
Alan, I like your "nothing to subtract" point and Jundo your reply to that as well

Perhaps a fellow sits down to Zazen for the first time who is a violent man, a thief and alcoholic. He hears that “all is Buddha just as it is“, so thinks that Zen practice means “all is a jewel just as it is, so thus maybe I can simply stay that way, just drink and beat my wife and rob strangers“. Well, no, because while a thief and wife-beater is just that … a thief and wife-beater, yet a Buddha nonetheless … still, someone filled with such anger and greed and empty holes to fill in their psyche is not really “at peace with how things are” (or he would not beat and steal and need to self-medicate). In other words, he takes and craves and acts out anger and frustration because he does not truly understand “peace with this life as it is” … because if he did, he would not need to be those violent, punishing ways.
If the angry, violent fellow truly knew “completeness“, truly had “no hole in need of filling“, “nothing lacking” everything “complete just as it is” … well, he simply would not have need to do violence, steal and take drugs to cover his inner pain.
If the angry, violent fellow truly knew “completeness“, truly had “no hole in need of filling“, “nothing lacking” everything “complete just as it is” … well, he simply would not have need to do violence, steal and take drugs to cover his inner pain.
I'll copy the thoughts I sent to Taigu after that talk. I feel like I had a hard time expressing myself there, so trying to paraphrase it might get messier yet! I think Mara and Kannon are two sides of a coin that walk down the path with us.

I think the heart of the matter was that the dharma becomes utterly useless when you attempt to USE the dharma, when you make an effort to put it into your life and act upon what you think of as dharma. I had spent some time studying the Sutra on the Middle Way. In this sutra the Buddha says that the dharma and his path are all left behind when you reach enlightenment. The Middle Way isn't the middle road between two extremes- it is the highway to enlightenment, and you can fall off by not living life as you should or by being too fanatical, among many other things. The sutra held that, when you reach enlightenment, you drop everything- including the dharma. So the dharma is useless! It is useless because when you reach enlightenment, or whatever the end of the road is, the dharma becomes a spontaneous part of you that you do not have to “make use of” or put an effort into displaying. I don't think the Buddha, you, or Thich Naht Hanh meant that it is useless to study dharma or take it to heart. Just that it's useless to use it as a crutch, to rely on it or to call on certain principles like a genie.
I think that tied in with one of your Kannon videos, about Kannon radiating from inside, being a spontaneous act of kindness, not a contrived image you are presenting or even an authentic image you are working hard towards becoming. To me, that's the Middle Way, and the real dharma. It's not contriving, not working towards being authentic.. but maybe studying these things, understanding these things and taking them to heart to the point that they are spontaneous and natural. Awakening a seed that is naturally already there, and that is effortless when it sprouts. The dharma, Kannon, all these things are not to be made use of maybe, but are just to be realized?
I had a hard time writing this down and feeling like I was properly expressing all that I thought about over the last week. In summary, don't use the dharma, let it be natural. Study it, but don't let it become a scholarly, contrived part of who you are. That isn't dharma.
I think that tied in with one of your Kannon videos, about Kannon radiating from inside, being a spontaneous act of kindness, not a contrived image you are presenting or even an authentic image you are working hard towards becoming. To me, that's the Middle Way, and the real dharma. It's not contriving, not working towards being authentic.. but maybe studying these things, understanding these things and taking them to heart to the point that they are spontaneous and natural. Awakening a seed that is naturally already there, and that is effortless when it sprouts. The dharma, Kannon, all these things are not to be made use of maybe, but are just to be realized?
I had a hard time writing this down and feeling like I was properly expressing all that I thought about over the last week. In summary, don't use the dharma, let it be natural. Study it, but don't let it become a scholarly, contrived part of who you are. That isn't dharma.
Deep gassho,
Seizan
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