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Daily Zen
Not all very Zen, but thought I'd start a 'Daily Zen' thread. These quotes are from the online source of the Page-A-Day Zen Calendar.
June 2, 2006
All the harm, fear, and suffering in the world are caused by attachment to the self: Why should I hold on to this great demon?
SHANTIDEVA
June 2, 2006
All the harm, fear, and suffering in the world are caused by attachment to the self: Why should I hold on to this great demon?
SHANTIDEVA
0
Comments
Good idea. I'm going to look forward to this.
-bf
"Why are you unhappy? Because 99% of everything you think and do is for yourself.
And there isn't one."
I can't remember the name of the person who said this at the moment but it's in Favourite Quotations somewhere.
My impression of reading this is that: We are born as ignorant sentient beings. Many of us have struggled through this existance learning how important we are to ourselves. How much our perception of things mean to us, the development of our ever-important ego, righteous indignation we may feel when we "feel" someone has wronged us, etc.
Then we learn by Buddha's teachings - what this self is really comprised of. How it's an ever changing thing that we have to keep coping with. All the desires we've created for ourselves, our perceptions, our ideas, our "self" - causes us much of the suffering we have to deal with on a daily basis. But this demon isn't content to have just one set of imposed "ideas" about itself - it constantly changes on us. We may find that at one moment, we are happy with ourselves - then things change, as they do, and we find ourselves unhappy all over again for some reason.
Why do we feel it is sooooo important for us to hang on and cling to this sense of self that we have developed? Don't we know by now that this identity and importance of self is what causes us much of our suffering?
Why are we so bent on dealing with, hanging onto and clinging to this demon we have created?
-bf
We cling to self, as we cling to life, because we have no gut-understanding that death (whether of the self or of our life in incarnation) is nothing more than a transition, like birth or puberty.
...grok!....grok!
June 3, 2006
It is like archers. If they start out competing, they’ll never become marksmen. It is only long after practice, with no thought of winning or losing, that they can hit the target. Same with the study of the Way. If even a single thought of winning or losing appears, you will be chained by winning and losing.
YING-AN
I agree Simon.
To ask, "why do we do this" is much easier to ask than it is to answer or do.
I guess one of the easiest ways to think of it is: if we were that easy to lay down our "self" - enlightenment would be a simple as changing our socks.
-bf
"For some years now, students have not been getting to the root of the aim of Zen, instead taking the verbal teachings of Buddhas and Zen masters to be the ultimate rule. That is like ignoring a hundred thousand pure clear oceans and only focusing attention on a single bubble."
-Ying-an
I guess what this is trying to say is, 'Look at moon not at finger'...
or perhaps even:-
Just hear - don't think about it - and let the wisdom speak to your inner 'you' without analysis or definition - be empty - and the meaning will resonate.
....Or maybe I've had too much Red Bull....:skeptical
But...I don't wear socks!
Palzang
GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA
The bluebird carries the sky on his back.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
No, there's only one!
Palzang
Paradise is where I am.
VOLTAIRE
In the misty blue haze,
jagged peaks appear as if
joined. When will I climb
and set foot there, to gaze
on all the world below?
CHIA TAO
So an ancient once said: "Accept the anxieties and difficulties of this life". Don't expect your
practice to be clear of obstacles. Without hindrances the mind that seeks enlightenment may
be burnt out. So an ancient once said, "Attain deliverance in disturbances".
- Zen Master Kyong Ho
[ 1849-1912]
Mind is the rider.
...I see a Matrix reference in that... it's the difference between knowing the path, and walking the path, as Morpheus would have said..
I love:
"Breath is the mount;
Mind is the rider."
and:
So an ancient once said: "Accept the anxieties and difficulties of this life". Don't expect your
practice to be clear of obstacles. Without hindrances the mind that seeks enlightenment may
be burnt out. So an ancient once said, "Attain deliverance in disturbances".
- Zen Master Kyong Ho
[ 1849-1912]
That's just what I needed to hear today.
Have you heard the one:
A master went to test his student and ask him, "What is the greatest precept of Zen?"
The student knowing the master's ways thought he must do something to impress the master that he had leaned from his nonverbal teaching, raised one finger.
Seeing this the master left him.
Later the master again asked his student, "What is the greatest precept of Zen?"
The student curious that he was being ask again, but satisfied with his response raised one finger.
The master seeing this turned and left him.
A third time the master asked the student, "What is the greatest precept of Zen?"
Athird time the student raised his finger. As soon as he raised his finger the master drew his sword and cut of his finger.
Instantly, the student was enlightened!
(Ouch.)
Hold up your finger.....
(but I still don't get it. Can't I get it without sacrificing a finger?)
When the mind is not aroused,
this is discipline.
When the mind is unmoved,
this is concentration.
When the mind is not
obscured, this is insight.
HSEUH-YEN
I'm with you, Brigid.
Plus, I think some of these Zen stories are crap.
Always someone getting punished or getting something lopped off just to magically find enlightenment.
Why doesn't anyone ever find enlightenment by beating the $hit out of their master in any of these stories?
-bf
Might one consider that there is no greatest precept. I did hear one like that, where the student smacks the master before he got smacked. I sat with this for one for a few days before I pronounced the above, with a sense of "it's all one mind."
I have great sympathy for someone who is so attached to their ego that they need to lose a leg to become enlightened. Those Zen dudes...so harsh. Poisen, and sugar...both can be sweet.
L...M...A...O...!!!!
or the greatest precept is to give up all attachments. HMMM?
Wherever there
is a feeling of the
mysterious, we can
say there is Zen.
D. T. SUZUKI
I awoke
into the water he slips, ker plunk.
Everyday Zen
Intelligent practice always deals with just one thing: the fear at the base of human existence, the fear that I am not.
And of course I am not, but the last thing I want to know is that.
I am impermanence itself in a rapidly changing human form that appears solid. I fear to see what I am: an ever-changing energy field...
So good practice is about fear. Fear takes the form of constantly thinking, speculating, analyzing, fantasizing. With all that activity we create a cloud cover to keep ourselves safe in make-believe practice. True practice is not safe; it's anything but safe. But we don't like that, so we obsess with our feverish efforts to achieve our version of the personal dream. Such obessive practice is itself just another cloud between ourselves and reality.
The only thing that matters is seeing with an impersonal searchlight: seeing things as they are. When the personal barrier drops away, why do we have to call it anything? We just live our lives. And when we die, we just die. No problem anywhere. --Charlotte Joko Beck
After reading that I wondered is it fear or just the conditioned mind, any thoughts?
June 14:
We are already wisdom.
ARNAUD DESJARDINS
"It is," he replied.
"And how do you feel?"
"As miserable as ever," said the monk.
-bf
I love what she's saying and how she's saying it. I think fear really is at the root of our experience. How could it not be? That's why facing the fear sets us free.
LOL
It is also helpful to realize that this very body that we have, that’s sitting right here right now... with its aches and its pleasures... is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive.
PEMA CHÖDRÖN
of course I was dillusional,and still am.
The thing is.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................at least I know it. LOL
Look, there is no ice without water, likewise
Apart from sentient beings, there are no Buddhas.
Not knowing how close the truth is,
We seek it far away.
What a shame!
--Hakuin Ekaku Zenji