The Zen Master's Dance - 25 - One Bright Pearl (Middle of p. 94 to Middle of p. 103)

[Jundo]

Dear You (who is me and all things as you),

A little exercise here: Please explain briefly why a regulation size NBA basketball is not only round, but is shaped and barks like a dog, and is as vast as the planet and the whole universe, yet as small as a blade of grass.

Explain briefly how the first minute of this year's NBA championship is actually the second half, the 1976 Winter Olympics, and also timeless?

How does the whole universe come alive on the basketball court in each dribble and throw?

Stop you reading right before the short quote in the middle of page 103, containing the words, " ... some endlessly chase things to make them benefit the self."

Folks outside the USA, please feel free to substitute the World Cup, Australian Rules Football, Cricket, or any other professional team sporting events of your choice.

Gassho, J

[Hosui]

Sadly, I have no familiarity with basketball (or sport of any kind). However, as we all know here in the UK, NBA stands for Newcastle Brown Ale, the regulation size for which is a ‘pint’. Alarmingly (as a publican) and wonderfully (as a zen trainee), this pint glass is empty, devoid of essence, with the bubbles on the surface of the non-existent ale transient and nothing more than dreams. In sitting with this lack of inherent existence I observe how my ‘thingyfying’ of this pint of warm ale, my bringing it into existence through the discriminatory expressions of this Dance25 exercise, makes every conceivable phenomena in the whole glorious carnival of the universe a candidate for emptiness at the same time, e.g., now - as the exercises’ prompts indicate. In letting go of all discriminations expressed in words and embracing this emptiness, I’m open see the true pint of NBA, given how all is possible when emptiness is possible.

Gassho
Hosui
sat/lah

[Jundo]

Mmmm. Mixed feelings on this during our Jukai season, but I suppose that a pint or two can't hurt.

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You might have added that the Newcastle Brown Ale is also a donkey's piss and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Gassho, J
stlah

[DanielxSwish]

Well, according to what you, Jundo, said in the book, “size, shape, distance, speed, and time are all relative concepts. Regarding the NBA regulation-size basketball, it only seems that way from a certain perspective. Mind creates everything. When we take mind out of the equation, then everything is the One Bright Pearl, which means that ball is all other things, shapes, and sizes.
Same thing with the championship being the Winter Olympics. Time is a relative construct. Mind made. Human-made. It does not really exist. One Bright Pearl is the only truth, meaning everything, and every time is all only right here, right now.

That’s all I got. And that was hard to come up with.

Gassho,
Daniel
satLAH

[Jundo]

Well, according to what you, Jundo, said in the book, “size, shape, distance, speed, and time are all relative concepts. Regarding the NBA regulation-size basketball, it only seems that way from a certain perspective. Mind creates everything. When we take mind out of the equation, then everything is the One Bright Pearl, which means that ball is all other things, shapes, and sizes.
Same thing with the championship being the Winter Olympics. Time is a relative construct. Mind made. Human-made. It does not really exist. One Bright Pearl is the only truth, meaning everything, and every time is all only right here, right now.

That’s all I got. And that was hard to come up with.

Gassho,
Daniel
satLAH

The only comment I might add is that, in dancing with Dogen, one might wish to go with a somewhat more musical and poetic writing style to say such, not so straight and logical. For example ...

The mind is ball, ball is the mind, and all size and shape, distance and speed are the ball's twirling. The "official" size is the size of the official moon, amid a three point shot by the One Bright pearl. ...

Something like that.

image.png

Gassho, J
stlah

[Furyu]

Well, a curling stone Curling rock small.png is also round and the whole universe, so I will try that instead.

The curling rock is round and flat and smooth and rough, heavy in the air and light on the ice - all that is in fact literally true. It is rock and plastic, natural and man-made, alive and dead, also all true if I count the number of germs making their home on its handle in mid-winter. Game-winner to the skilfull and bone-crusher to the clumsy. It is all and none of those things at once. Thus it chooses its shape, size, function and purity as quickly as the mind can do it. But it also walks with the sheep that walked upon the quarry, the no-sheep that will continue to do so and it has learned to baaa or maaa, according to dialect, from the best. Throwing the stone, the whole universe rolls and says “baaa” from under it and the stone remains in the center of its own existence, walking along the sheep that have seen its birth. As the first rock is thrown in the tournament, the last rock is waiting at the finish and the Olympic medals have been handed out, all seeing each other from the centre of the same boundless universe with no birth or death, no now and then, just a continuous instant that carries both past and future in itself.

Enso Med.png
Gasshō
sat-lah
Fūryū

[Jundo]

Zen Garden ...

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[Hokuu]

I'm not much into team sports and even less into watching them, so I'll use the gym exercise as an example.

A 15-kg dumbbell raised in a biceps curl is also a 5-kg and 40-kg dumbbell raised.
The first rep in a set is the same as the last one and the middle one and all reps in between and reps of all the subsequent and previous sets and trainings. As such, this one biceps curl is ultimately unique; it requires - it even demands - all attention, all effort I can master in this very moment, which is and sometimes feels like eternity itself.
It's useless to think about one repetition as all repetitions at once; I won't become stronger after one repetition. At the same time, it's futile to think of one repetition as preparation for the next. Not only does it exist by itself, but it's also the only one possible in all times and universes.
...slowly lower it down...
And one more repetition, which is the only one possible, totally perfect and complete.

Gassho
Hokuu
satlah

[Jundo]

I'm not much into team sports and even less into watching them, so I'll use the gym exercise as an example.

A 15-kg dumbbell raised in a biceps curl is also a 5-kg and 40-kg dumbbell raised.
The first rep in a set is the same as the last one and the middle one and all reps in between and reps of all the subsequent and previous sets and trainings. As such, this one biceps curl is ultimately unique; it requires - it even demands - all attention, all effort I can master in this very moment, which is and sometimes feels like eternity itself.
It's useless to think about one repetition as all repetitions at once; I won't become stronger after one repetition. At the same time, it's futile to think of one repetition as preparation for the next. Not only does it exist by itself, but it's also the only one possible in all times and universes.
...slowly lower it down...
And one more repetition, which is the only one possible, totally perfect and complete.

Gassho
Hokuu
satlah

I might go further to say that one repetition is all repetitions, thus the biceps curl is the squat and chest press, is the football thrown, the karate kick, the mountains and the stars. Thus, one repetition is all time and nothing need be done .... nonetheless, one heads to the gym three times a week.

image.png

Gassho, J
stlah

[Koriki]

For this exercise I will use my clay analogy. Let's say you have a big ball of clay (representing the universe) and you make a little dog out of part of the clay, then you make a man out of another part. Do the dog and man think they are separate beings? If a basketball is made out of this clay, is it a separate thing?

There is no clock ticking, so this moment is the same as 50 years ago.

The whole world comes alive because all of the players are part of everything and connected to everything. All of the material and actions needed to get them to that moment came from everybody.

Gassho,
Koriki
s@lah

[Shokai]

In every moment all is one not two.

gassho, Shokai
sylah

[Jundo]

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