The Zen Master's Dance - 2 - How To Read Dogen (to p. 12)

[Onkai]

There is a teaching of a good friend. The universe is a good friend. A good friend is the universe. Sentient beings are the universe.The universe places the valuable treasure of Buddha nature within the seams of sentient beings intoxicated with ignorance. Buddha nature is found in intoxication. Enlightenment is in the midst of ignorance. The universe covers us in our worn coat. The jewel is the universe. Our drunken state moves the universe to compassion, and the awareness of enlightenment is in each of us but as sentient beings, we bumble along, thinking we are spiritually impoverished until we find a teacher who uncovers our Buddha nature and lets us see the beauty of the Dharma that always surrounds us. We are the universe we are the jewel in each facet of Indra's Net. Friendship saves us. We save the friendship. We are all giving jewels to each other. We all are in ignorance of the jewels. The jewels are ignorance not thinking. Not thinking we are shown hidden jewels.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat/lah

[Jundo]

There is a teaching of a good friend. The universe is a good friend. A good friend is the universe. Sentient beings are the universe.The universe places the valuable treasure of Buddha nature within the seams of sentient beings intoxicated with ignorance. Buddha nature is found in intoxication. Enlightenment is in the midst of ignorance. The universe covers us in our worn coat. The jewel is the universe. Our drunken state moves the universe to compassion, and the awareness of enlightenment is in each of us but as sentient beings, we bumble along, thinking we are spiritually impoverished until we find a teacher who uncovers our Buddha nature and lets us see the beauty of the Dharma that always surrounds us. We are the universe we are the jewel in each facet of Indra's Net. Friendship saves us. We save the friendship. We are all giving jewels to each other. We all are in ignorance of the jewels. The jewels are ignorance not thinking. Not thinking we are shown hidden jewels.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat/lah

Dig it!

[Meian]

One day a person, heavy-laden with worries and fears, walked in a forest and sat on a rock. Overcome with fatigue and drunk with anxiety, they lay down in the grasses, felt the cool earth beneath them, and sunk down in misery as their mind raced away with their troubles.

The sun was shining in the clear sky and a light breeze wafted over the fragrant meadows, and soon, the person's scattered mind drifted up with the breeze and the sun, towards the sky, up to the stratosphere, out, out into space. The mind, still dreaming turbulence of worries and tasks and what-ifs, floated to the Buddha Nebulae, and a precious star of the Buddha twinkled into the mind. A local star cluster brightened and shimmered. The mind sparkled with the stars and the energy expanded.

Space debris floated by, distant stars of various colors and massive sizes, and awareness of emptiness, in nothingness, in all-ness as the mind expanded, opened, moved through, around, and was all things. The mind, the stars, the nebulae, the planets, the galaxies, no limits, in everything and all things breathing, moving, pulsing, existing in the same space, no space, and all space – timelessness, where time and space do not exist.

gassho, meian st lh

[Jundo]

One day a person, heavy-laden with worries and fears, walked in a forest and sat on a rock. Overcome with fatigue and drunk with anxiety, they lay down in the grasses, felt the cool earth beneath them, and sunk down in misery as their mind raced away with their troubles.

The sun was shining in the clear sky and a light breeze wafted over the fragrant meadows, and soon, the person's scattered mind drifted up with the breeze and the sun, towards the sky, up to the stratosphere, out, out into space. The mind, still dreaming turbulence of worries and tasks and what-ifs, floated to the Buddha Nebulae, and a precious star of the Buddha twinkled into the mind. A local star cluster brightened and shimmered. The mind sparkled with the stars and the energy expanded.

Space debris floated by, distant stars of various colors and massive sizes, and awareness of emptiness, in nothingness, in all-ness as the mind expanded, opened, moved through, around, and was all things. The mind, the stars, the nebulae, the planets, the galaxies, no limits, in everything and all things breathing, moving, pulsing, existing in the same space, no space, and all space – timelessness, where time and space do not exist.

gassho, meian st lh

Meian, that piece is amazing! You are one heck of a beautiful writer. BUT it is not the task: I want you to dive into Dogen's style so that we can get a sense of Dogen's ways.

So, I will ask the same of you that I asked of the others, and give it another shot:

Go back to the chapter, please, and look at the original "Lotus Sutra" passage. Then, look at what D.J. Dogen did with it in his remix passage, what he did with the elements of the story such as "treasure stupa" "sitting inside the stupa" "springing out of Vulture Peak" "two hundred and fifty yojanas" and the like, and how he stirred that all up. Study his grammar, and how he mixed or reinterpreted the various elements, and do something like that with the passage I assigned. If you are not sure what to do, just borrow Dogen's sentence structure, and just switch the elements from the old story with the elements of the new story that I assigned.

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?19084-The-Zen-Master-s-Dance-How-To-Read-Dogen-%28to-p-12%29&p=290650&viewfull=1#post290650

[Risho]

I have only read this tip and the first post Jundo; I had some confusion too, so thank you; hopefully this cleared up but I'll post in a couple of days and we'll see. hahaha

Gassho

Risho
-stlah

[Meian]

Diving headlong into the Dogen Ocean and will swim as many laps as necessary. [emoji120]

Gassho2, meian stlh

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Tairin]

Hi everyone

Here is my attempt. I have resisted the urge to look at this thread. I wanted to give this exercise an honest go but I am not good at creative writing and I may have missed the point of this entirely but it was a lot of fun to write.


The jewels are not lost and found.
The jewels are given and received freely.

The man gives the jewels freely to his friend.
The friend receives the jewels and yet they are not found.

The friend wanders ceaseless
Traveling great distances and seeks endlessly for treasures
Like a dusty mirror, like the cloud covered moon.
He looking for what is not lost.

After many months the man encountered the friend who is a sorry state
The man says:
Why do you search so for what you already have?
Do you not already carry the jewels with you?
With the jewels, you and all sentient beings are sheltered
What additional refuge do you seek?

Like the cloudy sky
Nothing is lost although it may not be in view
Stop polishing the tile and realize it was a mirror all along


Jundo…. I think what you are doing here is a fantastic way for us to try to internalize and personalize both Dogen and your writing.

Now to look at what others have written


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Jundo]

Hi everyone

Here is my attempt. I have resisted the urge to look at this thread. I wanted to give this exercise an honest go but I am not good at creative writing and I may have missed the point of this entirely but it was a lot of fun to write.


[I] The jewels are not lost and found.
The jewels are given and received freely.

The man gives the jewels freely to his friend.
The friend receives the jewels and yet they are not found.

Beatnik finger snappin' lovely.



Gassho, J

STLah

[rj]

Not at all certain I understood the directions or that what I did was correct, so my apologies if I missed the mark, but here is my attempt...

"Suppose there was a visitor who came to the house of his friend and went to sleep after becoming drunk with wine. The visited friend, having to go out to work, sews a priceless jewel into the inside of his visiting friend’s garment and, giving it to him, departs. But the visiting friend who was drunk and asleep is totally unaware of this. After getting up, the visitor friend leaves and visits around until he arrives in another country. Although he is eager to seek for food and drink they are very difficult to obtain. He is satisfied if he just obtains a very meager amount. Later on the visited friend happens to meet this same visitor friend. Seeing him, he says: O poor fellow! How have you come to this state through lack of food and drink? Once, on the day of our visit, in a month and year of our visit, I sewed a priceless jewel into the inside of your garment, wanting to make things easier for you and to let you sow the desires of the five senses as much as you wished. It is still there, although you aren’t aware of it, and you seek your livelihood with great effort and hardship! You have been very foolish. Sell this jewel and use it to buy what you need. From now on you will not need to whine for wine nor anything else..."


st/lah/rj

[Jundo]

Not at all certain I understood the directions or that what I did was correct, so my apologies if I missed the mark, but here is my attempt...

"Suppose there was a visitor who came to the house of his friend and went to sleep after becoming drunk with wine. The visited friend, having to go out to work, sews a priceless jewel into the inside of his visiting friend’s garment and, giving it to him, departs. But the visiting friend who was drunk and asleep is totally unaware of this. After getting up, the visitor friend leaves and visits around until he arrives in another country. Although he is eager to seek for food and drink they are very difficult to obtain. He is satisfied if he just obtains a very meager amount. Later on the visited friend happens to meet this same visitor friend. Seeing him, he says: O poor fellow! How have you come to this state through lack of food and drink? Once, on the day of our visit, in a month and year of our visit, I sewed a priceless jewel into the inside of your garment, wanting to make things easier for you and to let you sow the desires of the five senses as much as you wished. It is still there, although you aren’t aware of it, and you seek your livelihood with great effort and hardship! You have been very foolish. Sell this jewel and use it to buy what you need. From now on you will not need to whine for wine nor anything else..."


st/lah/rj

It is lovely, but I would encourage you to try again. Rewrite the passage following closely the grammar structure of the Stupa example, how Dogen mixes and matches elements (like "stupa" "yojanas" "space" "Vulture Peak" in the first, and do the same with things like "friend" "jewel" "garment" "lack of food" and such in the second.)

Gassho, J

STLah

[Meian]

So, not sure. Experimenting!
___________________________________

There is a priceless jewel in the heart of a friend who sits in the Treasure Stupa.

There is a friend in the heart of a precious jewel sitting with a man in need, as they gaze upon Vulture Peak from the stupa.

Before the Buddha, sits a man who lacks within. He receives a flower of the priceless jewel from his friend with a heart of the Seven Treasures.

There sits a man with a precious jewel, whose friend has a heart full of Abundant Treasures.

They sit with the Buddha, inside the Treasure Stupa. 14,000 miles above the sky, they gaze upon Vulture Peak and sit in silence.


, meian stlh

[Jundo]

So, not sure. Experimenting!
___________________________________

There is a priceless jewel in the heart of a friend who sits in the Treasure Stupa.

There is a friend in the heart of a precious jewel sitting with a man in need, as they gaze upon Vulture Peak from the stupa.

Before the Buddha, sits a man who lacks within. He receives a flower of the priceless jewel from his friend with a heart of the Seven Treasures.

There sits a man with a precious jewel, whose friend has a heart full of Abundant Treasures.

They sit with the Buddha, inside the Treasure Stupa. 14,000 miles above the sky, they gaze upon Vulture Peak and sit in silence.


, meian stlh

You actually mixed the two section of the Lotus Sutra, the Hidden Jewel parable and the Flying Stupa ... and it works! Dogen would sometimes do that kind of mixing and melding too.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Rousei]

I really wanted to put a contemporary spin on the parable by taking an example from my life. I tried to reach for the core meaning of the Lotus Sutra section and find an example of it in real life. This is what I got.


Out shopping one day my wife said to me, "which pasta we should buy". Her dilemma at the time a myriad choices, an ocean of possibilities ahead.

What a puzzling question I said, “dear wife they’re one and the same, the food won’t change should we pick one over the other so throw whichever one you fancy into the kart and let’s go!”. Alas, met was I with a perplexing look as she gazed at the two bags of pasta, certain she was in her conviction that they’re as different as night and day.

Unable to see the trees for the forest, overloaded was she with options. Looking at me dead in the eyes she spoke almost in whimper at her wits end, “I wish I could be as care free as you”.

I hollered, what a joke I thought, “Dear wife” I said, “the calmness is as much in you as it is in me, if only you could look past your rambling thoughts”, “Take a deep breath, throw whichever one speaks to you more into the kart and then let’s go buy some ice-cream”.


Gassho
Mark
ST

[Jundo]

I really wanted to put a contemporary spin on the parable by taking an example from my life. I tried to reach for the core meaning of the Lotus Sutra section and find an example of it in real life. This is what I got.


Out shopping one day my wife said to me, "which pasta we should buy". Her dilemma at the time a myriad choices, an ocean of possibilities ahead.

What a puzzling question I said, “dear wife they’re one and the same, the food won’t change should we pick one over the other so throw whichever one you fancy into the kart and let’s go!”. Alas, met was I with a perplexing look as she gazed at the two bags of pasta, certain she was in her conviction that they’re as different as night and day.

Unable to see the trees for the forest, overloaded was she with options. Looking at me dead in the eyes she spoke almost in whimper at her wits end, “I wish I could be as care free as you”.

I hollered, what a joke I thought, “Dear wife” I said, “the calmness is as much in you as it is in me, if only you could look past your rambling thoughts”, “Take a deep breath, throw whichever one speaks to you more into the kart and then let’s go buy some ice-cream”.


Gassho
Mark
ST

Lovely, and funny.

Yet, not the assignment. Please try again:

Go back to the chapter, please, and look at the original "Lotus Sutra" passage. Then, look at what D.J. Dogen did with it in his remix passage, what he did with the elements of the story such as "treasure stupa" "sitting inside the stupa" "springing out of Vulture Peak" "two hundred and fifty yojanas" and the like, and how he stirred that all up. Study his grammar, and how he mixed or reinterpreted the various elements, and do something like that with the passage I assigned. If you are not sure what to do, just borrow Dogen's sentence structure, and just switch the elements from the old story with the elements of the new story that I assigned.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Nengei]

What are the elements? A man, the house of a close friend, intoxication, a priceless gift, the friend's garment, suffering.
What are the lessons/themes? Living in intoxication, a friend with an amazing gift that you already have, life's struggles ease when you recognize what you have within.

And Nengei's poor revision with apologies to Dōgen Roshi and Jundoshi:
A kami (origami paper) unfolds bringing "a man" to visit "the house of a close friend" and to become "intoxicated with wine." A kami unfolds and "[t]he intimate friend" "sews a priceless jewel" into "his friend's garment." A kami unfolds and the man leaves the home of his friend and sets out on a journey. A kami unfolds and the man struggles in his existence, unaware that he carries with him the means to enlightenment.
The value of the jewel is enlightenment, and enlightenment is in the jewel. The jewel contains awareness of the Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The man's friend lives in the jewel and is the Bodhisattva of Compassion. When the man crosses paths with his friend, Kannon guides the man to realization of what he carries with him. When the man goes on his journey, he begins following the path of the bodhisattva. He unfolds the kami of enlightenment and is able to help others with the priceless jewel. This "priceless jewel" is not only present in the man's clothing, and the man is not taking a trip to some limited "other country." The jewel exists in all sentient beings. The man is all sentient beings and the "other country" is all places.

Gassho,
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.