A Way that Can Be Told (Not the Real Way)
posted by Mike Cross at 9:49 AM
From 1982 to 1997 I worked on the translation of Master Dogen's Shobogenzo, and understood the primary importance in the Buddha's teaching of full lotus sitting. Until 1994 my attitude to this sitting practice could be summed up in the words: "Don't think. Just do it!" Then in 1994 I returned from Japan to England to train to be a teacher of the FM Alexander Technique, and experiences with Alexander work woke me up to the opposite standpoint of "Don't just do. Think it!" Far from smoothing my path, however, Alexander insights (or reactions to them) caused a lot of trouble between me and my aging teacher in Japan. Then in 2008, seeking clearer water further upstream, I found a new lease of life in the extant Sanskrit works of the 12th ancestor in Dogen's lineage -- the great Indian teacher Ashvaghosha.
8 Comments:
Sunday morning drizzle
Sitting in this
This
sitting with me
Birdsongs
chirps and chips of nothing
falling
all around
falling, dancing,
undoing the veil
inviting the unknown guest
pointing, pointing
blades of the sweetest fire
Then
Walking in all this
robes flaping in the wind
a shiver in both trees and spine
Out beyond our ideas
Of not doing bad, allowing the good,
There is a field of happiness.
I'll meet you there.
:)
Thank you for your questions, HD.
My answers are as follows:
1. I don't know.
2. I don't know.
But let us keep asking.
What can I say? I'm inspired.
Songbird perched
On winter's branch
Spring lies beneath the snow
The buds on trees
Remain with ease
When tulips start to grow
To hell with God, to hell with the Universe.
If even a single spring bud can truly be allowed to remain at ease even for a single moment... who knows what miraculous possibilities might thereby open up?
Even the buddhas with their bottomless wisdom cannot fathom the merit of one moment of Zazen practiced by one true individual.
To hell with God, and to hell with the Universe. Just true Zazen is all.
Freedom is our human inheritance. That is one of limitlessly many messages in the songbird's song. We are free from the beginning. We need not dare to do anything.
Thank you, zero.
No criticism intended -- just using your words as a stimulus, and struggling to allow an appropriate response.
The response you have stimulated, whether for good or bad I don't know, is my latest post.
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