Hi,
Often around here, I try to explain Shikantaza in a very clear way ... Just Sit, No Other Place to Be, No Other Action in that Moment, Nothing to Add or Take Away, Let thoughts come and go without grabbing, drop all likes and dislikes in the completeness of Just Sitting ...
... but Master Dogen spoke of the Clarity of Turning Worlds, such that the straightest is not always Straight, and the Clearest not just clear ...
So, a little riffing on Shikantaza, lest we forget just how radical a "method-non-method" of seeking-not-seeking such is ...
One Universal Virtue is to drop (by non-dropping-dropping) all waves of karma, impendiments and thoughts of "true or false" into and as this Ocean, Repent/Atonement as At-One-ment, sitting upright as True Aspect. All thoughts as waves just constantly non-arise and flow.
No object of thought and what thought to object to, not two. What "Buddha" can be thought or not thought and is not all thoughts? Sitting as Buddha is precisely Buddhasticly Buddhasting.
Sitting as Buddha is thinking no object. Apart from sitting, there is no mind and no Buddha at all. Apart from Buddha, there is no mind of sitting. Sitting as Buddha is identical to the sitting Buddha. To seek the mind or to seek for sitting is to seek for Buddha. The trick is to seek by not seeking, finding what cannot be found. The Form of Sitting is without form, the appearance of sitting lacks any appearance or in and out. What mind is there to calm? Never mind! In simply sitting, no internal or external to grasp or arise, all is without form or discrimination right in and as all form and discrimination ... nirvana is samsara, no nirvana no samsara from the startless start. The sitting mind disappears and re-emerges, what is there to indicate when all the world is free of directions in the pivot point of sitting? Sitting this, body-mind are none other than the real and true Tathagata.
How does one lay down without laying down? Open the Hand of Thought. There was never a thing to pick up from the start, nor a thing in need of letting go.
Dropping all thought of good and evil, attraction and aversion, we do not observe where thoughts arise or go, but simply do not grasp them as they come and go non-coming-non-going. False thoughts have no self-nature, and the same for true thoughts. There is no thought. Thought-no-thought. As human beings, we do our best (we have no choice so long as we are living beings in a complex world) to live in a world of thoughts, both true and false, doing our best to be free of the latter and to nurture the former (doing our best to be free of greed, anger and divisive thinking, seeking to nurture generosity, peace and unity). Nevertheless, all through all thoughts are no thought from the start. There is stillness to be heard at the heart of the greatest noise. A light shines, illuminating both false and true thoughts.
Think about it! Or you don't. Yet Thinking-Non-Thinking It-No-It You-No-You. Just Sitting.
Gassho, J
SatNonSatToday
Often around here, I try to explain Shikantaza in a very clear way ... Just Sit, No Other Place to Be, No Other Action in that Moment, Nothing to Add or Take Away, Let thoughts come and go without grabbing, drop all likes and dislikes in the completeness of Just Sitting ...
... but Master Dogen spoke of the Clarity of Turning Worlds, such that the straightest is not always Straight, and the Clearest not just clear ...
So, a little riffing on Shikantaza, lest we forget just how radical a "method-non-method" of seeking-not-seeking such is ...
------------------
One Universal Virtue is to drop (by non-dropping-dropping) all waves of karma, impendiments and thoughts of "true or false" into and as this Ocean, Repent/Atonement as At-One-ment, sitting upright as True Aspect. All thoughts as waves just constantly non-arise and flow.
No object of thought and what thought to object to, not two. What "Buddha" can be thought or not thought and is not all thoughts? Sitting as Buddha is precisely Buddhasticly Buddhasting.
Sitting as Buddha is thinking no object. Apart from sitting, there is no mind and no Buddha at all. Apart from Buddha, there is no mind of sitting. Sitting as Buddha is identical to the sitting Buddha. To seek the mind or to seek for sitting is to seek for Buddha. The trick is to seek by not seeking, finding what cannot be found. The Form of Sitting is without form, the appearance of sitting lacks any appearance or in and out. What mind is there to calm? Never mind! In simply sitting, no internal or external to grasp or arise, all is without form or discrimination right in and as all form and discrimination ... nirvana is samsara, no nirvana no samsara from the startless start. The sitting mind disappears and re-emerges, what is there to indicate when all the world is free of directions in the pivot point of sitting? Sitting this, body-mind are none other than the real and true Tathagata.
How does one lay down without laying down? Open the Hand of Thought. There was never a thing to pick up from the start, nor a thing in need of letting go.
Dropping all thought of good and evil, attraction and aversion, we do not observe where thoughts arise or go, but simply do not grasp them as they come and go non-coming-non-going. False thoughts have no self-nature, and the same for true thoughts. There is no thought. Thought-no-thought. As human beings, we do our best (we have no choice so long as we are living beings in a complex world) to live in a world of thoughts, both true and false, doing our best to be free of the latter and to nurture the former (doing our best to be free of greed, anger and divisive thinking, seeking to nurture generosity, peace and unity). Nevertheless, all through all thoughts are no thought from the start. There is stillness to be heard at the heart of the greatest noise. A light shines, illuminating both false and true thoughts.
Think about it! Or you don't. Yet Thinking-Non-Thinking It-No-It You-No-You. Just Sitting.
Gassho, J
SatNonSatToday
between generations
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