Uhhh...

[Troy]

After I discover a nugget of wisdom and am feeling pretty good about myself, I am eventually humbled by what I don't know. I realize my understanding is like a grain of sand on the shore of wisdom. It leaves me feeling a little dazed. My response? Uhhh... with a dopey look on my face, lol. What a relief it is not to have to live up to the image of having exceptional wisdom.

[Juki]

Wisdom is being comfortable with not knowing.

Gassho,
Juki

[Troy]

Wisdom is being comfortable with not knowing.

Gassho,
Juki

Yes! Nicely put

[MyoHo]

Wisdom is knowing there is nothing to know.

Uuuuh?
YES! Uuuhhhhh!

Gaasho

Myoho

[Juki]

Wisdom is knowing there is nothing to know.

Uuuuh?
YES! Uuuhhhhh!

Gaasho

Myoho

How can one "know" that there is nothing to know?

[Dosho]

How can one "know" that there is nothing to know?

(Universe explodes into a fiery ball...then nothingness.)

Fin.

[Juki]

(Universe explodes into a fiery ball...then nothingness.)

Fin.

Thanks, Dosho. I'm liking this thread more with every response.



Gassho,
Juki

[Risho]

This is interesting; there can never be nothingness.

[Kyonin]

Nothing comes to mind whenever I think about all there is to learn.

Then I realize I am nothing morphing into nothingness.

Wise? Not me. Dumb like hell? That's me.

Gassho,

Kyonin

[Daitetsu]

Is this thread a kind of contest who thinks most of themselves to be dumbest?

Anyway some food for thought:
There is a difference between nothing and no thing.

Gassho,

Daitetsu

[Jundo]

I got lost long ago ...

[Jishin]

Not knowing/emptiness is only half the story. When one truly does not know, then reality can be seen with a clear eye. The grass is green and the sky is blue. Just like this. :-)

Gassho, Jishin

[Jundo]

This is a section of our guest this week, Daiho Hilbert's, book which I so much recommend to everyone. Daiho often dances with Seung Sahn's "Only Don't Know". Here, Daiho speaks my heart on knowing "Don't Know" ...

--------------------

When I was a practicing psychotherapist, one of my main focuses in treatment was helping people formulate principles for living. Most of my clients were survivors of catastrophic trauma: war, assault, disasters both man-made and natural. For these people, their common experience of living was shattered and thrown into question. The world was no longer safe, predictable, or fair. Trauma taught them that it really never was, that we live in a bubble of illusion so to speak until something happens to pop that bubble, and then all our experience and know-how is of questionable value.

How do we live when our world appears so irrational and capricious? What are our organizing principles?

Today, as a priest, my effort is much the same, though it addresses the spiritual side of my life, as if my actual lives can be so apportioned. A spiritual life is a principled life. And the organizing principle is "don't know."

There is something very powerful and completely freeing about letting our ideas go. Life is so much fresher, more vivid and certainly more dynamic. When we approach a daily situation as if we already know what it is, we are responding to what we "know" rather than what is actually there.

To approach life with a "Don't Know" mind is inherently respectful. I do not have to know what is what. I can begin to appreciate something as it presents itself and as I do this, I am offering it true respect. Such an approach requires us to listen deeply. Listening in this sense is poly-sensational. We use each and every sense organ as we witness life. Sound, taste, touch, smell, and thought all flow directly to us without passing go. No filtering. No thinking. Just thought. Just smell. Just touch. Just sound. Just taste. Each is a teacher; each an awakening.

It is important to touch our core values. Values such as awareness, nurturance, compassion, peace, love; these become our organizing principles. These are organized around our knowledge that the universe is not two, but one. So, as we become aware, so does our universe. As we become compassion, compassion is brought into our universe. And so on.

In each case, and as we approach each life situation, we should make clear choices: we behave for the sake of other beings. Our lives are in-service to others, not to ourselves, because in truth, you and I are one, mutually dependent on each other for our existence and the continued existence of our planet.

Such a life requires us to be vulnerable. We must drop our defences. We must be willing to be hurt. And while it may appear that this is difficult, in truth, our defences don't amount to much in the first place. They really don't serve us. They actually harm us. They create little bomb shelters for us to live in, if that is what we want to call living in a shell.

I have spent much of my life in such a shell. Its not a happy place,. And I look forward each morning to stepping out into the light of day, inhaling the air and opening myself to the dawn. What can you teach me today?

Living Zen: The Diary of an American Zen Priest
by Rev. Harvey Daiho Hilbert

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Zen-Diary-American-Priest/dp/1456464612/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395980695&sr=1-1&keywords=daiho+hilbert

[Mp]

There is something very powerful and completely freeing about letting our ideas go. Life is so much fresher, more vivid and certainly more dynamic. When we approach a daily situation as if we already know what it is, we are responding to what we "know" rather than what is actually there.

This is a marvelous point Jundo, thank you. =)

Gassho
Shingen

[Troy]

This is a section of our guest this week, Daiho Hilbert's, book which I so much recommend to everyone. Daiho often dances with Seung Sahn's "Only Don't Know". Here, Daiho speaks my heart on knowing "Don't Know" ...

--------------------

When I was a practicing psychotherapist, one of my main focuses in treatment was helping people formulate principles for living. Most of my clients were survivors of catastrophic trauma: war, assault, disasters both man-made and natural. For these people, their common experience of living was shattered and thrown into question. The world was no longer safe, predictable, or fair. Trauma taught them that it really never was, that we live in a bubble of illusion so to speak until something happens to pop that bubble, and then all our experience and know-how is of questionable value.

How do we live when our world appears so irrational and capricious? What are our organizing principles?

Today, as a priest, my effort is much the same, though it addresses the spiritual side of my life, as if my actual lives can be so apportioned. A spiritual life is a principled life. And the organizing principle is "don't know."

There is something very powerful and completely freeing about letting our ideas go. Life is so much fresher, more vivid and certainly more dynamic. When we approach a daily situation as if we already know what it is, we are responding to what we "know" rather than what is actually there.

To approach life with a "Don't Know" mind is inherently respectful. I do not have to know what is what. I can begin to appreciate something as it presents itself and as I do this, I am offering it true respect. Such an approach requires us to listen deeply. Listening in this sense is poly-sensational. We use each and every sense organ as we witness life. Sound, taste, touch, smell, and thought all flow directly to us without passing go. No filtering. No thinking. Just thought. Just smell. Just touch. Just sound. Just taste. Each is a teacher; each an awakening.

It is important to touch our core values. Values such as awareness, nurturance, compassion, peace, love; these become our organizing principles. These are organized around our knowledge that the universe is not two, but one. So, as we become aware, so does our universe. As we become compassion, compassion is brought into our universe. And so on.

In each case, and as we approach each life situation, we should make clear choices: we behave for the sake of other beings. Our lives are in-service to others, not to ourselves, because in truth, you and I are one, mutually dependent on each other for our existence and the continued existence of our planet.

Such a life requires us to be vulnerable. We must drop our defences. We must be willing to be hurt. And while it may appear that this is difficult, in truth, our defences don't amount to much in the first place. They really don't serve us. They actually harm us. They create little bomb shelters for us to live in, if that is what we want to call living in a shell.

I have spent much of my life in such a shell. Its not a happy place,. And I look forward each morning to stepping out into the light of day, inhaling the air and opening myself to the dawn. What can you teach me today?

Living Zen: The Diary of an American Zen Priest
by Rev. Harvey Daiho Hilbert
http://www.amazon.com/Living-Zen-Dia...=daiho+hilbert

Wow, that was beautiful. Thank you Jundo 😀