Events

I sometimes think of myself as a connoisseur of delusions, a sort of sommelier of mistaken thinking. My meditation practice feels like the ongoing training in the never-ending refining of my of my ability to better appreciate the ‘sight’, ‘nose’, ‘palate’ and ‘finish’ of different delusions.

This koan showed up like a well that has not been dug—out of the blue, not seeking it, or digging around, it appeared before me. Oh! This one, I thought to myself. Something I have been seeking most of my life is ease and here it was.

A valley supports life, feeds the animals who live there and provides fertile earth for agriculture.  It can do this because it is empty.  Being low, and humble it accepts the flow of the river.  Not filled with anything to block the light, it receives the warmth of the sun.  In its supporting of life the Valley does nothing and this doing nothing is an important aspect of the process of Daoist transformation,  as it is an important aspect of Chan/Zen meditation.

Register to attend – The prospect of every day being a good day is attractive. Equanimity in the midst of chaos sounds like a preferred way for things to go. It is not uncommon to think that after awakening everything is going to be fine, no more troubles, no more problems. Attaining Nirvana, paradise, is the goal, right? Depends on what Nirvana means to you.

Emily’s line feels very vivid to me, and makes me speculate on what’s the narcotic and what’s the tooth and what’s the soul—am I seeking meditation practice as a narcotic, or maybe the tooth and the soul are using meditation to sit me down for a conversation, or maybe all of the above?  

‘We and everything we perceive are interwoven’ says Shitou. He whispers at my shoulder pointedly: ‘Perceive’.  I do see interweaving everywhere. What about ‘not interwoven’ though? How is that so? Is that the realm of the ME? The place I fall out of the net? But doesn’t something hold me even there?

Even as you struggle with the design of the seamless tomb, that too is your awakening. As one day melts into another and our time in pandemic stretches into the unknown future, that too is the sound of awakening. Can you hear it?

Seeing the face, our original face, facing the vastness, can help us include the cries of the world. When it comes to doing something about those cries, it’s good to know the names of those things that we can do.
 

RMC Zen Online: Though we don’t know exactly what Xuedou’s question was, I believe it had something to do with the difference between hearing and seeing. The solution to the way thought obscurs the natural clarity of our minds is to appreciate that thoughts are part of the natural clarity of our minds.

This is a long koan with plenty of interesting facets to consider. I was recently invited to spend some time with the bit about the old man’s request for a funeral. What was that about? It’s interesting that this was first thing the old man had to say after his long-sought enlightenment. Seemingly, his first concern was to pay respect to who he had been along the way; the unenlightened him. I think there’s a lesson in this.