|
|
|
Online Newsletter of the Prairie Zen Center - 515 S. Prospect, Champaign, IL 61820 September 2007 |
|
|
|
Online Newsletter of the Prairie Zen Center - 515 S. Prospect, Champaign, IL 61820 September 2007 |
|
6:00 to 6:50 am
10:00 Introduction for newcomers
Phone - (217)355-8835 |
Upcoming Events On July 28th, after a long illness, Sangha member Ja Hae Walter Kim Powers had a stroke and passed from this realm of existence. We appreciate his wonderful bodhissatvic energy, compassion and his fervent wish that all beings in all realms be liberated from suffering. Condolences to his family and friends. |
|
(an edited Dharma Talk) by Elihu Genmyo Smith
“The Buddhas and all sentient beings are only One Mind. There are no other dharmas besides One Mind. Since beginningless time, this Mind is without arising, without extinction, without attributes ... This, right here now, this is it. Once one tries to get hold of it by thinking about it, one goes against it. It is like empty space which is without any limit and beyond measure.” (Essential Transmission of Mind-Dharma by Master Huangbo Xiyun.) Practice is illuminating Mind, illuminating who and what we are. It is not that I illumine Mind, that there is a Mind separate that I clarify, illumine. Our very functioning is this illuminating Mind. Is this really so? People are suffering, circumstances are difficult - we know this. In the midst of this, Huangbo says, “This, right here now, this is it.” This is not a theoretical text; it is a way to relieve suffering. Unfortunately, because the word “mind” in Western tradition is often connected with and limited to thoughts or conscious understanding, including awareness, feelings and emotions, it is not easy to see. But no need to be limited by this understanding of “mind.” In fact, practice includes working with difficulties arising when we believe thoughts and feelings, and with the unskillful ways beliefs are used to try to resolve difficulties or to clarify life. “Endowment” is what you are or have. Believing we are emotion-thoughts within a body, or that this body, this body-mind, is separate from the changing conditions of the universe, from “other” beings, we miss this endowment. We assume, and operate out of assumptions of birth, death, gain and loss of this separate self, without being aware of them or examining them. We react and suffer when circumstances and conditions are not what “I” want. Then, in place of responding as ever changing circumstances, our reactions grow from fear and anger, from “I don’t like” or “I’m threatened.” If we know our fundamental endowment, live as this fundamental endowment, then there is no basis for fear - just as a university with a large financial endowment, when making faculty or programs decisions, can respond on the merits of the issues without the added fears of financial gain and loss. (Of course, finances may be part of the circumstances being responded to and so need to be considered.) “The Buddhas [“the unconditioned”, “the non-arising, non-ceasing”] and all sentient beings [what seemingly arises and passes] “are only One Mind.” One Mind isn’t a nominative, it is not one as opposed to two, but one as an adjective - are just same Mind. There are no other dharmas besides One Mind - there are no outside things, conditions, phenomena. One Mind is not a thing, condition, and yet, besides One Mind, there is no other. This is our life right here now. Hakuin Zenji says, “Sentient beings are primarily all Buddhas. It is like ice and water. Outside of water, where can you find ice? Outside of sentient beings, where do you find Buddhas?” This Mind, our encounter from morning to night. If we say self, there is only self. Self and other is a fiction to use, but it is a fiction. Everyone we encounter is only self meeting self. Provisionally, we can say sentient being meets sentient being; nevertheless, “Buddha” is everyone, everything, I encounter - only Buddha in here, out there. This! Is this so for us? Zazen is illuminating, allowing the light of Mind to come forth. Illuminating means this functioning being apparent. We are illuminated by being present, the presence of being human - not being the limits that we may put on this by attributes, names and so forth. Being illuminated is circumstances arising, is responding, is everything changing all the time, is our functioning. Practice, our zazen, is being present as we are in the midst of everything changing, despite and beyond the limits of the ideas and thoughts that we keep holding on to, that we habitually believe - of gaining and losing, or thoughts such as “That isn’t fair” etc. No dharmas besides this Mind, besides this illumination always functioning - hearing, seeing, even thinking, even believing thought. This is why our practice effort is when upset, when believing and holding upset, to be the very upset, even pain, and, in a way, turn it back on itself, to turn it to the very source. Not that the source is other than what this is, yet by doing this, being this, we can “go beyond” the way we usually think of it, believe about it. This is to respond compassionately to circumstances. Unfortunately, if we don’t do our part, it is easy to believe the shapes and characteristics, the gaining and losing. As Huangbo says, “Once one tries to get a hold of it by thinking, one goes against it.” What is this? We don’t lose by not feeling well, despite the fact that we think we do. We don’t gain by feeling well. We don’t even gain by “having” a great insight. We don’t lose even if we believe thoughts and suffer in the midst of reactions based on the beliefs. Suffering is based on believing thoughts and feelings as truth, and the resulting body-mind habits. Despite suffering, despite the pain, we don’t “lose” anything. And yet because of suffering, there is a need and importance to practice. Practicing, clarifying this, enables us to be “all the more” who we are, to use such inaccurate language. To function as we are, responding in the midst of our life, this is illuminating mind, being this. Usual body-mind habits blind us to no birth, no death, “since beginningless time”. Literally, “this Mind no beginning finish arriving.” “Since beginningless time” - beyond past, present, future. “Past” and “future” may be useful terms, but when we live in the fiction rather than simply using the terms, we miss who and what we are. This is why in sitting, practicing, whatever comes up is always the opportunity – to be, to enter, this present moment that we are. Entering this present moment, we are able to live the fundamental endowment we are. We are not limited and bound by the worries, upsets, difficulties, and are able to take care of what arises right here. When we are used by thinking, feeling and do not see or function as who we are – but instead are used by self-centered thinking, self-centered feeling - then trouble is guaranteed. Self-centered thinking is narrow, based on me versus others, a dualistic fiction that we live out of. Look at your life, does this happen? If so, when this happens, look - what is going beyond this self-centered limitation? What is being this functioning that you are? Despite nothing lacking, this moment calls for ongoing practice. Always, this body-mind functioning, even self-centered thinking, is an entry point into what we always are. Provisionally, I may say “entry point into” though this makes it seem as if this is something else, but it never is anything else. Being this, here, is, as Dogen Zenji says, “opening up enlightenment.” Truly, who and what we are right now doesn’t lack a single thing – it is only that we may believe that we lack something. You lack nothing. Even if you “have” great awakening and “became” Buddha, you did not gain a thing. From the very beginning this is One Mind. Lifting your hand, moving your feet, breathing, is this. Sitting is being this fundamental endowment that you are. And this fundamental endowment hears chirping, is chirping, is sitting. Nothing lacking, nothing to gain, nothing to change. Opportunities of practice arise; so we do our part, giving self away to self, being who we are. Zazen allows us to illuminate Mind. Practicing, we discover that zazen is not limited to the form of sitting, but zazen is all the forms of being human. And, it is invaluable to do sitting zen, zazen, because it is so hard for various reasons, various body-mind habits, to be who we are in the midst of many forms of functioning. Practicing, sitting, zazen supports us in being at ease, being who and what we are, the original face coming forth. © 2007 Elihu Genmyo Smith |
|
