The 54th of 108 Gates Of Dharma Illumination

[Myo Shin]

Demetrius

Sat today and lah

[Nengyoku]

[Anchi]

[aprapti]

[Juki]

Juki

[DGF]

SAt
Diana

[Shokai]

The 61st of 108 Gates Of Dharma Illumination

Gate Sixty-one
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 balance is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] the mind is pure.

Balance : mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment.

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:
"What makes us balanced: When we think about action, we can recognize that action is different from intellectual thinking. If we are thinking when we are acting, the action cannot be perfect. For example, people who are skilful in some kind of sports or martial arts sometimes confess that just at the moment when they began to think something, they were defeated."
"At the same time, there are the similar cases in sense perception. Many sportsmen or martial artists confess that when they were caught by some external stimulus they were defeated at once, and those examples suggest that action is different from intellectual thinking or sense perception. Researching those facts, we can guess that the balanced state of the ANS might be related with our action. We can have a hypothesis that the balanced state of the ANS is achieved when we are acting in a concentrated state. Then we can see that Buddhist theory is closely related to action, and so it is necessary for us to study action if we want to understand Buddhism."
"But at the same time action is also impossible to describe with words. It also presents us with the same difficulty that reality does. And so we need to establish a philosophy of action if we want to know what Buddhism is theoretically. . "

-Gudo Nishijima's Handbook of Authentic Buddhism, capt. 10.4

balance.jpg

Most note worthy replies :

All my life I thought that to have balance I need to be in control. Nowadays, I let go a little bit more and more and my mantra is "let it be."

I swim in the ocean of sameness

Mindful of all directions

And thus find myself balanced.

Steady and stable

A clear mind

Stays out the mud


[No Mud; no Lotus]

合掌 仁道 生開 - gassho, Jindo Shokai
stlah

[Anchi]

[Juki]

Juki

[aprapti]

[Myo Shin]

[Tairin]

Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Nengyoku]

[Shokai]

The 62nd of 108 Gates Of Dharma Illumination

Gate Sixty-two
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 wisdom is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we really see all dharmas.

Wisdom : mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment

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: "Directly pointing to the human mind is like the separation between heaven and earth. Seeing the nature and becoming Buddha* is like this slightest deviation . Obaku sticking out his tongue** does not yet cover the three thousand worlds***. Gyoshi lowers his leg ****and kicks over great empty space. Why is this so? Great assembly, do you want to clearly understandthe meaning of this? After a pause Dogen said, "Mahakashyapa's face breaking into a smile***** has not yet ceased."

- Dogen's Extensive Record, discourse 11, pg. 543

wisdom.jpg

Most note worthy replies :

Wisdom trails behind mindfulness

If you know how to do nothing next.

With eyes free of dust

All things true

Come into focus

合掌 仁道 生開 - gassho, Jindo Shokai
stlah

"The slightest deviation is like the separation between heaven and earth" is from an inscription attributed to the third ancestor, Anchi Sosan; see Sheng-yen, Poetry of Enlightenment, pg 23
* "Directly pointing to the human mind ... and becoming Buddha" is a quote from Bodhidharma found in Obaku's "Transmitting the essence of the mind and Dharma."
** "sticking out his tongue" was Obaku's response to hearing the storyring about his teacher, Ekai going deaf for three days after a shout by his teacher Master Mazu.
*** "does not yet cover the three thousand worlds' refers Shakyamuni Buddha's tongue Which can cover them (according to the chapter on the "Form of Buddha's tongue" in the six-hundred-volume version of the Mahaprajnaparamitta Sutra.
**** Gyoshi lowering his leg refers to the gesture he made giving his final approval to Sekito's departure to live in his own hermitage.
***** Refers to the first Zen transmission of the true Dharma eye treasury when Buddh silently held up a flower at Vulture Peak.

[Anchi]