How To Cook Your Life : from the Zen kitchen to Enlightenment.

[Bion]

Apologies if I misunderstand you Jake but I don't think I totally agree with what you say.

A great deal can be cultivated/learnt 'off the cushion' - though of course it is understood that Zazen encompasses all of our actions. Personally, I feel without a lot of work on our personal development Zazen will not deliver that contented/non seeking mind we are all searching for. I don't think we're being authentic if we tell ourselves this is not a motivation. A motivation implies a goal and even if we drop all thoughts of a goal while sitting that goal does exist.

Accepting things as they are takes preparatory work and that comes in many forms. I experience a group of people here who are very dedicated
to reading/thinking/questioning/doubting/learning/unlearning etc. Taking that example you gave - the lawyer/the doctor would be useless in court/the OR without years of preparatory work.

So I reckon - work hard off the cushion and relax when on it. Not two but one.

( sorry - ran on a bit)

Gassho

Jinyo

Sat today

Of course every action can teach us things and one learns a great deal while cooking, cleaning, doing anything really.. but hat was not really the point of what I was saying. The observation I made was merely based on my own experience and not any teaching from anyone. That was the order in which things happened for me: first I sat and then that spilled over the rest of my activities as I was able to learn valuable lessons from my zazen which then I was able to apply to other aspects of my day to day life. I am sure others may learn in a different way because all of our circumstances and needs are different.

Sorry for running a bit long

[emoji1374] SatToday

[Meitou]

I enjoyed Bernie Glassman's take on the sutra which is very practical in terms of describing what his Zen Peacemaker's Order have undertaken in terms of engaged Buddhism and working with marginalised communities.

However, How to Cook Your Life remains an absolute classic. There is a good reason that so many of us keep going back to it.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

Yes it's a gift, really nothing else is needed and this is what I'm trying to convey - it contains answers to so many of the questions that arise in the forum, so I hope more folk get interested in reading it.
I agree about the Bernie Glassman, it's a different and very personal interpretation, a good companion all the same.
Gassho
Meitou
Sattoday lah

[Seikan]

Sam, I think it is a question of trust. In both Zazen and life off the cushion, we trust that life is complete and whole just as it is and that the right action will arise by itself. That doesn't mean we are completely passive and do not attend to things that need to attend to - getting the groceries, paying the bills, looking after our kids - but when we let go of needing to be in charge, in control, we let life unfold moment by moment rather than needing to force every step.
-

To echo Kokuu's reply above, I see this as an another manifestation of taking refuge as we have to simply put our trust in the teachings before we can fully commit to the practice. If we enter practice with too much reservation, it makes it difficult to "progress" (using that term lightly here... ).

And bringing this back to Meitou's message about How to Cook Your Life, this in my one and only complaint about Treeleaf—you folks are causing me to need a bigger bookshelf! [emoji2957]

Gassho,
Rob

-stlah-


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Risho]

To echo Kokuu's reply above, I see this as an another manifestation of taking refuge as we have to simply put our trust in the teachings before we can fully commit to the practice. If we enter practice with too much reservation, it makes it difficult to "progress" (using that term lightly here... ).

Interesting - this reminds of the same idea from Genjokoan; this from Shohaku Okumura's translation of it:

...[I]f there are fish that would swim or birds that would fly only after investigating the entire ocean or sky, they would find neither path nor place. When we make this very place our own, our practice becomes the actualization of reality. When we make this path our own, our activity naturally becomes actualized reality… Although complete enlightenment is immediately actualized, its intimacy is such that it does not necessarily form as a view. [In fact] viewing is not something fixed.

Gassho,

Risho
-stlah

[Kokuu]

I see this as an another manifestation of taking refuge as we have to simply put our trust in the teachings before we can fully commit to the practice. If we enter practice with too much reservation, it makes it difficult

I think this is true and hopefully as we practice, trust is supported by experience.

This piece by Jundo Roshi is very lovely on faith and trust as an often missing component of Shikantaza: https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...A-EXPLANATIONS

What is this missing piece of the puzzle?

Shikantaza Zazen must be sat, for the time it is sat, with the student profoundly trusting deep in her bones that sitting itself is a complete and sacred act, the one and only action that need be done in the whole universe in that instant of sitting. This truth should not be thought about or voiced in so many words, but must be silently and subtly felt deep down. The student must taste vibrantly that the mere act of sitting Zazen, in that moment, is whole and thoroughly complete, the total fruition of life’s goals, with nothing lacking and nothing to be added to the bare fact of sitting here and now. There must be a sense that the single performance of crossing the legs (or sitting in some other balanced posture) is the realization of all that was ever sought, that there is simply no other place to go in the world nor thing left to do besides sitting in such posture. No matter how busy one’s life or how strongly one’s heart may tempt one to be elsewhere, for the time of sitting all other concerns are put aside. Zazen is the one task and experience that brings meaning and fruition to that time, with nothing else to do. This fulfillment in “Just Sitting” must be felt with a tangible vibrancy and energy, trusting that one is sitting at the very pinnacle of life.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[gaurdianaq]

And bringing this back to Meitou's message about How to Cook Your Life, this in my one and only complaint about Treeleaf—you folks are causing me to need a bigger bookshelf! [emoji2957]

Gassho,
Rob

-stlah-


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

This is why I get digital books XD


Evan,
Sat today, lah

[Naiko]

ah excellent! I'm currently listening to Jundo's talks on the Tenzo Kyokun - about a talk every day or every other day, then I transcribe the passage into a notebook. Once I'm done with the talks I'm going to start the reading - it's this Ango tradition I started a few years back that just stuck.

I agree with you - the Tenzo Kyokun is one of my favorites. It is so resonant to me because I'm sort of a Tenzo at work - basically a middle manager, but it's such a great prescription for following the Bodhisattva path in our workaday world.

Thank you for starting this thread!

Gassho

Risho
-stlah

Oh, wonderful—thank you for posting about these talks. I had planned to read this for Ango, so these will be very helpful.
Gassho,
Krista
st

[Jundo]

As to sitting with "no gaining mind," see if my next talk on "Zen as Embodiment (2) - Buddha Sitting Buddha" helps (it will be posted in the next day or two), as it is about Zazen as a kind of visualization exercise, a kind of acting a role, in which we feel in the bones that we are embodying the peace, fulfilment and equanimity of a Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree ... thus actually coming to feel the "no gaining mind, nothing more to attain" peace, fulfilment and equanimity that we are pretending to feel. See if that helps.

Gassho, J

STLah

Sam, as promised, see if this is helpful in some way ...

Zen as Embodiment (2) - Buddha 'Sitting' Buddha

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?18182-Zen-as-Embodiment-%282%29-Buddha-Sitting-Buddha

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jinyo]

ah excellent! I'm currently listening to Jundo's talks on the Tenzo Kyokun - about a talk every day or every other day, then I transcribe the passage into a notebook. Once I'm done with the talks I'm going to start the reading - it's this Ango tradition I started a few years back that just stuck.

I agree with you - the Tenzo Kyokun is one of my favorites. It is so resonant to me because I'm sort of a Tenzo at work - basically a middle manager, but it's such a great prescription for following the Bodhisattva path in our workaday world.

Thank you for starting this thread!

Gassho

Risho
-stlah

Thanks for starting this thread Meitou and thanks for the links Risho. Jundo's talks were recorded pre my joining Treeleaf so I did not realise they existed. The link to the Foulk translation
is very helpful too. Have read twice today so just digesting and going to listen to talks.

Gasho

Jinyo

Sat today

[Risho]

If you haven't you've got to listen to talk xi - not only a good talk on form and emptiness, but it makes me laugh every time! hahahahaha

Gassho

Risho
-stlah

[Inshin]

"When we live out our lives to the fullest, there is no bad, fortune or misfortune. There is only the one taste of the great ocean of life."


Gassho
Sat

[Risho]

"When we live out our lives to the fullest, there is no bad, fortune or misfortune. There is only the one taste of the great ocean of life."


Gassho
Sat

This is Dogen at his best; he has a lot of really good stuff, but this fascicle is incredible

gassho

risho
-stlah

[Risho]

Today I listened to Talk XV - the two truths; I think this is referred to as the "two truths", right?

Harmonizing and purifying yourself in this manner, do not lose either the one eye [of transcendent wisdom] or the two eyes [of discriminating consciousness]. Lifting a single piece of vegetable, make [yourself into] a six-foot body [i.e. a buddha] and ask that six-foot body to prepare a single piece of vegetable.

Another related teaching from Jundo: https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...-open-together

I mean aren't they all related? This is the heart sutra.

Gassho

Risho
-stlah

[Inshin]

“There is no way to
gain emancipation through another.” (Suttanipāta: 773) “There
is no way I can emancipate people suffering in this world. " p. 102.

Could anyone help me with understanding of how this quote relates to Bodhisattva Path?
I found variations of Bodhisattva vows, most saying :" However innumerable all beings are, I vow to save them all/ liberate them all."



However one variation struck me:

"Sentient beings are infinite, they will save themselves.
Desires are infinite, they will reach an end by themselves.
Dharmas are infinite, so there is learning, study.
Buddha's way is not above, so it is always accomplished."

https://terebess.hu/zen/szoto/vows.html

Gassho
Sat

[Jundo]

However one variation struck me:

"Sentient beings are infinite, they will save themselves.
Desires are infinite, they will reach an end by themselves.
Dharmas are infinite, so there is learning, study.
Buddha's way is not above, so it is always accomplished."

https://terebess.hu/zen/szoto/vows.html

This appears to be an interpretation by Rev. Kobun Chino, a Soto teacher who was known for some very eccentric writings (I once suspected, since he came to America via San Francisco in the 70's, that he was stoned when he wrote a lot of them, but I understand that he did not touch drugs and was just eccentric), and left some rather eccentric students. Let me just say that it is a very eccentric and unorthodox reading, but it is interesting. Maybe we can say that, since we are they and they are us, then when we save the beings who (ultimately do not need to be saved) they save themselves as we save them from the saveless.

“There is no way to
gain emancipation through another.” (Suttanipāta: 773) “There
is no way I can emancipate people suffering in this world. " p. 102.

Could anyone help me with understanding of how this quote relates to Bodhisattva Path?
I found variations of Bodhisattva vows, most saying :" However innumerable all beings are, I vow to save them all/ liberate them all."

The Sutta Nipata was a Theravadan interpretation, so I would guess that the traditional interpretation there is that we must all make our own effort, save ourself, because we are each responsible for our own Karma and liberation. The Mahayana view, as expressed by Uchiyama, would not disagree, although the Mahayanist might add such further insights that there is no "through another" or "people suffering in the world" because there is no "another" or "people" ... nor "emancipation" to be attained, nor "suffering" nor "world" ... and the realization thereof is emancipation. As well, the "another" and "people" are just us too ... so we must save ourselves in saving them.

Something like so.

Sorry for running long.

Gassho, Jundo

STLah