Dukha-nirodha-satya
Dukha-nirodha-satya means the truth of stopping suffering. I understand it as the stopping of habitual reaction. To stop habitual reaction, especially emotional reaction--greed, anger, worry and the like-- is a Buddhist monk's difficult practice. When a monk reacts badly, the fault is not with the stimulus; the fault is within the monk.
Recognizing the fault, a Buddhist monk can always go back to the beginning: The origin of the present unsatisfactory situation is my habitual reaction. Observing the unsatisfactory nature of my reaction, I renew my intention to stop reacting and to allow something else to happen, to surrender to something else -- I know not what.
Recognizing the fault, a Buddhist monk can always go back to the beginning: The origin of the present unsatisfactory situation is my habitual reaction. Observing the unsatisfactory nature of my reaction, I renew my intention to stop reacting and to allow something else to happen, to surrender to something else -- I know not what.
posted by Mike Cross at 8:54 AM
1 Comments:
Jim,
The question, as I see it, is not whether we have the ability to give a talk/ceremony of the sort that you describe, in such a way as to keep the participants happy. Any old Church of England vicar or stand-up comedian could do that.
The question is not whether we can put on a convincing show as a Zen Master.
The question is whether we, any one of us, has got the ability to transmit the true practice of Zazen to the next generation. Is there present in any one of us the "Subtle Method" which Master Dogen describes in the opening sentence of Shobogenzo? Is there any one of us who manifests in reality the Subtle Method's criterion, which is the samadhi of accepting and using the self?
If there is any one, then I call for that person to stand up and be counted.
In my view, Jim, you are clearly not that person. In that case, what is the point of you building a zendo in which to mislead 50 people?
My honest impression of you, Jim, is that you think that maybe you are enlightened, and Gudo Nishijima has been happy to encourage you in this delusion as long as you parrot his ideas. At the same time, some true part of you knows that you are not yet enlightened at all, and so maybe with this comment you are asking me to try and confirm your deep suspicion that you are indeed not enlightened. If so, good for you. Yes, I confirm that in my view you are evidently not yet enlightened.
However, by having the balls to broadcast your unenlightened views with such openness, by being so ready to make an utter fool of yourself, you have held up a mirror to me, and to all of us. Looking into your mirror, from last summer onwards I began to see myself clearly as also a kind of fraud, a trickster, a master of self-deceit.
So I do not claim to be a master of the Subtle Method. But here I am bearing witness to the fact that I found the existence of the Subtle Method in the teaching of FM Alexander. I am on the trail of the Subtle Method, and it is a trail that I recommend to others. If people do not believe me, what can I do about it?
Gudo Nishijima made a complete mess of the Shobogenzo translation. This fact is not generally known because I cleaned it up for him. I think he has also made a complete mess of transmitting the Buddha-Dharma, transmitting it to many people who are not true teachers at all. But to clean up this mess is a much more difficult proposition than cleaning up the Shobogenzo translation.
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