NOTE: I am going to open and unlock prior chapters, in case anybody still wants to jump in ...
Dear You-nivese,
Let's go from the top of p. 67 (starting with "In truth, the place and the way are neither large nor small"), right to the end of the Chapter.
So, usually we think that we are just individuals acting in the universe. However, Dogen and so many Mahayana masters experienced the universe as so interconnected, inter-identical, that what you do is the whole universe doing what you do, everything in the universe doing it too, and you doing them.
We might say that it is not just you riding a bike down a road, but that your riding is the whole universe riding with your legs, all the trees, the farthest stars, the smallest ants, Britany Spears and Vladimir Putin, dinosaurs long ago and rockets of the future, riding the bike with your legs, while your legs moving make all of them spin round and round as they each and all make your legs move and the wheels of the bike go round and round.
This vision of the universe is not unlike this vision of intertwined gears, one turning the other, so all is spinning and spun by all, while all is the whole just turning ...
.
So, please pick an activity you do, and rewrite the following so that it is the whole universe, and any and everything in the universe doing so:
My [doing something] is the whole universe [doing this something], all the [unrelated object/person/place 1], [unrelated object/person/place 2], [unrelated object/person/place 3], [unrelated object/person/place 4] and [unrelated object/person/place 5], [some thing or event of the past long ago], [some thing or event of the future] each and all [doing this something] with my [body part], while my [body part] moving makes each and all of them move and their each and all moving makes my [body part] move and this [something get done]. In the end, there is just one Great Moving.
Because your doing is all things and everything, everywhere, including things and happenings of any time in the past or future, your smallest action is big small now then and all times, plus so much the entire whole and all time that it is beyond measure because nothing beyond it.
So, in Zen, when we "truly meet one thing" for a moment like sitting Zazen, it is the whole thing and all things and each and every moment of always forever sitting Zazen as our sitting for a moment.
This is so, just a fact, even when we don't realize and are not aware of this fact.
However, because this is true for our good acts and bad acts, it is important that we realize that our acts color, purify or pollute the whole universe. Thus, we should do our best to act in good ways (free of excess desire, anger and violence, jealousy and the like). We must fan the air to make it move, but let us do so in good ways ... fanning cooling breezes, not fanning war and flames. In other words, it is up to us to fan with grace, balance, poise ... .
Gassho, J
STLah
Dear You-nivese,
Let's go from the top of p. 67 (starting with "In truth, the place and the way are neither large nor small"), right to the end of the Chapter.
So, usually we think that we are just individuals acting in the universe. However, Dogen and so many Mahayana masters experienced the universe as so interconnected, inter-identical, that what you do is the whole universe doing what you do, everything in the universe doing it too, and you doing them.
We might say that it is not just you riding a bike down a road, but that your riding is the whole universe riding with your legs, all the trees, the farthest stars, the smallest ants, Britany Spears and Vladimir Putin, dinosaurs long ago and rockets of the future, riding the bike with your legs, while your legs moving make all of them spin round and round as they each and all make your legs move and the wheels of the bike go round and round.
This vision of the universe is not unlike this vision of intertwined gears, one turning the other, so all is spinning and spun by all, while all is the whole just turning ...
.
So, please pick an activity you do, and rewrite the following so that it is the whole universe, and any and everything in the universe doing so:
My [doing something] is the whole universe [doing this something], all the [unrelated object/person/place 1], [unrelated object/person/place 2], [unrelated object/person/place 3], [unrelated object/person/place 4] and [unrelated object/person/place 5], [some thing or event of the past long ago], [some thing or event of the future] each and all [doing this something] with my [body part], while my [body part] moving makes each and all of them move and their each and all moving makes my [body part] move and this [something get done]. In the end, there is just one Great Moving.
Because your doing is all things and everything, everywhere, including things and happenings of any time in the past or future, your smallest action is big small now then and all times, plus so much the entire whole and all time that it is beyond measure because nothing beyond it.
So, in Zen, when we "truly meet one thing" for a moment like sitting Zazen, it is the whole thing and all things and each and every moment of always forever sitting Zazen as our sitting for a moment.
This is so, just a fact, even when we don't realize and are not aware of this fact.
However, because this is true for our good acts and bad acts, it is important that we realize that our acts color, purify or pollute the whole universe. Thus, we should do our best to act in good ways (free of excess desire, anger and violence, jealousy and the like). We must fan the air to make it move, but let us do so in good ways ... fanning cooling breezes, not fanning war and flames. In other words, it is up to us to fan with grace, balance, poise ... .
Gassho, J
STLah
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