The Zen Master's Dance - 13 - Genjo Koan (end of p. 55 to middle of p. 58)

[Jundo]

Dear Deluded Buddhas,

We continue Master Dogen's Genjo Koan, starting from p. 55 (with the sentence, "And so, Dogen next addresses these questions:"), and finishing on p. 58 (just before the sentence, "Buddha doesn't need to note she is Buddha.").

In our delusion, we try to make the world how we personally wish it to be. We rarely succeed completely, and sometimes not at all. Then, we might expect that, when "enlightened," the world will then be just how we wish it to be. That is also a kind of delusion.

But might "enlightenment" be our letting the world be as the world be? Then our desires and the world will match.

(Nonetheless, as we let the world be as it be, we can also try to fix what we can.)

We might also think that "enlightenment" brings a permanent peace which never leaves us.

But might "enlightenment" be our experiencing a timeless peace right hand-in-hand with the fact that life rarely stays one way, and is constantly changing and often is frustrating and uncomfortable?

ASSIGNMENT:

1 - Describe a problem in your life or in this world, and your frustration that it does not go your way or become as you would like it.

2 - Describe the problem as completely vanishing in "emptiness," as in the second sentence of the opening paragraph of Genjo Koan that we read last week.

3 - Describe your being at peace with the problem when you let it be as it is (including, perhaps, letting the frustration or discomfort it causes you also "be as it is.")

4 - Question: Now answer, are all of the above different or the same? Can they be simultaneously true?

(Note that it may not be a coincidence that my 4 questions are kinda parallel to the 4 sentences of last week's assignment. )

Gassho, J

STLah

[aprapti]

[Gregor]

Gassho, not feeling like posting on specific set of problems. All of life is a problem, or not depends on how you look at it. And as you say in №4, both perspectives are equally true and untrue at the same time.

Thats about as close to the assignemt as I can muster right now

✌️,

Greg
ST

[DGF]

i kept it simple,

1. Examination for keeping my job , pressure between work and study, fear for failing the examination fear for losing my job.

2. When the myriad things are realized as each without an individual self, there is no examination and no separate pressure, no failing, no work, no study, no keeping jobs, no lossing jobs ,no passing.

3. It feels like it keeps more Air to breath. taking the change as it is by moving forward in the present letting go the thinking of what if, and do what you have to do.

4. for me they are the same. There is no difference. They all work together , i think they are simultaneously true.

interesting, Thank you for the lesson Jundo Sensei,


Diana
SAT

[Nengyoku]

A preface. Some time ago my workplace announced a new initiative for training employees in new areas. They want everyone to eventually be trained on all of the equipment we repair to alleviate heavy irregular loads on different teams. As an incentive they offered a small pay raise for anyone that finished a new area of study. I chose not to take this position, mostly because I didn't want to leave the team I'm currently on. I like the unit I work on, and the people I work with. I like being the best at something, and not making mistakes. I've learned a couple other units while working here, and sometimes after enough mistakes I become frustrated and I am very happy to be able to just go back to my own team when I'm feeling overwhelmed.

So on to my problem.
I am being moved. One of the employees who is cross training is coming to my team to learn our units, and they don't have a replacement for him on the team he is leaving. So I am being forced to go to the other team and learn that unit. At first I was kind of annoyed. I had declined this, and it was happening anyways.

But then I recognized my frustration. I realized I was clinging to a situation that was empty of any inherently existing self nature.

I sat a moment of zazen at my desk, allowing it to fully encapsulate all of time in that moment. And in that all of time I am already not at that team. It isn't inherently bad, or good. It just is. I don't have to be angry about it. I just have to let go of that clinging to the way things appear to be. And so I did.

And yet, I still have to move. It is bittersweet. All of my words to my dear friends seem more important now that I know I am leaving. And yet, I'm not really going anywhere, am I?

Gassho,
Nengyoku
Sat

[Tairin]

Considering all the problems in the world mine seems pretty trivial and petty. My neighbourhood has been overrun with squirrels…. Likely the result of some mild winters recently. It seems like the population has more than doubled. Anyways they are all over the place. Sitting on my deck or porch. I can hear them scrambling on the roof (pretty sure they are on in the attic). Sometimes we find them on the window sills. One in particular seems to be quite territorial and has taken to taunting my indoor cat.

When the myriad things are realized as each without an individual self, there are no squirrels, no deck or porch, no roof to scramble on, window ledge to sit on, no cat to taunt, no Tairin to be frustrated.

So what I realize is that the squirrels are just being squirrels. This isn’t personal (well maybe taunting the cat is). Squirrels don’t even recognize this building as “my house”. To them it is just part of the landscape like a hill or rocky terrain. The frustrations are simply my mind projecting how I want things to be rather than accepting and coexisting.

Absolutely they can be simultaneously true. Squirrels are just being squirrels and yet I have a certain obligation to my cat to prevent the taunting. It also makes sense to try to protect the exterior of my house and prevent damage from the squirrels.

I have to smile. We have a world wide pandemic, war between Ukraine and Russia, ecological collapse, people who are unable to feed themselves or have any security and the big problem I came up with is a few squirrels running rampant in my yard.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Onkai]

1. Describe a problem in your life or in this world, and your frustration that it does not go your way or become as you would like it.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is on my mind. I’m frustrated with the aggression, the strength of the Russian military attacking, the loss of lives, and the complete upset of the lives of people in Ukraine.

2. Describe the problem as completely vanishing in “emptiness” as in the second sentence of the opening paragraph of Genjo Koan that we read last week.

I feel I can’t do anything about it. If I was there, I wouldn’t be able to change the facts, either. I would have to take time to practice zazen, which would bring me to just what would be in front of me. I’d take life one moment at a time, whether sitting and waiting for the invasion to come to me, or taking one step, or one vehicle, at a time on my way to safety. Possibly I would act in defense of my society. But in moments of calm, I would recognize life is sweet, though fragile. As it is, I feel sorrow for all that is being lost to the people in Ukraine, yet I sit zazen, and life is sweet, though fragile and complex.

3. Describe your being at peace with the problem when you let it be as it is (including, perhaps, letting the frustration or discomfort it causes you also ‘be as it is.)

The matter of life and death is always there, but much clearer when there is an unjust war that doesn’t look like it is about to end. I don’t know what will happen next. The war may continue in Ukraine. Putin could lose his power through a coup, and the war could end. There could be a nuclear war. Any of these things are possible, but the practice is to sit regularly and do the next thing that my life calls for; “chop wood, carry water” moment by moment.

4. Question: Now answer, are all of the above different or the same? Can they be simultaneously true?

They are all connected as long as I maintain my practice.

[Tomás ESP]

1- I have a chronic illness that won't leave as much as I would like it to. It gives me pain, limits my ability to enjoy different kinds of food and makes it very hard for me to gain weight.

2- The illness, the pain, the limitations are free flowing, impermanent, linked to everything else. Ultimately there is no one that is sick, nor is there sickness, or pain.

3- When I let it all be, it's just a constant flowing of sensations. In the background of my analytical and judging mind, there is peace.

4- They are what they are. Neither true, nor untrue. Beyond thinking.

[Chikyou]

ASSIGNMENT:

1 - Describe a problem in your life or in this world, and your frustration that it does not go your way or become as you would like it.

2 - Describe the problem as completely vanishing in "emptiness," as in the second sentence of the opening paragraph of Genjo Koan that we read last week.

3 - Describe your being at peace with the problem when you let it be as it is (including, perhaps, letting the frustration or discomfort it causes you also "be as it is.")

4 - Question: Now answer, are all of the above different or the same? Can they be simultaneously true?

I'm going to be a little deliberately vague here, because the problems that I immediately thought of are more personal than I want to share in detail. In general:

1 - I have, on multiple occasions in interactions with close loved ones found that I'm very disappointed in the way that they speak or act. I've come to realize that they are exactly as they are, and my disappointment stems from my desire for them to be something else.

2 - There is no I, no them, no actions, no thoughts, no disappointment, no desire for a different outcome, no different outcome to desire.

3 - When I understand that my disappointment stems from my desire for them to behave differently, I find peace in the understanding that they are exactly who they are.

4 - They seem the same; the problem evaporates once I realize from where my disappointment originates (WHILE allowing myself to be with the disappointment, to experience it as it is in that moment AND ALSO while refusing to put up with further BS, because accepting reality's perfect flowing doesn't mean we don't change what needs to be changed.)

Gassho,
SatToday
Kelly

[Jundo]

I'm going to be a little deliberately vague here, because the problems that I immediately thought of are more personal than I want to share in detail. In general:

1 - I have, on multiple occasions in interactions with close loved ones found that I'm very disappointed in the way that they speak or act. I've come to realize that they are exactly as they are, and my disappointment stems from my desire for them to be something else.

2 - There is no I, no them, no actions, no thoughts, no disappointment, no desire for a different outcome, no different outcome to desire.

3 - When I understand that my disappointment stems from my desire for them to behave differently, I find peace in the understanding that they are exactly who they are.

4 - They seem the same; the problem evaporates once I realize from where my disappointment originates (WHILE allowing myself to be with the disappointment, to experience it as it is in that moment AND ALSO while refusing to put up with further BS, because accepting reality's perfect flowing doesn't mean we don't change what needs to be changed.)

Gassho,
SatToday
Kelly

Lovely. This helped me this morning too, when I had some disappointment with an in-law. You put it very well. Good practice!

But the problem does not COMPLETELY evaporate: My in-law is still as he is. Oh boy.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Chikyou]

Lovely. This helped me this morning too, when I had some disappointment with an in-law. You put it very well. Good practice!

But the problem does not COMPLETELY evaporate: My in-law is still as he is. Oh boy.

Gassho, J

STLah

Inlaws - can't live with them, can't live without them! (Or so I'm told.)

Gassho,
SatLah
Kelly