The First of the 108 Gates Of Dharma Illumination

[Shokai]

Gate One
Once again, This time around we will review the Gates by reading the following, placing it in your heart and sleeping on it. Then, tomorrow, live and practice it until evening when you leave a brief comment as to how it affected you.

Right belief is a gate of Dharma-illumination; for [with it] the steadfast mind is not broken.

By “Dharma Gate”, we mean a teaching or practice we can study and explore to gain insights that deepen our practice. It's a way to integrate our understanding of approaching reality; one method is to research and study koans such as:

"One day a monk asked Master Hogen, I have heard that in yourteachings you saythat from the fundamental, which does not stay, all things and mental phenomena are established.. What is this fundamental that does mnot stay? Master hogen said: Form appears from something not physical, and name arises from that which cannot be named."
-Master Dogen's Shinji Shobogenzo / Nishijima 3-55

Can you relate this to Gate #1
One poetic response to this question was:

Finding right belief

Is as elusive

As the bits of my broken mind.

Gassho, Shokai

[Tairin]

Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Anchi]

[Kokuu]

[Juki]

Juki
sat today and lah

[Nengyoku]

[Zenkon]

Form appears from something not physical, and name arises from that which cannot be named

Perhaps - What happens when I see a twisted stick on the ground? First, me eyes perceive a dark colored shape. Then, almost instantaneously, my mind compares that shape with my past experiences, my "stories", considers if the shape is perhaps a snake or something else, and concludes it is a stick. The "reality" that this is a stick comes from my mind. The name "stick" comes from my experiences, my "stories".

Gassho

Dick

sat/lah

[Shokai]

my mind compares that shape with my past experiences,

Would you say then that if it were not for Right Belief something other than a stick could appear?

gassho, Shokai
stlah

[Nengyoku]

Would you say then that if it were not for Right Belief something other than a stick could appear?

gassho, Shokai
stlah

Is Right Belief then truly no belief; or does my placing expectation on belief corrupt it?
For warm under my coat it appears as a stick, but in the cold it appears to you as firewood.
In naming it I divide it, where it should be unnamed.

Gassho,
William
SatLah

[aprapti]

[Zenkon]

[QUOTE] were not for Right Belief something other than a stick could appear{/QUOTE]

If my understanding is correct by Right Belief we mean belief that the Four Noble Truths, meditation, the study of Dharma, etc. will help us diminish delusions and increase our understanding of emptiness. If we open our minds, belief will grow as delusions diminish. Belief allows us to see that the twisted shape is simply that - a twisted shape. Whether it is a stick or a snake or a rope depends on my past experiences, my "stories". Belief allows me to halt making assumptions, judgements, valuations about a perception and simply see it "as it is". Rather than jump to the conclusion "Oh, that's a stick", I can recall Hakuin's famous story and more easily think "Is that so?" when one of my stories wants me to assume it is a stick, or a snake. I can more easily see it for what it is.

So, yes, without Right Belief, I might see a snake.

Gassho

Dick

sat/lah

[Zenkon]

In naming it I divide it, where it should be unnamed.

If my understanding is correct, this is 100% accurate. Once you label something, you separate it, you limit what it could be.

Gassho

Dick

sat/lah

[Shokai]

[Washin]