The way is difficult
and very intricate. Lalla discarded her
books that told about it, and through meditation
saw the truth that never comes to anyone
from reading words.
Posts Tagged → meditation
wind up unburdened, as you were before
The essence of awareness,
complete and clear, is a formless body.
Don’t mistake far and near based on intellectual opinion.
When thoughts differ, you’re blind to the substance
of the mysteries. When mind diverges,
you’re not neighbor to
the Way.
When subjectively
discriminating myriad things,
you get submerged in the objects before you.
When conscious awareness is fragmented,
you lose the basic reality.
If you understand
such expressions with complete
clarity, you’ll wind up unburdened,
as you were before.
a time for disengagement and retreat
This is a time for
disengagement and retreat.
In stillness you are out
of the reach of
danger.
It is inherent in the design of life that forces of darkness and disruption come into prominence from time to time. This hexagram indicates that this is such a time and advises you to respond by quietly retreating. To struggle or resist in anger now is to add fuel to the fire of negativity which threatens to consume you.
The superior person accepts that there is a natural ebb and flow between the forces of light and dark in the world. Wisdom lies not in resisting these movements but in responding to them appropriately. Just as a plant which sprouts in the dead of winter is doomed, and one which sprouts in spring flourishes, so it is with us. Success and prosperity accrue to those who advance in times of light and retreat in times of darkness. To retreat now is to benefit, in the end, from the changing tides.
Retreat is not the same thing as surrender, capitulation, or abandonment, which are desperate and unsatisfying measures. Neither is it characterized by a hardening into angry or punitive emotions. It is instead an acceptance and a choice: we calmly accept that the energies of the moment are against us, and we wisely choose to withdraw into the safety of stillness. In this dignified and balanced manner we protect ourselves from negative influences and arrive rested in a more beneficial hour.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
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like phrases written on water
After offering a convincing response when Kaso later challenged the validity of his awakening, Ikkyu went on to admit that he had practiced for a decade “seething with anger” only to find that as the raucous cawing of a crow shattered the evening’s silence “an enlightened disciple of the Buddha suddenly surfaced” from within the mud of his emotional torment.
Ikkyu continued practicing under Kaso for another four years, earning the deep respect of his master as well as a reputation for eccentricity. According to a biography completed by Ikkyu’s disciples not long after his death, when Kaso offered Ikkyu a “seal” of his enlightenment (inka) — a document essential for anyone seeking advancement in the Rinzai hierarchy — Ikkyu refused to accept it. Later discovering that Kaso had given the document to a laywoman for safekeeping, Ikkyu took possession of the inka, tore it to shreds, and asked his disciples to burn it.
On another occasion, when Kaso was hosting a memorial ceremony for his own master, Ikkyu spurned the custom of wearing ceremonial raiment and showed up in patched robes and grass sandals, drawing the considerable ire of the rest of the community. Questioned by Kaso about his behavior, Ikkyu said that he was dressed simply, as a monk should be, while everyone else was prancing about in sumptuous “shit covers”. At the end of the service, when Kaso who was asked who would be his Dharma successor, he reportedly surveyed the gathering and said, perhaps with some reluctance, “the crazy one”.
…Ikkyu had devoted himself to Kaso precisely because he carried the torch of Daito’s personification of a “true person of no rank” — a rigorously ascetic approach to Zen exemplified by Daito having tempered his own enlightenment by living under a bridge with beggars and other outcasts for five years.
Having
realized understanding
kindness and the excellent nature
of opportunities and dangers, one ably
breaks through the net of doubts snaring all
sentient beings. Departing from ‘is’ and ‘is not’,
and other such bondages…leaping over quantity and
calculation, one is without obstruction in whatever
one does. With penetrating understanding of the
present situation and its informing patterns,
one’s actions are like the sky giving rise
to clouds: suddenly they exist, and
then they don’t. Not leaving
behind any obstructing
traces, they are like
phrases written
on water.
a priceless jewel in your own body
Each of you has a
priceless jewel in your own body.
It radiates light through your eyes, shining
through the mountains, river, and earth. It radiates light
through your ears, taking in all sounds, good and bad.
It radiates light through your six senses day
and night. This is also called
absorption in light.
You yourself do not
recognize it, but it is in your
physical body, supporting it inside
and out, not letting it tip over. Even if you
are carrying a double load of rocks
over a single-log bridge,
it still doesn’t let
you fall over.
What is it?
If you seek in the slightest,
it cannot be seen.