Gate nineteen
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.
Reflection on suffering is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we cease all aspirations.
By “Dharma Gate”, we mean a teaching or practice we can study to gain insights into the deepening our practice. It's a way to integrate our understanding of approaching reality.
The Koan:
"We create stories in our minds in which the hero or heroine is always us.We evaluate what happened in the past, we analize our present conditions, and we anticipate what should happen in the future. This is an important ability. Because of it,we can create art, study history and have visions of the future. Without it, we couldn't write or enjoy poems or movies. Almost all of human culture depends on seeing things not in front of our eyes. This means all culture is ficticious. Our ability to create such fictions is the reality of our lives. We cannot live without it. But this ability leads to many problems. We have certain expectations of our stories. If things go as we expect, we feel like heavenly beings, but if not, we feel we're in hell. Often we desire more and more without ever experiencing satisfaction, like hungry ghosts. It is important to see that it is not life that causes suffering but our expectation that life should be the way we want. We can't live without expectation, but if we can handle the feelings caused by the difference between our expectations and reality, that's liberation."
-The Zen Teachings of Homeless Kodo 21 pg 62
Most note worthy replies :
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.
Reflection on suffering is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we cease all aspirations.
By “Dharma Gate”, we mean a teaching or practice we can study to gain insights into the deepening our practice. It's a way to integrate our understanding of approaching reality.
The Koan:
"We create stories in our minds in which the hero or heroine is always us.We evaluate what happened in the past, we analize our present conditions, and we anticipate what should happen in the future. This is an important ability. Because of it,we can create art, study history and have visions of the future. Without it, we couldn't write or enjoy poems or movies. Almost all of human culture depends on seeing things not in front of our eyes. This means all culture is ficticious. Our ability to create such fictions is the reality of our lives. We cannot live without it. But this ability leads to many problems. We have certain expectations of our stories. If things go as we expect, we feel like heavenly beings, but if not, we feel we're in hell. Often we desire more and more without ever experiencing satisfaction, like hungry ghosts. It is important to see that it is not life that causes suffering but our expectation that life should be the way we want. We can't live without expectation, but if we can handle the feelings caused by the difference between our expectations and reality, that's liberation."
-The Zen Teachings of Homeless Kodo 21 pg 62
Most note worthy replies :
Always yearning for something, I suffer.
Witnessing suffering, I yearn for freedom from suffering, and I suffer.
Maybe today I will just water the flowers and the weeds together.
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