, but after reading a few scholarly reviews, it made a lot more sense in terms of the meaning behind the tales.

Gassho,
Jisen/BrianW