The Fifty-ninth Gate:
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.
The faculty of effort* is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we thoroughly attain many kinds of wisdom.
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:
Dizang asked Xiushan, “Where do you come from?”
Xiushan said, “From the South.”
Dizang said, “How is Buddhism in the South these days?”
Xiushan said, “There is extensive discussion””
Dizang said, “How can that compare to me here planting the fields and making rice to eat?”
Xiushan said, “What can you do about the world?”
Dizang said, “What do you call the world?”
The koan serves as a surgical tool used to cut into and then break through the mind of the practitioner... Koans aren’t just puzzles that your mind figures out suddenly and proclaims, “Aha! the answer is three!” They wait for you to open enough to allow the space necessary for them to enter into your depths—the inner regions beyond knowing.
"Time and again during question and answer sessions after a Zen lecture, someone will ask: 'What is the use of just sitting in silent meditation when there is so much suffering in the world?' This question is usually meant as a challenge to what seems a kind of passiveness. It is true that the world is full of suffering beings; humans, animals, plants, even the planet itself is deeply suffering. Shouldn’t we be having extensive discussions, protesting, implementing solutions? This koan does for me what I think is the intention of all koans – it stops my mind in mid stride. It brings my awareness to the importance of asking questions before acting. Questions like: What is the nature of suffering and what is its ultimate cause? How can I help a world that I see as separate from myself? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial for me to deeply understand how the world is not something 'out there' that needs saving? If I consider the way we are all constantly, every moment, making the world then each simple, ordinary action I am able to take right here is 'doing something about the world.' And when it is time for other kinds of action, less simple or potentially more widely impactful, it is my intention that these actions will be grounded in not knowing what the world is, or what helping is."
Most note worthy replies:
I think it would be an exceptional person who can attain Wisdom without effort. Most of us will require some effort to see beyond the accumulated Self that we build up through our lives.
With effort, we learn to recognize and overcome our own delusions, attachments, and aversions, and we develop greater clarity, equanimity, and insight. We may also gain a deeper understanding of the nature of reality, the workings of the mind, and the interconnectedness of all beings.
It’s only with effort that we can sit on the cushion, act on the precepts and vows, and work for the benefit of sentient beings. Even so, our Zen way is to not be attached to the results of our effort.
Notes:
* Effort: exertion of physical or mental power
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.
The faculty of effort* is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we thoroughly attain many kinds of wisdom.
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:
Dizang asked Xiushan, “Where do you come from?”
Xiushan said, “From the South.”
Dizang said, “How is Buddhism in the South these days?”
Xiushan said, “There is extensive discussion””
Dizang said, “How can that compare to me here planting the fields and making rice to eat?”
Xiushan said, “What can you do about the world?”
Dizang said, “What do you call the world?”
-- Book of Serenity
The koan serves as a surgical tool used to cut into and then break through the mind of the practitioner... Koans aren’t just puzzles that your mind figures out suddenly and proclaims, “Aha! the answer is three!” They wait for you to open enough to allow the space necessary for them to enter into your depths—the inner regions beyond knowing.
"Time and again during question and answer sessions after a Zen lecture, someone will ask: 'What is the use of just sitting in silent meditation when there is so much suffering in the world?' This question is usually meant as a challenge to what seems a kind of passiveness. It is true that the world is full of suffering beings; humans, animals, plants, even the planet itself is deeply suffering. Shouldn’t we be having extensive discussions, protesting, implementing solutions? This koan does for me what I think is the intention of all koans – it stops my mind in mid stride. It brings my awareness to the importance of asking questions before acting. Questions like: What is the nature of suffering and what is its ultimate cause? How can I help a world that I see as separate from myself? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial for me to deeply understand how the world is not something 'out there' that needs saving? If I consider the way we are all constantly, every moment, making the world then each simple, ordinary action I am able to take right here is 'doing something about the world.' And when it is time for other kinds of action, less simple or potentially more widely impactful, it is my intention that these actions will be grounded in not knowing what the world is, or what helping is."
Rev. Zesho Susan O’Connell as President of the SFZC
Most note worthy replies:
I think it would be an exceptional person who can attain Wisdom without effort. Most of us will require some effort to see beyond the accumulated Self that we build up through our lives.
With effort, we learn to recognize and overcome our own delusions, attachments, and aversions, and we develop greater clarity, equanimity, and insight. We may also gain a deeper understanding of the nature of reality, the workings of the mind, and the interconnectedness of all beings.
It’s only with effort that we can sit on the cushion, act on the precepts and vows, and work for the benefit of sentient beings. Even so, our Zen way is to not be attached to the results of our effort.
Sitting in Zazen—
Effortless
But not less effort
Effortless
But not less effort
Notes:
* Effort: exertion of physical or mental power
gassho,Shokai
stlah
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