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Buddhist Parenting 101: The Great Nature of Koans and Children
DaltheJigsaw
Mountain View Veteran
The great nature of koans and children compel us, in unexpected and often dramatic ways, to learn, break apart and reshape our thinking. Practice engaged, not simply with the mind to think, the eyes to see or the ears to hear, but with every ounce of effort we have available to give. Our practice manifests itself in an evolving and growing life. A life that refuses to be taken lightly and ignored, or too seriously and spoiled; a life that refuses to allow any moment to sit and escape into the relative comfort of a meditative cushion and dark cave.
Children and koans push our practice into the real world; out of the meditative cocoon that we spin around us and into the blinding sun. Children and koans are always evolving, never settled, and will always be what your practice comes back to, my dear Buddhist parents—no matter how many times you escape to the cushion, it always comes back to them.
But thinking about them does not solve the riddle; it does not break through the koan, it does not raise the child. No longer does MU! exist in the abstract but it is reflected in the eyes of our children. It is embodied in the song and dance of samsara that comes unbidden from the minds of children in their most joyous and sad moments (often within seconds of each other). It is born of unintentional dance and skinned knees; buzz-bees and the uninterrupted rapture of an unexplored tree or high-grass at noon. It is the joy of seeing the moon disappear behind a cloud and then reappear, unchanged and universal—the eye of Bodhi in the sky.
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/08/buddhist-parenting-101-the-great-nature-of-koans-and-children/
Children and koans push our practice into the real world; out of the meditative cocoon that we spin around us and into the blinding sun. Children and koans are always evolving, never settled, and will always be what your practice comes back to, my dear Buddhist parents—no matter how many times you escape to the cushion, it always comes back to them.
But thinking about them does not solve the riddle; it does not break through the koan, it does not raise the child. No longer does MU! exist in the abstract but it is reflected in the eyes of our children. It is embodied in the song and dance of samsara that comes unbidden from the minds of children in their most joyous and sad moments (often within seconds of each other). It is born of unintentional dance and skinned knees; buzz-bees and the uninterrupted rapture of an unexplored tree or high-grass at noon. It is the joy of seeing the moon disappear behind a cloud and then reappear, unchanged and universal—the eye of Bodhi in the sky.
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/08/buddhist-parenting-101-the-great-nature-of-koans-and-children/
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