Thinking about Zenki

[Horin]

Dear Dharma Family,
I want to share some thoughts I had in my mind and I already have to apologize for running probably very long..
I got so much inspired by Dogens Zenki, especially by the Boat Analogy:

"Life is like a person in a boat. Aboard the boat, one uses a sail, holds a tiller, poles the boat along. Yet the boat carries you and without the boat you are not there. Riding the boat is what makes it a boat. You must study and penetrate this very moment. In this moment, the whole world is this boat. Thus "life" is what I live and "I" is life living me. Getting aboard the boat, this bodymind and all that is around are all the complete activity of the boat. Both the whole world and the vast sky are the boat's complete activity. This I that lives and the life that is I is just like this."

As far as I understand it, it shows how the border of inside and outside, of you/me, I and the world doesn't really exist - just as a thought or a" karmic" way of seeing things. In daily life, we are attached to things, or avoid other stuff, feel satisfaction and greed or Aversion and hate, because we are referring to the idea of I, which seems to be a natural thing, to keep this body-mind-system alive. Yet, when we sit zazen, or sometimes in other situations we can experience the absence of the I and just "melt" with the world without separating us from the outside. So, like in the analogy of the boat, we think we act, and we are somehow separated, but where is the point of distinction between me and not me? At least we cannot be without the atmosphere and the air around us, without the earth we stand on, and countless factors, and the closer we see, the less I can pinpoint "me", when we see very close, on a atomic level, there is even more space than matter. And so, at least, when we walk, there's walking, when we sit there's sitting, when there's driving a car there's car driving,... All are functions of life... A vast orchestra of life that creates the whole symphony of me and you, of caring, smiling, decaying (and the body will finally fall back into the elements and go back into the air, the water, nourish the plants, the bacteria, and so on.. But this materialistic view seems incomplete), there's also a way of experiencing, which also depends on certain factors but at the same time seems to be somehow beyond of matter/body and mind.. I think that may be what Dogen expressed with "to cast off body and mind".
No I remains, but also no world, it seems like no word can describe that, what can be offered in these glimpses during zazen, maybe the most precise may be "isness" ? The function of the sailing boat just functions because of the interplay of the whole universe, from the smallest atoms to the greatest phenomena. While these moments of recognition in a non intellectual way are at least for me rarely, in general, I can drop all the problems, all the worries at least during this period of still sitting.

I think, Gudo Wafu Nishijima referred to the fact that we need to experience reality through the action of practice. Neither the reduction to materialism nor the intellectual or idealistic approach can answer any questions and satisfy the mind that longs for answers. We better dedicate our time to practice, whatever Form it takes, formal sitting or daily life activities and overcome the poisons of mind through the practice of the paramita, manifesting the bodhisattva way through the actions of Buddha.

Gassho

Horin

Stlah

Enviado desde mi BLA-L29 mediante Tapatalk

[Inshin]

but where is the point of distinction between me and not me?

Sounds like a Koan. I was enquiring this recently during Zazen when dust settled on my face, the sensation of tickling was extremely strong and I tried sitting with it without reacting.

Gassho
Sat

[Tomás ESP]

This reminded me of this teaching by Qingyuan Weixin. I know most people already know it, but it is wonderful:

At the first level on the path he saw mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers.

On the second level of the path he saw that mountains are not mountains and rivers are not rivers.

And at a third level he saw once again mountains were mountains and rivers were rivers.

In my perspective, you are giving a deep analysis of the second level. And we can have these deep experiences in Zazen. And yet, when you go on your daily life, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers!

Gassho, Tomás
Sat&LaH
(Sorry for going over 3 sentences).

[Ryumon]

There's a famous version of the above, told by John Cage, in his piece Indeterminacy.

(I can't reproduce the spacing the way he wrote the text in manuscript; Indeterminacy is a piece where he told a number of stories, with musical backing, each story lasting exactly 60 seconds. You can see it here: https://www.lcdf.org/indeterminacy/s/34)



Before studying Zen,
men are men and
mountains are mountains.

While studying Zen,
things become confused.

After studying Zen,
men are men
and mountains are mountains.

After telling
this, Dr. Suzuki
was asked,
“What is
the difference between before and
after?”
He
said,
“No difference,


only the feet are a
little bit off the ground.”





Gassho,

Kirk

sat