82/108 Gates of Dharma Illumination

[Shokai]

The Eighty-second Gate

Right balanced state is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we attain undistracted samādhi

Right Balanced State :
being in harmony and properly aligned with all dharmas and the universe

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gassho, Shokai
stlah

[Risho]

Gassho

Risho
-stlah

[Seikan]

With this gate, my mind keeps returning to an image of a spinning toy top. For some reason, that seems to represent the kind of balance that we’re practicing. The universe is in perpetual motion, yet there is a calm stillness at the center of it all. Residing in that stillness, we can see the whole world more clearly.

Stillness in motion
The practice
Of a spinning top


Gassho,
Seikan

-stlah-

[Nengei]

With this gate, my mind keeps returning to an image of a spinning toy top. For some reason, that seems to represent the kind of balance that we’re practicing. The universe is in perpetual motion, yet there is a calm stillness at the center of it all. Residing in that stillness, we can see the whole world more clearly.

Stillness in motion
The practice
Of a spinning top


Gassho,
Seikan

-stlah-

My mind recently has been seeing a vision of practice as a sphere or bearing following a light scratch of a spiral as it spins out from a center point. The bearing only stays in the groove if it is allowed to proceed without any pushing in any direction; otherwise, it moves out of the pathway easily. But then it can be allowed to settle right back into the groove, and keep moving toward it's never-approaching destination.

Balance is attained
With ease
If you know all Dharma is contained in this:
Refrain from taking life.

Gassho
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.

[Shokai]

My mind recently has been seeing a vision of practice as a sphere or bearing following a light scratch of a spiral as it spins out from a center point. The bearing only stays in the groove if it is allowed to proceed without any pushing in any direction; otherwise, it moves out of the pathway easily. But then it can be allowed to settle right back into the groove, and keep moving toward it's never-approaching destination.

Balance is attained
With ease
If you know all Dharma is contained in this:
Refrain from taking life.

Gassho
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.

Fascinating!!

[Washin]

[Inshin]

My mind recently has been seeing a vision of practice as a sphere or bearing following a light scratch of a spiral as it spins out from a center point. The bearing only stays in the groove if it is allowed to proceed without any pushing in any direction; otherwise, it moves out of the pathway easily. But then it can be allowed to settle right back into the groove, and keep moving toward it's never-approaching destination.

Balance is attained
With ease
If you know all Dharma is contained in this:
Refrain from taking life.

Gassho
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.

Wu Wei?

Gassho
Sat

[Nengei]

Wu Wei?

Maybe, from some perspectives. It is hard to for my Western mind to think of wu wei as different from forced abstraction or indifference. I think that conceptually it depends on an existential paradigm that I struggle with.

Gassho,
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.