Noble Birth - Coming Back to Life

Noble Birth

There is a very well known story about a man who became a monk. When he he became a monk he was given a new name, Ahimsa which means harmless. He was a golden monk. His teacher, the head of the community adored him. But the other monks felt jealousy and contempt for him and set about to harm him. They convinced the Abbott that Ahimsa was not to be trusted and that the Abbott need to test his loyalty and faithfulness. The Abbott, quite distressed and caught up in the hate of the monks sent for Ahimsa. He gave Ahimsa a very unusual task. The Abbott requested that Ahimsa go and to bring back a finger. Ahimsa took the request to heart and went on a killing frenzy. He killed countless others and removed the fingers from every corpse and strung them around his neck. He gained a reputation of being frightening and dangerous and everyone called him Angulimala, The Finger Necklace monk.

It happens that Angulimala, the murderer, came upon the Buddha. The encounter was quite brief but impacted Angulimala. Buddha told Angulimala to STOP! He heeded the Buddha's admonition and did stop and became a disciple of the Buddha. After he became a disciple the following story occurred.

Angulimala, The Disciple

Angulimala, early in the morning, put on his robes & carrying his bowl went for alms. On his almsrounds he saw a woman suffering a breech birth. Seeing her, he exclaimed, "How tormented are living beings!" When he returned to Buddha he told him about the woman suffering. 

The Buddha said, "Angulimala, go to her and when you find her say, "Sister, since I was born I do not recall intentionally killing a living being. Through this truth may you and you baby have well being." 

Angulimala said to Buddha, "But Lord wouldn't that be a lie? I have killed many beings." 
"In that case, " said the Buddha, "go to that woman and say, "Sister since I was born in the noble birth, I do not recall intentionally killing a living being. Through this truth may you and your baby be well." 

Angulimala said, "As you say, Lord." He went to the woman and spoke to her of his noble birth and wished them well being. Both mother and baby were well.

Noble and peerless Infinite Compassion,

And all awakened and awakening beings,

May the truth in the fullness of their intentions,

Move all beings in their infinities,

To the finest in awakening mind.

With love to all of you.

Holy Today

Birth

Death

Life Goes On

For each of the past five Lenten Fridays a small group of us have met.  We meditate for about twenty minutes and then have a teaching.  Liz asked each of us to take a turn at doing the teaching.  Yesterday was my day.  I gave each person ten cards with the sayings from the Ten Ox Herder Pictures and fourteen cards with the Stations of the Cross.  What I did in my teaching was to try to match the two stories.  And what makes these two very different stories match, is my understanding of each story. 

So here's my story for Holy Saturday.  The final Ox Herder picture is titled:  Entering the market place with open hands aka Life Goes On. I matched this picture with the 13th and 14th Station of the Cross:  #13 - The body is taken down from the cross.  #14 - Jesus is laid in the tomb.

Station 13

Station 14

By the final picture, the ox herder has found his ego maniac self, tamed it, the ox has disappeared and so has the ox herder.  And he's returned to the origin.  This is all pretty transcendent stuff.  So what happens next?  The identities he once loved and cultivated are gone.  All that is left is for the ox herder to do is to go into his life, but now he goes into his life with open hands. There is a line from the chant Merging Difference and Unity that goes like this:  Encountering the absolute is not yet enlightenment.  This is where the ox herder is:  entering his life.

Now, in the story from the Stations of the Cross, Jesus has died (#12). The Stations of the Cross explain how all of Jesus' identities were stripped away and in death he finds the transcendent.  And what do the people left behind do?  The Sabbath is coming and the body needs to be removed from the cross (#13).  And so it is taken down.  An empty tomb must be found (#14).  And so it is.  What is happening is that life goes on. In the midst of tragedy and sorrow life goes on.  Encountering the absolute is not yet enlightenment.

The Ox Herder Pictures and the Stations of the Cross are stories about finding/understanding/seeing the Divine, God, Emptiness.  What I've learned is to try to take stories like these from the concrete and move them to a different plane.  But most importantly I learned and feel the story inside myself.  We all can take "age-old-stories" and make them our own by finding truth deep within us.

I encourage you to take the Ox Herder Pictures and the Stations of the Cross and put them together for yourself and see what you learn or see differently.  What you learn will ultimately wind through you and become another story.

Many Blessings as you go into your life with open hands.
Marilyn

Celebration of Death



The Cross
"He showed me the brightness of the world."

The quote is by a Buddhist monk and he is talking about his teacher. The brightness he refers to is not the joys of food, family, fun, arts, or anything along those lines. It is the brightness of a deeper kind. The teaching he received or at least one of them was the four Noble Truths. There is suffering, there is a cause, there is an end and there is a path with some instructions.

The teachings invite you to face the suffering as best you can in order to comprehend clearly the cause of the misery. If you clearly see the cause, you have a shot of ending it. Ending the suffering is an inside job and it requires the practice of relinquishment.

Can you celebrate suffering as many, many celebrate the death on the cross? 

Wash the Feet

Kiss the Feet 

"Suzuki Roshi, I've been listening to your lectures for years," a student said..."but I just don't understand. Could you please put it in a nutshell. Could you reduce Buddhism to one phrase!"

"Everything changes."

Everyone, or very close to everyone has been betrayed. Betrayal is rooted in your desire for the other to live up to something either expected or agreed upon. When the other person or when you yourself do not come through you take it personally and feel betrayed. Idealists have a very hard time with letting go or continuing and living with Suzuki Roshi's nutshell. Composure and love for others is rooted in allowance and a recognition that "everything changes." When someone harms you are your roots of desire and expectation of them the cause of your suffering?

In some respects, everything lets you down eventually. Medicines of any kind eventually fail and the body betrays you. Friends and family die. You yourself age and get sick. The path of someone you love may take them away from you or their suffering may cause you harm. All of it is included in what we call "life."

Christ and Shakyamuni held a "no harm" policy towards others. How is that? How were they able to wash the feet of everyone, even those who betrayed them? No malice, no grudge, no harm, no envy, no revenge, no payback, no ill-will, no judgement...no lording it over anyone, ever.

Consider those you hold harm against. Consider letting go of the roots of wanting it otherwise. Consider washing their feet. Take your time, include everyone. Everything changes, it's not too late.

Often we feel hurt when someone or some institution fails to do something we feel is the good thing to do. Our views of what is fair and just and right run our life and so when we think or expect someone to see our way we suffer. Our roots are in the soil of desire and expectations and cause us to suffer.

The current Supreme Court cases on the legalization of marriage for all adults in this nation are rife with the possibility of hate and ill-will to arise. The root of the suffering is within my own being. I feel the edge of it. I feel the pain and sorrow of it. I do not blame the nation, the courts, those who have hated me or hate me now. Neither do I blame myself. The arguments showed me that there is discrimination and prejudice which are very difficult and painful things for those who hold such feelings towards me, a gay woman who is married. Could I wash the feet of those hate me? Those who hold a bias against me?

This morning, Marilyn, asked me to watch a video of another institution that discriminates against me. The video clip was of the Pastor of Saint Nick’s church, a man I respect and admire for his boldness and acceptance of diversity. He was asked a simple question by a TV reporter, “Do they (women) deserve a greater voice?”  “Yeah, I understand the tension for a woman today, but I also understand the struggle for the church today. This is 2000 years of thinking a certain way and so is God really asking us to change this, can we, do we have the authority?”

I was somewhat surprised at his answer because I had in my mind a view of him as someone who would say yes in a more categorical way. He didn’t. This organization discriminates against me in many ways, I am a woman and I am a gay woman who is married. Could I wash this man’s feet?

The practice for me and for you is to release your grasp on the myriad identities of who you think you are because they cause harm! It is as simple and as difficult as that! We need Buddha Eyes, Christ Eyes.

But what is really going on here is a problem of identity. When we cling to an identity of our self or others we head into a hell zone. When you are willing and able to release these leopard skins of who you think you are, you no longer are cooked up in the storms of prejudice, bias, and discrimination. In other words, although these prejudices are arising in these institutions, they are not personal although the little “me” identity wants to take it personally. If your wife or husband cheats on you, don’t take it personally. If someone betrays a contract, don’t take it up into your own heart. But this takes practice because we tend to take everything as though it is about “ME.”

The allure of the world is constant and one must be ever vigilant regarding this allure.  The maniac “me” wants to right the wrongs, make something happen, fix and repair and make a difference. It hops from branch to branch trying to find just the right thing to bring satisfaction. This bird suffers.

The little “me” is a mere shadow of the real, free bird above. It is to see from the perch of the high bird. The high bird no longer wants anything from the courts, the church, the institutions because the high bird is free of wanting anything in particular. The high bird is content. And this is where spiritual practice leads. This is where compassion, joy, kindness and equanimity live. But these feelings are often misunderstood. They take tremendous strength, courage and a lot of practice.

The Story of Tea

 

Tea

In ancient times, tea was not known outside China. Rumors of its existence had reached the wise and the unwise of other countries, and each tried to find out what it was in accordance with what he wanted or what he thought it should be.

     The King of Inja ('here') sent an embassy to China, and they were given tea by the Chinese Emperor. But, since they saw that the peasants drank it too, they concluded that it was not fit for their royal master: and, furthermore, that the Chinese Emperor was trying to deceive them, passing off some other substance for the celestial drink.

     The greatest philosopher of Anja ('there') collected all the information he could about tea, and concluded that it must be a substance which existed but rarely, and was of another order than anything then known. For was it not referred to as being a herb, a water, green, black, sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet?

     In the countries of Koshish and Bebinem, for centuries the people tested all the herbs they could find. Many were poisoned, all were disappointed. For nobody had brought the tea-plant to their lands, and thus they could not find it. They also drank all the liquids which they could find, but to no avail.

     In the territory of Mazhab ('Sectarianism') a small bag of tea was carried in procession before the people as they went on their religious observances. Nobody thought of tasting it: indeed, nobody knew how. All were convinced that the tea itself had a magical quality. A wise man said: 'Pour upon it boiling water, ye ignorant ones!' They hanged him and nailed him up, because to do this, according to their belief, would mean the destruction of their tea. This showed that he was an enemy of their religion.

     Before he died, he had told his secret to a few, and they managed to obtain some tea and drink it secretly. When anyone said: 'What are you doing?' they answered: 'It is but medicine which we take for a certain disease.'

     And so it was throughout the world. Tea had actually been seen growing by some, who did not recognize it. It had been given to others to drink, but they thought it the beverage of the common people. It had been in the possession of others, and they worshiped it. Outside China, only a few people actually drank it, and those covertly.

     Then came a man of knowledge, who said to the merchants of tea, and the drinkers of tea, and to others: 'He who tastes, knows. He who tastes not, knows not. Instead of talking about the celestial beverage, say nothing, but offer it at your banquets. Those who like it will ask for more. Those who do not, will show that they are not fitted to be tea-drinkers. Close the shop of argument and mystery. Open the tea house of experience.'

     The tea was brought from one stage to another along the Silk Road, and whenever a merchant carrying jade or gems or silk would pause to rest, he would make tea, and offer it to such people as were near him, whether they were aware of the repute of tea or not. This was the beginning of the Chaikhanas, the tea houses which were established all the way from Peking to Bokhara and Samarkand. And those who tasted, knew.

     At first, mark well, it was only the great and the pretended men of wisdom who sought the celestial drink and who also exclaimed: 'But this is only dried leaves!' or: 'Why do you boil water, stranger, when all I want is the celestial drink?', or yet again: 'How do I know that this is? Prove it to me. Besides the color of the liquid is not golden, but ochre!'

     When the truth was known, and when the tea was brought for all who would taste, the roles were reversed, and the only people who said things like the great and intelligent had said were the absolute fools. And such is the case to this day. Master Hamadina

The Thief on the Cross

Doubters

It was his lucky day! 

Hard to believe? Alarming? The thief was one lucky fellow. We are all going to die, but this thief right at the moment of his painful death meets a Holy Man who assures him of paradise. How lucky is that? Wouldn't you like to be with a Holy Man when you die? Wouldn't you consider it pretty lucky to be with an Awakened Being who is able to see beyond your faults and failures. And who despite his own suffering is able to assure you of Nirvana. Think about it, the thief found himself dying alongside Christ. Holy Cow!

Are you skeptical?

This story is very encouraging for all of you who feel "it's too late" to find your way on the path or you've done way too much harm to be worthy of anything else but a hellish existence. It's never too late.

When you are in the middle of pain and agony, which often feels like you are going to die, wouldn't it be helpful if you could be alongside a Blessed One. Well...ahem, let me respectfully and gently remind you of the previous post. You know, the one with the moons around the heads. Where is this Holy One?

The Luminous Moon

The Luminous Moon circles their heads.

Here it is again.

And yet another.

Here are two chants. Some of you may know them. Others may not. But everyone may use them to help find the Luminous Moon around your own head.

All my ancient twisted karma,
From beginingless greed, hatred and delusion,
Born through body, speech and mind,
I now fully avow.

The practice is to chant this chant once in the morning and once at the end of the day.
The chant is pointing to the Luminous Moon.
It helps you openly and boldly confess old harmful actions which have no beginning or end.
And to acknowledge the actions are born in the body, in the mouth and the mind.
And not to strive to reach an end but to vow to end them nonetheless.

The second chant is even more challenging, but both chants are attempts to leap clear of the ego-centered gaining mind. The ego surrenders and luminous moon appears. Good luck.

Beings are numberless, I vow to save them.
Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them.
Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them,
Awakening is unsurpassable, I vow to awaken.

Explore the chants. Explore them. Notice where they take you.

Continue Kindness

Kindness

Practice never stops, but it does change. In order to help Jack out of the box we need to begin to practice kindness. Kindness is warmhearted, generous and friendly. It requires a selfless approach to others. The mantra "nothing in it for me" helps.

If we keep track of what we do for others it results in anger and resentment because we want something for what we give. Anger never satisfies.

When we are mercenary the giving is of little importance. If we dare to list what we give, we are tied up in knots of bitter feelings towards the other. Kindness is sweet and friendly and warm. If something is a chore, there is little kindness generated. If there is a sluggishness, a reluctance, kindness is thwarted. If there is dread, kindness is buried by it.

When we are angry we project out towards the object of our anger what we want and are not getting. We are fooled into thinking the object, whether it be a person or a thing, has what we need. Even if you get much of what you want, you will not be free. Freedom does not come from indulgence, it comes through the gate of renunciation of the internal thought that we need the object of desire. Anything can be an object of desire.

Kindness counts on renunciation. Renunciation is not self-effacement.

Denouement.

I am the world.
There is nothing apart from it.

The World Meets the World

These are the last two Ox Herder pictures. In some respects we have been talking about these two pictures from the very beginning. Here he is again, the man in the world. But has he realized something or not?

Was he ever anywhere else? And yet, he feels and thinks he has taken a trip. The holy man was always there and yet he took his confusion as real.

He began to sense something, to see a trace of something that began to clarify his confusion until he reaches the "holiness" that is always with him.

But wait! The path of practice and spiritual awakening is not quite so linear as these pictures depict. It is very difficult to determine which stage comes before another or whether one repeats a stage or skips one. There is no progress or regression. There is confusion and clarity. There is birth, sickness, old age and death. There
is change, suffering and delusion. All of it is there, in the beginning, the middle and the end. He could wake up here or there. The biggest error in Zen is not to begin to practice followed by not to continue.      

To Be Continued...Keep going, we are not done yet. To Be continued...

The Painted Rice Cake

Life as A Rice Cake

The rice cake is plain and simple. There it is. It shows up much like everything shows up, plain and simple. But plain and simple isn't how we feel about what shows up in our life. We paint the rice cake with our emotions. We feel something for the rice cake! We feel love or hate or indifferent. Our feelings for the rice cake takes us up, down or flattens us.

And we go on the emotional ride with just about everything.

Emotions want to rule our composure and overrun us with agitations of highs and lows. And many of us believe a life without emotional overload is a dull, passionless life. Actually, Zen points to the cultivation of emotions but they are not the emotions rooted in the Jack-in-the box. The emotions that want to run roughshod over compassion, kindness, joy for others and equanimity are the passionate emotions of a self that wants to let loose, have fun, get high and the many variants of an eat, drink and be merry path.

Compassion, kindness, joy for others and equanimity are not painted on the rice cake. And they do not lead to anything in particular in the service of the self. They are present when we transcend Jack and the delusions of Jack. The cultivation of these emotions is stopping the old habits of allowing the like, dislike or indifferent patterns to continue without restraint. When the emotions rule, you say, do and think things that harm. You know, it's those times when you say to yourself, "What the hell, I deserve it." That is Jack!

The Jack in the Box is ME?

This practice is tough. It's tough because most of us are convinced there is a Jack-in-the-Box. It may not be called Jack, it might be better to say we call it "ME." We all think there is a ME in the box. We've been told there is over and over again and are convinced ME is a solid citizen. In fact, we will often pretend ME is solid and good and worthy. It's what we as humans do. And so we often are unable to see anything else.

When we feel certain feelings we are certain that the feeling is based on the external experience. And the feelings might be high or low, it doesn't matter. We think the feelings are somehow tied to someone else or something else other than the Delusional Jack.

Have you ever had the experience of being with someone and feeling anxious or upset after being with this person. Or watching a movie that triggered fear or hate or agitation. Or discovered your friend lied to you and you now feel terrible? Or finding out someone you thought you could trust betrayed you?

The list of experiences is endless.

We continuously experience both afflicted emotions and non-afflicted emotions. But what happens to us in most circumstances is to BLAME the trigger of the emotion. We think the someone, the friend, the situation is to BLAME for what we feel. See for yourself.

The next time, probably sometime to day, you'll encounter a painful and bitter feeling. Notice what you do. You may plan NEVER to do that again, or you put together escape plans to get away from the person you feel is responsible for the situation. You become certain the nasty feeling won't happen again as long as you NEVER encounter that someone or situation again.

All of the blame and recrimination or schemes to escape the afflictive emotion by killing off the trigger, or getting away from the trigger is not the practice. The practice is to pull the fool, called Jack otherwise known as ME, out of the box.

We begin to pull ME out through observing and disciplining our emotional opinions.
Jack in the Box

A Gift

A Gift

To open the door so that you can really see inside yourself isn’t easy, but it’s something you can train yourself to do. If you have the mindfulness enabling you to read yourself and understand yourself, that cuts through a lot of issues right there. Craving will have a hard time forming. In whatever guises it arises, you’ll get to read it, to know it, to extinguish it, to let it go.

When you get to do these things, it doesn’t mean that you “get” anything, for actually once the mind is empty, that means it doesn’t gain anything at all. But to put it into words for those who haven’t experienced it: In what ways is emptiness empty? Does it mean that everything disappears or is annihilated? Actually, you should know that emptiness doesn’t mean that the mind is annihilated. All that’s annihilated is clinging and attachment. What you have to do is to see what emptiness is like as it actually appears and then not latch onto it. The nature of this emptiness is that it’s deathless within you - this emptiness of self - and yet the mind can still function, know, and read itself. Just don’t label it or latch onto it, that’s all.

There are many levels to emptiness, many types, but if it’s this or that type, then it’s not genuine emptiness, for it contains the intention trying to know what type of emptiness it is, what feature it has. This is something you have to look into deeply if you really want to know. If it’s superficial emptiness - the emptiness of the still mind, free from thought-formations about its objects or free from the external sense of self - that’s not genuine emptiness. Genuine emptiness lies deep, not on the level of mere stillness or concentration. The emptiness of the void is something very profound.

But because of the things we’ve studied and heard, we tend to label the emptiness of the still mind as the void - and so we label things wrongly in that emptiness.... Actually, it’s just ordinary stillness. We have to look more deeply in. No matter what you’ve encountered that you’ve heard about before, don’t get excited. Don’t label it as this or that level of attainment. Otherwise you’ll spoil everything. You reach the level where you should be able to keep your awareness steady, but once you label things, it stops right there - or else goes all out of control.

This labeling is attachment in action. It’s something very subtle, very refined. Whatever appears, it latches on. So you simply have to let the mind be empty without labeling it as anything, for the emptiness that lets go of preoccupations or is free from the influence of thought-formations is something you have to look further into. Don’t label it as this or that level, for to measure and compare things in this way blocks everything - and in particular, knowledge of how the mind changes.

So to start out, simply watch these things, simply be aware. If you get excited, it ruins everything. Instead of seeing things clear through, you don’t. You stop there and don’t go any further. For this reason, when you train the mind or contemplate the mind to the point of gaining clear realizations every now and then, regard them as simply things to observe.

Upasika Kee Nanayon (1901-1978) was a Thai lay nun and a poet who wrote under the name K. Khao-suan-luang. “How Empty Is Emptiness?” is excerpted from An Unentangled Knowing (Dhamma Dana Publications).

Not Knowing Where You Are

The Leaky Life Boat

"We should practice...like someone who is dying. For him, there is nothing to rely on. When you reach this kind of understanding, you will not be fooled by anything." Suzuki Roshi

Everyday life is like getting into a rowboat to cross the great oceans. We head out only to find that the rowboat leaks. When we realize the little boat is taking on water and will soon sink we stop our foolish clinging. The concerns of the everyday world which often consume our energy fall away.

Nothing is a big deal when we realize we need a Bigger Self to make the crossing.

When we live in delusion about where we are we feel discordant, a sense of jarring or disharmony over the smallest of worldly matters. We forget we are ankle deep in a sinking rowboat and yet we want more or something else. We fool ourselves into thinking that getting what we want will right the ship! 

We may resort to calculations and schemes to get what we want only to find a sense of edgy cleverness or sour bitterness. We may feel on the brink, because we are on the brink, but we don't like it and fight against it come hell or high waters. 

We are in a leaky boat taking on water.

We have in some manner or other fallen into thinking and believing the world of stuff is real and everlasting. Why else would we get so upset when someone or something rocks the boat?

We might begin to feel fear, jumpy, and tense. Our reactions might become more pronounced and we are easily upset. Life feels uneasy, as though something is off kilter. We are irritable and prickly. It’s understandable. And it tells us that we are still pinned down by delusion and ignorance. We make excuses, justify, defend, whine and complain thinking it will change things. 

The water continues to rise. Don’t be fooled by anything.  

Choiceless

    



The world wants you to pick and choose.
Relinquish your opinions.
Stop passing the suffering around.
Picking and choosing clutter the mind.
Point to the Truth.

Be quiet. Sit still.
There is nothing to do.
There is nothing to add.

Buddhavision

Buddha Eyes

Buddha Mind

There are many and I suspect countless images that represent an Awakened and Awakening Mind or an Awakened or Awakening Being.

These two images are representative of the Mind awakening. The top image suggests a sense of vision that no longer relies on the six ordinary senses; eyesight, hear sight, taste sight, touch sight, smell sight and thought sight. Most of us spend our life relying on these six sense doors which keeps us quite bound to the realm of desire otherwise known as samsara. The top image has three eyes, two we are familiar with and the third one is available, but not often found. The image below the eyes is Nepalese for ONE. This particular symbol suggests an ability to everything as unified or as One.

The second  image suggests an openness or spaciousness of the Mind which is not the thought or thinking mind but a Mind that is empty. If you consider space you may notice space allows everything to come and go within it. This image suggests an ability to allow everything to come and go.

The Ox Herder images are an attempt to present a spiritual path, visual tips for all of us to ponder. This Ox Herder image no longer has an ox or an ox herder. What does that say to you?

All Aboard the Empty Bus!

The Empty Bus

We are all on the same bus. The one like this one here. We share this reality. We die and leave everything behind. All sentient beings are on the bus. And yet, many feel alone and separate. They can't see how they are part of this bus ride. No one is left out.

Part of the bus is missing, it disappeared from sight just like everything in the world disappears. Nothing is unchanging, nothing is substantial. Stuff comes together and falls apart. When you no longer see yourself as "somebody substantial" or "somebody insubstantial" you relax on the empty bus being nobody, going nowhere. You stop driving yourself. Maybe for the first time you find out where you are.

Life is precious.
Life is fragile.
Death is sudden and strikes without warning.
Be still. Stay. Shhhhh...All Aboard!

A Deluded Person Makes the Same Mistake Over and Over, a Wise Person Makes a New Mistake Every Time!

 Five Angels

(Another story by Ajahn Brahmavamso)

A man had a dream at night.

He dreamt of 5 angels, who were just about to give him 5 pots of gold.

But just as he was going to receive that gold, he woke up.

Ok, fine, so he got up as usual and went about his business. He went to work and realised that the day's date was 5th of May. Five, Five, of 2005. It had to be a sign. He decided to take the rest of the day off since that day also happened to be a racing day at the turf club.

As he reached home, his wife had prepared some snacks for him. Five different types of it, in fact. He was convinced that this number had to be special and decided to do something with the signs that were sent to him.

 He looked through the newspaper, and was looking through the 5th horse race of the day. The name of the horse in the 5th lane was 'Five Angels'.

Convinced, he went to the bank to withdraw five thousand dollars to bet on the race. 

He went to the 5th ticket vendor and bought 5 tickets. 

Finally the race started. Five Angels came in fifth and he lost all five thousand dollars..

The end?

Where's the Bull?

The Gust
The wind whistles within me.
I am naked. Master of nothing, master of no one, not even master of my own convictions,
I am my face in the wind, against the wind, and I am the wind that strikes my face. Eduardo Galeano

Strong Love

Here's How

Seek no profit for your ego-maniac self.
It's not necessary and it becomes a burden and a liability.
You profit despite your actions. You are alive! It's priceless.
Honour the Infinite.
Don't try to become valuable. You do not need to polish up anything.
You will want to polish all your mistakes and failings. Eat these crows. They nourish humility.
Study your errors. They are spiritual crows cawing for you.
When you love strongly you are useful to everyone without complaint.
Bad or good will not matter.
Love out of fear, obligation, duty, responsibility is love, however it is weak love.
Every stress strengthens your love.
Strong love is not offended.
Be vigilant with yourself and offer continual devotion in all that you do to the immeasurable Lover.
Know yourself through silent, solitary self-reflection.
Spend time there. And you rule over your wobbly self.
Don't roam around and neglect your time.
Sharpen your flint.
Seek and strike it against your self.
Do not waste the spark.
Strengthen your love.

The God Particle

Higgs Boson
The God Particle

The Tight Spot. Kausika the brahmana, who is now roasting in Hell, set his heart upon Virtue and in all his life never told a lie, even in jest. Once, having seen their helpless victim run past him and hide, Kausika, sitting there where the rivers meet, answered the thieves, "That way."  

The Deliverance. So be as the swan, who drinks from milk and water mixed together, whichever one he choose, leaving the other behind. William S. Buck, the Mahabharata

When we are not bound by duty and obligation to any worldly thing we are free to choose the Divine. This truth is the truth of Christ’s tight spot in his agony in the garden. It is the truth of Siddhartha Gautama when he rose one night and left his wife and child. It is the spiritual dilemma of Kausika, the Brahman. The act and more precisely the sovereignty to act is in fact a telltale sign of liberation and the intimacy with the truth.

 

Driven by patterns and blindness with no beginning,

             Humans follow the rounds of birth, old age, illness and death.

It requires intimate knowledge of truth to be able to be free and to voluntarily choose between the milk and water. It is not merely intellectual facts or methods of knowledge that one can memorize or learn but a transcendent recognition and intimate knowledge.

Duty, obligation and responsibility although basically harmless are human concoctions that cannot help us discern between the absolute and the relative or in more common terms between heaven and hell. It requires divine knowledge, transcendent knowing.

 

Both Christ and Siddhartha both exemplify this transcendence and capacity to choose. Christ could have chosen to run but he doesn’t. Siddhartha could have chosen to stay in the palace with his wife and newborn son, but he doesn’t. Both are sovereigns, both hold to a transcendent authority.

 

When we are tied and bound to our compulsions, driven and blind we are not aware of the fundamental and supreme element. In the hands of a spiritual master our compulsions tattle on us until we no longer betray the Sovereign within.

 

Not to Believe, Not to Act

Seeing the Beloved

The 10,000 Idiots

Hafiz

It is always a danger
to aspirants on the Path
When they begin to believe and act
As if the ten thousand idiots
Who so long ruled and lived inside
Have all packed their bags
And skipped town
Or
Died

It is not to believe or act for or against the 10,000 idiots. It is not to push  or pull any one idiot in the crowd that assaults your mind. It requires vision. When the 10,000 compulsions no longer rule, you are clear on the Source.

In order to see the relative in the middle of the absolute or the absolute in the middle of the relative your spirit must be free from any concept. In order to see hell in the middle of heaven or heaven in the middle of hell you must be free.

Filling a silver bowl with snow; hiding a heron in the moonlight. When you array them they're not the same. When you mix them you know where they are. In order to be able to discern, you need to intimately see the Beloved. It is not a matter of a belief or an act. It is a matter of a transcendent spark.



 .

His main teaching: watch in yourself, do not search out side, maintain you spirit free from any concept.
Liang-Chieh de Tung-shan (807-869), named also Tung-Shan ou Dongshan Liangjie


 

Love, Get Real

Mother Clings to Her Dead Baby

When your mind is free from all clinging and thinks of neither good nor evil, you should be careful not to sink into a sheer emptiness and stick to a deathlike stillness; you should rather try to broaden your learning and increase your knowledge, that you may become aware of your own mind and thoroughly comprehend the essential teaching of all the Enlightened Ones; you should cultivate a spirit of congenial harmony in your fellowship with others and free yourself of the cramping idea of the “self” and “other” until you attain complete enlightenment and realize your true nature which is immutable. Hui Neng

I love dogs. I love their nature, their constant sniffing out life and curious energy for “what’s happening” around them. They know how to get along with one another without wordy reproof or written law. They use yawns, bowing, averting their eyes and exposing the soft underbelly to signal what they are sensing.   They share, plot and plan and play wildly with the simplest of stuff. They learn and let go of mistakes and never hold a grudge. They teach each other. And they are great companions. It’s all we need to know about them, to care for them to let them sleep with us, eat with us and rest on our couches and chairs.

Ordinary life is Buddha life, it does not happen somewhere else, someplace different than everyday life. It is in the ordinary, everyday stuff of life that our mind clings, divides and sinks into miseries of all kinds. We can act like dead sticks and freeze our bodies and minds in attempt to “look like the still, stone images” of Buddha, but this is not the awakened mind, this is the imitation mind.











Noble Birth

Noble Birth

The Noble birth is a transcendent one. It requires maturity and development much like a physical birth. There is attraction, intercourse and development. Review the pictures again. See if you are able to see the love affair of the man who is confused and lost. Something catches his eye and he goes after it. He gets a better look and begins to run toward it. He captures it and joins it in training. They join together and are at ease. He plays his flute happily, the Ox is joyful and gladly carries his weight.

Consider for yourself this love affair of a Noble Birth. What do you see?

Please read Chapter 6 if you are reading the book.



Come, See

Small Black Stones

There are still these little stones. They need to be eaten. In order to swallow them, you need to soften them in your mouth and mind. These are your secret ill-wishes. They are harbingers of harm. They come before the harm arises as a warning to you to soften and eat them.

When others feel safe around you, you are eating these little ones. When others feel calm in your presence, these chips of hate, resentment, jealousy, anger, pride, shame, loss, covetousness are digesting into smaller and smaller bits. When no enmity trails after you or flares up in your presence, you convert the harm around you.

You must soften and eat them. There is no other way. Do not pretend to eat them. It is childish. Come, sit down and see for yourself the small black stones, begin to soften them and swallow them one tiny rock at a time.

Do not act pious or free or holy. Do not imitate another.

Self-Mastery

How strangely secure
this world of illusion seems
now - open your eyes!

Retrieved 3/2013 Zen Cattle

Self-mastery includes an ability to see the illusions. The basis of an illusion is to mistake the unreal as real. When you make this mistake you often attach yourself to the unstable things you think you can count on.

The teachings are often seen as permanent and stable only to find out they too must be seen through again and again. They are not rules or beliefs to huddle under, to graze beneath.

Once you acquire some calm stability in the mind you are able to see through the very teachings you were once in need of...you leave them and offer them for others. You acquire new sight, new disciplines to help you see the illusions.

CINDERELLA

Cinderella, the soul, sits among the ashes. She is depressed, as usual. Look at her: dressed in rags, face smeared with grime, oily hair, barefoot. How will anyone ever see her for who she is? A sad state of affairs.

Winter afternoons, in a corner of the kitchen, she has long conversations with her fairy godmother, over a cup of tea. The fairy godmother has, accidentally on purpose, misplaced her magic wand. In any case, these transformations are only temporary. The beautiful spangled gown, the crystal slippers, the coach and footmen — all would have disappeared at the stroke of midnight. And then what?

It is like the man in the mirror, says the fairy godmother. No one can pull him out but himself.

Stephen Mitchell Parables

What's Happening?

The Self & The Ox

Know thy self. Study thy self. Contemplate thy self.

The Self, Confused

The Self Sees Traces

The Self Runs for The Back End of the Ox

The Self Lunges the Dark Ox

If you are reading the book, please read Chapter five.

Be Alive

Glass Cup

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ME

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
You will not find me in stupas, not in Indian shrine rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals;
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me instantly—
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.

—Kabir, translated by American author and poet Robert Bly in The Winged Energy of Delight: Selected Translations


We need help. We wander around looking and finding bits and pieces trying to put things together, to make sense of it all, seeking for something. Somehow we know we are like the cup. We sense things falling apart, coming apart. We know things don't hold up. We want something to hold up, to last, to be whole.

You need to explore on your own in your own skin what is going on here. Kabir's last line is what Kabir knew or was told. Forget it. Don't repeat it. It's not yours to repeat. If you have not done the concentrated work of seeing for yourself you are merely a parrot, a thief or a fake.

Live in your skin, not the dust of ancients. You can not claim what belongs to another as yours. It is unsatisfactory. It is dead Zen. Dead! You must manifest who you look for as the one who looks for you in your own bag of skin. Proclaim it yourself.

Who are you?
Concentrate.

What is God?
Concentrate.

Ask for help. Beg for it. It's not as simple as "believing" something. It requires more than beliefs.