The 85th of 108 Gates Of Dharma Illumination

[Shokai]

Gate Eighty-Five
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.

Right belief* is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we attain the supreme Dharma.

A “Dharma Gate”is 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: "In the Zen tradition it is generally believed that a person can do what is right and avoid doing what is not right without necessarily holding any specific beliefs around that. Even so, it seems to me that the Zen Buddhists kind of hedge their bets when it comes to this belief.For example, Dogen wrote an essay called Deep Belief in Cause and Effect. And by “cause and effect” he meant karma in the sense of the idea that if you do good things, good things will happen to you, and if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you.
Dogen, who was a very rational guy, did not find that idea of karma problematic. The essay I mentioned is one of two places in Shobogenzo in which Dogen writes about an old koan story from China. It’s the story of an ancient Zen master who is asked by a student if a Zen master is subject to the law of cause and effect. The Zen master says he isn’t subject to the law of cause and effect. Because of this, he gets reborn as a fox for his next 500 lifetimes. In China, foxes were seen as deceptive creatures.
Centuries later the fox/Zen master turns himself into a human for long enough to ask another Zen master to help free him from being a fox. He tells this Zen master what happened to him and asks what he has to say about it. This other Zen master says, “Don’t be unclear about cause and effect.” This does the trick and the ancient Zen master is free from being reborn as a fox.Dogen wrote this essay to emphasize to his students that they should have what he calls “deep belief in cause and effect.
He also wrote wrote another essay called Great Practice in which he also comments on the same story of the fox/Zen master. In this essay, he seems to be saying that an enlightened person is not subject to the law of cause and effect. What Dogen says in that essay actually a lot more subtle than I’m making it sound here. Even so, I think it’s fair to say that in the essay Great Practice, Dogen’s opinion about the nature of cause and effect seems quite different from the opinion he expresses in the essay Deep Belief in Cause and Effect. My guess is that Dogen recognized that, for a lot of people, having the proper beliefs was an important factor in their being able to act ethically.

Brad Warner / Hardcore Zen

peace within.jpg

Most note worthy replies :

We know we have feet Yet we walk Because we believe

I have absolutely no idea How a refrigerator works.

If we do Zazen,
we will grow.
Even if we don't believe

Notes:
* - Right belief: confidence/faith in the (truth) Dharma


合掌 仁道 生開 - gassho, Jindo Shokai
stlah

[Nengyoku]

[Myo Shin]

[Nengyoku]

“Nevertheless, Subhuti, the noble son or daughter
who grasps, memorizes, recites, and masters such a sutra as this
and contemplates it thoroughly and explains it in detail to others
will suffer their contempt, their utter contempt. And how could
this be? Subhuti, the bad karma created by these beings in their
past lives should result in an unfortunate rebirth. But now, by
suffering such contempt, they put an end to the bad karma of
their past lives and attain the enlightenment of buddhas."
--- The Tathagata, in the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra or the Diamond Sutra

I enjoy this portion of the Diamond Sutra quite a bit. I like the implication, maybe even the outright admission, that we are enlightened not despite our bad karma but explicitly because of it.
We could not stand where we do, in this body with access to this teaching without all of the dukkha which makes us up. This is why dukkha is the first of the four noble truths. It is the cornerstone of all the compassion which comes thereafter.

Obviously, this does not mean we try to collect extra bad karma. Just that we are perfect as we are.


All the bad I have done
Is what waters the seeds
Of the good I am doing.

Gassho,
Nengyoku
Sat

[Anchi]

[aprapti]

[Juki]

"We know we have feet
Yet we walk
Because we believe"

I like this, especially since walking has been described as "a controlled fall." And we need to fall into wholeheartedly into the Dharma.

Gassho
Juki
sat today and lah

[Tairin]

I have absolutely no idea
How a refrigerator works.

Some mysteries are unsolvable


Tairin
Sat today and lah