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there are no enlightened people, just enlightened action." ~ Shunryu Suzuki ~ (what is That??)
zenmyste
Veteran
What exactly 'is' Enlightened action??
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I think because all phenomena are empty you can not sew them up with a definition and that is part of it. I guess you could say enlightened activity comes from undistorted ultimate bodhicitta. This is what the shamata vipashnaya is uncovering.
If you don't get the drift, sneeze again ... and keep up your good practice.
Before it is too late.
I like it . . . could almost be a mantra . . . :thumbup:
Coreless and unestablished. No center yet we can say dependently originated. Everything as it is, is the unborn mind. Dropping the mind and body and the ten thousand things bring about enlightenment.
-Dogen
The original quote "There are no enlightened people, just enlightened action" seems to mean just that. A person becoming enlightened sees that there is no person, just action.
No human being, just simply being.
In outward appearance, we might find no difference . . .
There is a Zen saying, "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water."
So it would seem the experience of the action is the difference.
In outward appearance, we might find no difference . . .
There is a Zen saying, "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water."
So it would seem the experience of the action is the difference.
Hmmm... It would seem neither "before" enlightenment nor "after" enlightenment can hold a candle to what is not "during" enlightenment.
Before enlightenment, rivers were rivers and mountains were mountains;
During enlightenment, rivers are no longer rivers and mountains are no longer mountains;
After enlightenment, rivers are once again rivers and mountains are once again mountains.
Once we understand the illusion, we can carry on using it as a tool.
If I have not earned a punch in the nose by then, I now have the correct response to someone asking, is (fill in the name) enlightened? I can now respond: "There are no enlightened people, just enlightened action."
Suzuki was an amazing man. The son of an Abbott who operated a small temple and whose family struggled to survive on the meager earnings, he was being groomed to take over the family business (yes, that is how it works in Japan) but excelled in school, practiced Zen with a zeal not found in most students and proved his destiny lay beyond performing needed ceremonies for a little village.
I think beyond any other difference between Zen Buddhism and other schools of Buddhism is this - how Zen Buddhists view enlightenment compared to other branches. Zen took the Mahayana teaching about Emptiness and ran with it, extending it to enlightenment itself. To us, it's not something we obtain or attain or achieve. Who or what is it that "becomes enlightened" and where is the enlightenment hiding "out there" for us to find?
Granted, like any group of people, our Sangha often falls short of the teachings and principles we pay lip service to. It becomes a word game, where we turn ourselves into trained parrots who spout the language of emptiness while worshipping the "Enlightened Master" because (wink, wink) of course he doesn't see himself as special, he's enlightened don't you know. But we know different.
Human nature.
Revealing ones insight is fit only for dirt, as the Buddha did when he touched the ground to acknowledge his enlightenment. I am hoping my carpet will suffice, otherwise I may have to have a bucket of soil on standby. :thumbsup:
Noble Silence is also what the police like to call, 'a good answer'. Oh well if I 'gain' enlightenment in the next year, you are likely to be the last to know . . .
. . . sorry about that . . . :bawl:
I will give up enlightenment but not the 'search' . . . :clap:
where space begins and the sun ends is not a determinable
as life unfolds, on a plant it is not as if one leaf becomes jealous of another; the more sunlight the leaves get, the better it is for the whole plant.
could a human be without air?
mingle your gaze with all who air does touch,
the open world is even closer than our fingertips
Well said. I just hope I don't end up a silent Buddha . . . even though that is the 'truest' expression . . .
Lights, cameras, ACTION . . . :wave: