Friday, January 7, 2011

Study Hall - Shobogenzo

From 'Thusness', 'Immo': "You are an accoutrement that exists in the entire world of the ten directions. How do you know it to be thus? You know it because your body and mind are not you; they appear in the entire world of the ten directions.
Your body is not you; your life is transported, moving in time without stopping even for a moment. Where has your youthful face gone? When you search for it, there is no trace. When you ponder deeply, there are many from the past whom you cannot encounter again. The pure mind does not stay; it comes and goes in fragments. Even if there is truth, it does not stay in the boundary of yourself...
Without knowing what buddha dharma is and without having heard it, one does not look for it and wish for it. But upon hearing dharma, one regards obligations as less weighty and forgets about oneself. It is because the body-and-mind that has wisdom is no longer the self...
Huineng, Zen Master Dajian of Mount Caoxi, once instructed Nanyue, who would later become Zen Master Dahui: 'What is it that thus comes?'
Study thoroughly his statement that all things are invariable what, as what is beyond doubt, beyond understanding, but, just what. Study thoroughly that the one thing is no other than what. What is not to be doubted. What thus comes".
Reading this on a morning where two periods of zazen had just begun to take the edge off the tension and stress I was feeling, I felt deep joy in my body, a sense of relief and allowing. No need to understand.

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