Bodhidharma and Huike: how much are you willing to give?

[MyoHo]

Thank you Kokuu. The essence of your words resonate with me greatly and is food for thought. There are several stories about people losing a finger, breaking ones own leg to sit full lotus etc. To achieve or reach any goal on a spiritual path it takes endurance and a radical mindset to do what is needed. Maybe not really cut your arm or break a leg like in these stories but to have that radical mindset that is needed. A real commitment, sacrifice and self discipline, not things we are very used to today. Thank you for your reflections on this story.

Gassho

MyoHo

[Chishou]

On a serious note. I have thought about what I would be prepared to give up for the practice.

I had considered joining a monastic community as it is something I wanted to take seriously. But the more I thought about “giving it all up” to live the life of a zen monk, the more I think it is the wrong thing to do. Maybe for me anyway.

I want to deepen my practice to help everyone, to go full-time monastic feels like running away. When I visit Throssel Hole, a monastery of the OBC, it is a great dedicated for spiritual practice. But, how does that help other, other than those who can leave home for a week and drive 100 miles into the countryside?

I want to combine my work and my practice to maximise the benefit to all beings.

As for for what I would actually do to deepen that practice, I am not sure. It is something I have thought about for a while and now a daily thought. I don’t know what to do to make a zen teacher take me as there student/unsui. Do I stand outside their house until they let me in or the police take me away? Or do I just wait and hope time doesn’t run out? Everyday I am reminded how important the matter of life and death is, how it swiftly passes by, like a dewdrop on the morning grass. Brain aneurysms are a big part of my family history, many of my relatives have dropped dead from them. I decided not to get scanned, as it wouldn’t really change anything. But it really brings things into perspective.

But, then again, zen is life. Would I give my life if it would make a difference to other beings? Yes, without hesitation. I’d like to think anyway.

Simon/Chishou.
Sat.


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[Jishin]

Hi Simon,

Zen can be intoxicating.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Jundo]

Not necessarily. Arteries are very elastic and are under constant stretch and pressure. If his arm was completely lopped off (100% medical term) the arteries would contract and spasm causing them to close resulting in a very survivable injury. This would only have last an hour or so before they would have started to relax and leak, if a decent clot hadn’t formed by then he would have bleed out (medical term). He probably would have died of an infection.

Yes, definitely, he would have survived ... if he had called you and your ambulance to show up at the cave. However, cell phone service was very bad up there back then, so very unlikely.

Gassho, J

SatTodayLAH

[Jundo]

PS -

As for for what I would actually do to deepen that practice, I am not sure. It is something I have thought about for a while and now a daily thought. I don’t know what to do to make a zen teacher take me as there student/unsui.

Well, you have to cut your arm off!! (Just kidding ... this being the world, someone will take me literally! I have been contacted over the years by a couple of folks who seem like they were about at the point.)

If you wish to "deepen your Practice" then keep Practicing, and it will deepen like the ruts of passing wagon wheels. Where are you looking for this "Practice" but right where you are now? Is it in a monastery in Shangri-la? In a cave or up a mountain? Or in your ambulance and sitting on your ass?

SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: WHAT's NEXT!?!

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?9471-SIT-A-LONG-with-Jundo-WHAT-s-NEXT%21-%21

SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: Why Zen Folks FAIL!! (3) - CHASING

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?13551-SIT-A-LONG-with-Jundo-Why-Zen-Folks-FAIL%21%21-%283%29-CHASING

Gee, Simon, you are already starting peoples' stopped hearts and helping house the homeless ... what more would like to do to be helpful? Light some incense? Chant something? Go ahead!

[Chishou]

I see this grasshopper still have much to learn.

Gee, Simon, you are already starting peoples' stopped hearts and helping house the homeless ... what more would like to do to be helpful? Light some incense? Chant something? Go ahead!

Could you move the zendo 3 inches to the left, please?

Thank you for this lesson.

Simon/Chishou
Sat



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[Jakuden]

I’m starting to see this as an illustration of how the divide between lay and monastic practice is not always useful and can, in fact, be harmful these days. I have had to be told, both here and at Zen Mountain Monastery, that I already do bodhisattva work every day. Somehow it took convincing that what I do “counts.” But the mental fortitude that gets me up and wading into the fray to help people on Monday morning is the exact same stuff that keeps me on the cushion during Sesshin when I want to run out of the room. Seeing patient after patient, listening carefully and trying to deal skillfully with people for hours when I am exhausted, way behind in the schedule and have to pee really badly is not much different than staying on that Zafu until the bell rings. My Ango partner Daiyo does volunteer work with the Scouts, every weekend for many years, and yet somehow felt that didn’t “count” as bodhisattva work. If we were all to find our bodhicitta, the desire to compassionately help all beings, and apply it to right livelihood every day, the world might be a lovely place indeed! No need for ordination or cutting off of one’s arm!
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH


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[Kokuu]

I have had to be told, both here and at Zen Mountain Monastery, that I already do bodhisattva work every day. Somehow it took convincing that what I do “counts.”... My Ango partner Daiyo does volunteer work with the Scouts, every weekend for many years, and yet somehow felt that didn’t “count” as bodhisattva work.

I think this is part of human nature. Even Martin Luther King and people who work for Medicin Sans Frontieres probably thinkought they are not doing enough. But what else is bodhisattva work other than what is right in front of us?

As Simon says, we can travel 100 miles and spend a week sitting at a monastery but is that more work of a bodhisattva than feeding your family and helping a child to read? We are all wheels in a huge machine and it is probably just as well as if one of us did everything, there would be nothing left for everyone else!

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Meishin]

Sometimes it comes out of the blue, an indication that you have done some good for another. Several weeks ago I was in a dental clinic, paying my bill, when a woman walked up and spoke to the billing clerk. "This man saved my life." I didn't recognize her and she didn't explain, but she was obviously a patient from long ago. For most off my career I just assumed I was doing my job. Moments like that are reminders of what our jobs really are. Or what they can be.

Gassho
Meishin
Sat today LAH

[Amelia]

My ango partner from two years ago, Jim, told me during a Skype that he was trying to figure out what to do for his day of service. He had already explained his job: I can't remember what it was at the moment, but it involved helping people every day! I told him, "Don't sweat it, you're already doing it!" He still felt that there was more he could do, but I think he felt more at ease hearing it from somebody else.

I often feel this way, but I look for ways to help. My lah is usually helping my grandmother with various chores. It doesn't feel like much to me, but I know it is a big help for her. I also sometimes realize that when I am really engaged at work, customers and my coworkers are really heartened by it. There are always ways to help other people!

Gassho, sat today, lah

[Rakurei]

I once heard a teacher say, "There's no such thing as not doing your best. You're simply reacting to the best of your ability in that moment ... Be gentle".

I reflect on this a lot. Eat your rice, wash your bowl - start over the next day.

ST,

Rakurei

[Chishou]

I still haven’t come to terms with the LAH system. It feels like a way of trying to be recognised something done. Perhaps one day I will feel more comfortable with it.

Chishou,
Sat.


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[Mp]

I still haven’t come to terms with the LAH system. It feels like a way of trying to be recognised something done. Perhaps one day I will feel more comfortable with it.

Chishou,
Sat.


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Are you not doing this everyday when at work? LAH comes in many forms. =)

Gassho
Shingen

Sat/LAH

[Jishin]

Bodhidharma and Huike: how much are you willing to give?

I still haven’t come to terms with the LAH system. It feels like a way of trying to be recognised something done. Perhaps one day I will feel more comfortable with it.

Chishou,
Sat.


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Some people may say that lah is neither born or destroyed, neither stained or pure and neither waxing nor waning. How could there be lah at all?

I think this is why Dogen went to China. To find out why do we need to practice when we are all Buddha to begin with. Not one thing missing.

Drums.....

We are Buddha but don’t express our nature without lah. There is no lah. We are lah.

I don’t write lah because I think it’s redundant and to write lah it implies that you are not lah but that is just me. I should be less argumentative but what can I say. It’s in my blood. Maybe I’ll start now.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_ , LAH

[Joyo]

Hi Simon,

Zen can be intoxicating.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

Yes it is. Until you keep practicing, and practice some more and more. Then it becomes that old pair of pants you refuse to part with. =)

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today/lah