Gate Fifty-three
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.
Feeling as an abode of mindfulness is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we detach from all miscellaneous feelings.
Feeling: the general state of consciousness considered independently of particular sensations, thoughts, etc Mind: the totality of conscious and unconscious mental processes and activities. Abode: a place in which a person resides
By “Dharma Gate”, We mean 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: "Our Buddha Shakyamuni said to his disciples, "There are four foundations of mindfulness on which people should depend. These four foundations of mindfulness refer to contemplating the body as impure; contemplating sensation as suffering; contemplating the mind as impermanent; and contemplating phenomena as non-substantial." I, Eihei. also have four foundations of mindfulness: contemplating the body as a skin-bag; contemplating sensation as eating bowls; contemplating the mind as fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles; and contemplating phenomena as old man Zhang drinking wine, old man Li getting drunk.*
Great assembly, are my four foundations of mindfulness the same or different from the acient Buddha's four foundations of mindfulness ? if you say they are the same, youreyebrows will fall out from lying. If you say they are different, you will lose your body and life."
Most note worthy replies :
合掌 仁道 生開 - gassho, Jindo Shokai
stlah
* "old man Zhang drinks wine, old man Li gets drunk" is an expression from Yunmen's Recorded Syings, referring to the inconcievable interconnectedness of different beings and how the Dharma spreads beyond our usual modes of perception.
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.
Feeling as an abode of mindfulness is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we detach from all miscellaneous feelings.
Feeling: the general state of consciousness considered independently of particular sensations, thoughts, etc Mind: the totality of conscious and unconscious mental processes and activities. Abode: a place in which a person resides
By “Dharma Gate”, We mean 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: "Our Buddha Shakyamuni said to his disciples, "There are four foundations of mindfulness on which people should depend. These four foundations of mindfulness refer to contemplating the body as impure; contemplating sensation as suffering; contemplating the mind as impermanent; and contemplating phenomena as non-substantial." I, Eihei. also have four foundations of mindfulness: contemplating the body as a skin-bag; contemplating sensation as eating bowls; contemplating the mind as fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles; and contemplating phenomena as old man Zhang drinking wine, old man Li getting drunk.*
Great assembly, are my four foundations of mindfulness the same or different from the acient Buddha's four foundations of mindfulness ? if you say they are the same, youreyebrows will fall out from lying. If you say they are different, you will lose your body and life."
- Dogen's Extensive Record; Dharma Hall discourse 310, pg 287
What better abode
Most note worthy replies :
Awareness of feelings,
Where they come from and
Why they are there,
Empowers my ability
To see feelings with objectivity.
Forget this and that;
Forget this and that;
Focus on
Feeling, not the felt.
合掌 仁道 生開 - gassho, Jindo Shokai
stlah
* "old man Zhang drinks wine, old man Li gets drunk" is an expression from Yunmen's Recorded Syings, referring to the inconcievable interconnectedness of different beings and how the Dharma spreads beyond our usual modes of perception.
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