For Today's Talk:
We will look today at one passage of Master Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji (Being-Time), rapping and riffing on a famous Koan:
... Dogen's Jazzy Sound ...
Coltrane riffs on "My Favorite Things," that lovely tune from The Sound of Music ...
Like Coltrane, Dogen is improvising on some classic teachings all found in his words too ...
... The Profound Identity of All Things
... And of All Times, which is All Being ...
... That's Right, and Right Here, yet no Right or Wrong ...
... All as the Buddha's Enlightenment ...
As strange as it all sounds, it is powerful medicine for our lives today, here, in this mess of a 21st century world.
From my book, The Zen Master's Dance ...
Dōgen plays on a cherished kōan about a Zen master who inquires into the real meaning of Zen, which somehow eluded him in all his studies of texts and theory. He asks why Bodhidharma bothered to come to China; in other words, what is Zen all about? The traditional response about eyebrows and such can have a direct meaning: Bodhidharma did nothing special. Traveling to China was the most natural of things, like winking. If he had not done it, something else would have taken place. On the other hand, our own simple acts of winking and looking can also be known as the Buddha looking and winking, Bodhidharma looking and winking, the whole universe looking and winking. Not doing so is still the ancient master’s eyes and eyebrows not doing so, the whole universe not doing so. It is not a matter of our having to be aware of such fact all the time. Our face is still shared with the ancient master although we do not feel so in a particular moment. Even then, it is still Bodhidharma’s eyes and eyebrows as our eyes and eyebrows.
Dōgen plays his “Zen jazz” to take this one step further. His eyes and eyebrows are the mountains and seas (and the whole world and all within it). Winking the eye is an ocean winking, and raising an eyebrow is raising a mountain. There may be right and wrong times to do or not do an action, but ultimately there are no “wrong times,” for each time is its own time, and even “not doing” is the right doing of “not doing,” and “wrong doing” is the right doing of a “wrong doing.” (Nonetheless, Dōgen would often remind us to do what’s right and avoid doing wrong, for doing so helps clarify the heart and mind.)
Dōgen says that eye and eyebrow, mountains, and sea are all time. It is obvious that, without time, none of these could have evolved or come to be. Thus, he states, “Without time, the mountains and oceans could never exist.” But equally, without the motion of their (and our) evolving, time would have been frozen and never flowed. Thus, time needs us and is us, as much as we need time and are time. Dōgen says, “So we should not deny that time is existing in the mountains and oceans right here and now.” It is existing as you and me too, here and now.
And so it is for all moments in time, such as when the Buddha, sitting under the bodhi tree, saw the morning star and realized the
truth. It is said that after many long years of striving and pushing himself to the extremes of body and mind, the Buddha finally eased
his heart under that tree. Seeing the clear light of the morning star in the sky, he said: “I and all sentient beings on earth, together, are enlightened at once.” All are enlightened at once, for all are one in this being-time.
Years later, when the Buddha held up a flower and winked, Mahākāśyapa saw and understood with a smile. In that famous story, the Buddha silently held up a single flower as the wordless expression of the truth, and his disciple Mahākāśyapa understood and also expressed this silently. ...
We will look today at one passage of Master Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji (Being-Time), rapping and riffing on a famous Koan:
... Dogen's Jazzy Sound ...
Coltrane riffs on "My Favorite Things," that lovely tune from The Sound of Music ...
Like Coltrane, Dogen is improvising on some classic teachings all found in his words too ...
... The Profound Identity of All Things
... And of All Times, which is All Being ...
... That's Right, and Right Here, yet no Right or Wrong ...
... All as the Buddha's Enlightenment ...
As strange as it all sounds, it is powerful medicine for our lives today, here, in this mess of a 21st century world.
From my book, The Zen Master's Dance ...
Dōgen plays on a cherished kōan about a Zen master who inquires into the real meaning of Zen, which somehow eluded him in all his studies of texts and theory. He asks why Bodhidharma bothered to come to China; in other words, what is Zen all about? The traditional response about eyebrows and such can have a direct meaning: Bodhidharma did nothing special. Traveling to China was the most natural of things, like winking. If he had not done it, something else would have taken place. On the other hand, our own simple acts of winking and looking can also be known as the Buddha looking and winking, Bodhidharma looking and winking, the whole universe looking and winking. Not doing so is still the ancient master’s eyes and eyebrows not doing so, the whole universe not doing so. It is not a matter of our having to be aware of such fact all the time. Our face is still shared with the ancient master although we do not feel so in a particular moment. Even then, it is still Bodhidharma’s eyes and eyebrows as our eyes and eyebrows.
Dōgen plays his “Zen jazz” to take this one step further. His eyes and eyebrows are the mountains and seas (and the whole world and all within it). Winking the eye is an ocean winking, and raising an eyebrow is raising a mountain. There may be right and wrong times to do or not do an action, but ultimately there are no “wrong times,” for each time is its own time, and even “not doing” is the right doing of “not doing,” and “wrong doing” is the right doing of a “wrong doing.” (Nonetheless, Dōgen would often remind us to do what’s right and avoid doing wrong, for doing so helps clarify the heart and mind.)
Dōgen says that eye and eyebrow, mountains, and sea are all time. It is obvious that, without time, none of these could have evolved or come to be. Thus, he states, “Without time, the mountains and oceans could never exist.” But equally, without the motion of their (and our) evolving, time would have been frozen and never flowed. Thus, time needs us and is us, as much as we need time and are time. Dōgen says, “So we should not deny that time is existing in the mountains and oceans right here and now.” It is existing as you and me too, here and now.
And so it is for all moments in time, such as when the Buddha, sitting under the bodhi tree, saw the morning star and realized the
truth. It is said that after many long years of striving and pushing himself to the extremes of body and mind, the Buddha finally eased
his heart under that tree. Seeing the clear light of the morning star in the sky, he said: “I and all sentient beings on earth, together, are enlightened at once.” All are enlightened at once, for all are one in this being-time.
Years later, when the Buddha held up a flower and winked, Mahākāśyapa saw and understood with a smile. In that famous story, the Buddha silently held up a single flower as the wordless expression of the truth, and his disciple Mahākāśyapa understood and also expressed this silently. ...
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Photo of cherry blossoms and falling leaves from my morning run.
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