Don’t
love sagehood;
sagehood is an empty name.
There is no special truth but this radiant
spiritual openness, unobstructed
and free. It is not attained by
adornment and cultivated
realization.
Posts Tagged → awakening
when you are sitting in meditation
When you are
sitting in meditation,
watch carefully to know when
your consciousness starts to move.
Consciousness is always moving and flowing.
According to its coming and going, we must
all be aware of it. To know there is
nothing to know is the wisdom
to know everything. This
is the Dharma-gate
of a Bodhisattva.
seek the direction of the sage
Surrounded by obstructions,
one must first retreat, then
seek the direction of
the Sage.
There is an old saying which fits this hexagram: “You are caught between a rock and a hard place.” In other words, you are surrounded by obstructions. As much as you may want to blame others for the difficulty, in all likelihood the true obstruction is in your own thinking. What is called for now is a retreat into self-examination and self-correction.
Emotions of desire, fear, or anger may tempt you to take action now, but do not be seduced. The presence of these strong feelings is proof that your are off balance and need to steady yourself. As long as you try to forcibly achieve results—rather than carefully following higher truth step by step—you will be obstructed from making personal progress.
Whenever we indulge in judgements about others, we obstruct our own peace of mind and progress. We should choose instead to see the best in others, allow them to come and go as they will, and turn our energies inward, toward self-improvement.
Often the faults in our own thinking are revealed only with the aid of others. You would be wise now to seek the advice of a qualified counselor or truth-minded friend. Retreat, self-examination, and self-correction will remove the obstructions that block your path now.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Hexagram 39, Chien / Obstruction
FIRST LINE
Do not resist difficulties
or advance against them. By retreating
and observing, you learn an important lesson.
Then moving forward becomes easy.
FIFTH LINE
The obstructions can only be
overcome by the strength of proper principles.
Through perseverance and correctness you
obtain the aid you need
to succeed.
Want
to study with
an enlightened teacher?
Just stop giving rise to thoughts
and divisions and distinctions. When
self and other, good and bad, right
and wrong are replaced with
emptiness, you are your
own master.
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completely absorbed in your breathing
When you are completely
absorbed in your breathing, there is no self.
What is your breathing? That breathing is not you, nor air.
What is it? It is not self at all. When there is no self,
you have absolute freedom. Because you have
a silly idea of self, you have
a lot of problems.
To Shine One Corner of the World
calmness & activity are not different
Dogen Zen-ji says,
“Even though it is midnight, dawn is here.
Even though dawn comes, it is nighttime.” This kind
of statement conveys the understanding transmitted from
Buddha to the Patriarchs, and from the Patriarchs to Dogen,
and to us. Nighttime and daytime are not different.
The same thing is sometimes called nighttime,
sometimes called daytime. Nighttime
and daytime are one thing.
Zazen practice and
everyday activity are one thing.
We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.
But usually we think, “Now zazen is over, and now we
will go about our everyday activity.” But this is not the
right understanding. They are the same thing. We
have nowhere to escape. So in activity there
should be calmness, and in calmness
there should be activity. So
calmness and activity
are not different.