Gate Fifty-four
Read the following, place it in your heart and sleep on it. Then, tomorrow, live it until evening when you can leave a brief comment on what you may have received during the process.
Mind* as an abode of mindfulness is a gate of Dharma illumination;for [with it] we reflect that mind is like a phantom.
A “Dharma Gate” is a teaching or practice that can lead to spiritual growth: some kind of positive outcome in terms of our practice. A way to approach the truth.
Koan:
Out of nowhere, the mind comes forth.
-- The Diamond Sutra
"Working with this koan alters how I might meet the world in two ways. In one twist, it opens life up in a way where I can’t expect anything to happen outside of the now, and in another, the koan takes my attention to my thoughts and opinions about what I come into contact with each moment. For example, I might see a tree and think 'out of nowhere the tree comes forth.' Deepening into understanding the present in this way gives an object a sudden miraculous quality. For a moment, the tree is mind-boggling and I begin to touch on something innate – beyond the confines of what I can conceive of or label. The fact that I take mundane shrubs, trees, stray cats, and rain squalls for granted or even consider them to be inconvenient nuisances at times is something the koan quietly forces me to examine more closely. What would life be like without these images, moments, and experiences? Do I create an inner world in which only some of what is present makes it through my ingrained mental filters? If yes, what would happen if I deconstructed these borders and removed them? Maybe everything that graces my life has a subtle extraordinariness and that allowing this connection to blossom on its own is a practice that takes place naturally when I just begin to notice."
Don Dianda- 'See for Your Self: Zen Mindfulness for the Next Generation'
Click on image to enlarge
Most note worthy replies
May we, together with all buddhas;
Relinquish our mind to the home of mindfulness,
That we may reflect on impermanence and inter-connected-ness.
Notes:
* the totality of conscious and unconscious mental processes and activities.
合掌,生開
gassho, Shokai
stlah
Read the following, place it in your heart and sleep on it. Then, tomorrow, live it until evening when you can leave a brief comment on what you may have received during the process.
Mind* as an abode of mindfulness is a gate of Dharma illumination;for [with it] we reflect that mind is like a phantom.
A “Dharma Gate” is a teaching or practice that can lead to spiritual growth: some kind of positive outcome in terms of our practice. A way to approach the truth.
Koan:
Out of nowhere, the mind comes forth.
-- The Diamond Sutra
"Working with this koan alters how I might meet the world in two ways. In one twist, it opens life up in a way where I can’t expect anything to happen outside of the now, and in another, the koan takes my attention to my thoughts and opinions about what I come into contact with each moment. For example, I might see a tree and think 'out of nowhere the tree comes forth.' Deepening into understanding the present in this way gives an object a sudden miraculous quality. For a moment, the tree is mind-boggling and I begin to touch on something innate – beyond the confines of what I can conceive of or label. The fact that I take mundane shrubs, trees, stray cats, and rain squalls for granted or even consider them to be inconvenient nuisances at times is something the koan quietly forces me to examine more closely. What would life be like without these images, moments, and experiences? Do I create an inner world in which only some of what is present makes it through my ingrained mental filters? If yes, what would happen if I deconstructed these borders and removed them? Maybe everything that graces my life has a subtle extraordinariness and that allowing this connection to blossom on its own is a practice that takes place naturally when I just begin to notice."
Don Dianda- 'See for Your Self: Zen Mindfulness for the Next Generation'
Click on image to enlarge
Most note worthy replies
May we, together with all buddhas;
Relinquish our mind to the home of mindfulness,
That we may reflect on impermanence and inter-connected-ness.
Mind is the river
We swim in
But cannot possess
We swim in
But cannot possess
Notes:
* the totality of conscious and unconscious mental processes and activities.
合掌,生開
gassho, Shokai
stlah
)
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