Saturday, March 27, 2010

How Do I Feel For An Enlarged Uterus

The collection of koans master Dogen

THIRTEEN

One day a monk asked the master Tosu Daiso District Jo: How is when the moon is not round? Tosu
Master replied: The moon swallowed two or three moons.
The monk said: What about when it becomes round? Tosu
Master replied: She vomited seven or eight.

Commentary master Nishijima

This koan about the relationship between concepts and concrete things. Before we saw the difference between concepts and reality, we tend to believe that the concepts themselves are real. After noticing this difference, we can accept many conceptual representations of reality that goes beyond all these representations. How

is when the moon is not round? The full moon has often symbolized the state of enlightenment or ultimate reality. Master Daido Tosu (Tosu Jisai in the text) said that the moon of the concept "moon" swallowed two or three real, that is to say that the concept is not the same as the real moon. The complexity and ever-changing nature of the real moon is simplified and obscured by the concept "moon".

And what about when the moon becomes round - after we had direct experience of reality? So the real moon spits out many different concepts that have tried to describe some of its aspects. The latter, in all its variability, changing moment by moment, transcends the seven or eight "moons" conceptual.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Silver Patron Any Good

The collection of koans master Dogen

TWELVE

Master Tôzan Ryokai District In preached to the congregation When we understand from experience what the Buddha ancestors, then we can talk.
A monk then asked What kind of "talk" would it be?
Tôzan Ryokai said For example, when a monk speaks, he can not listen.
The monk replied: Can you hear in these circumstances, master?
Tôzan said When I do not speak, I can listen.


Commentary master Nishijima:

Once they realized the truth, people continue their usual Buddhist practice and the tasks of daily life. That is what is meant by "Buddha ancestors.

Master Tôzan wanted to express or demonstrate the Buddhas ascending to his disciples. The monk was interested in the nature of discussions that would place after they had themselves experienced the Buddha ascendancy.

He believed that such a discussion between Buddhas should necessarily be very sublime and mystical. But the master was relieved of this misconception. These are just ordinary discussions, "he said. "When a monk speaks, he can not hear." What's more ordinary and practical?!

However, the monk said he was the master, by his profound wisdom, should certainly not be limited by aspects also common. Again, master Tôzan said simply: "When I do not speak, I can listen." nothing strange or mysterious here. It's the same in the life of a Buddha ascendancy. It's simple, plain and direct, but people are so keen to make images or worship idols that they can, rather than pursuing their own practice, which can sometimes seem too boring and ordinary.

This story is a bucket of cold water to those who are left intoxicated by a romantic vision of Zen.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Examples Of Vote Of Thanks At Weddings

The collection of koans master Dogen

ELEVEN

Master Joshu Jushin preached to a large assembly: If we did it was barely aware of right and wrong, we lose the spirit of Buddha. Someone he problem with that?
A monk stepped forward and struck the jisha master (his personal assistant, or secretary) saying Why do not you answer the teacher?
Master immediately returned to his apartments. Thereafter, the jisha asked him to explain: The monk who hit me had he understood what you meant? Joshu Jushin
said person could see the person sitting upright. And the standing person could see the person sitting.

Commentary master Nishijima:

Master Joshu said that even a slight awareness of good and evil disturbs our stability. It is our mind which discriminates between what is right and wrong. This ability to divide, differentiate and analysis is an essential part of our daily life, but she is unable to grasp reality directly. The spirit of Buddha is a state in which we directly apprehend reality and we are therefore necessary to transcend discrimination. This idea leads many people to false conclusions. They draw a picture of this very odd that someone would be living in such a state.

To illustrate this point, you can tell the difference between a baby and a Buddha. We can say that both live in a state free of abstract notions of good and evil. However, the baby, him, because he can not yet developed his rational mind discriminating, while a Buddha realized that the essence is not just about what is right or wrong, but just do good and not do evil.

The person who sees the reality, living in the same state as the Buddha did well from the deepest core of his being not in accordance with a written list of virtues in a book, but by simply following the Law of the Universe. Master Joshu Jushin

wondering if anyone has thing to say about consciousness that goes beyond good and evil. Since language is itself based on this discrimination, one would think that the teacher gives an impossible task to his students.
How to avoid this contradiction? The monk in this story chose to respond with its own live action. The young monk who was chosen as personal assistant to the master has not yet rooted in its Buddhist reality. It is therefore unable to respond to the challenge of the master, so the other monk gives the abstract question of an additional master consisting of some very concrete slaps the second viewpoint (hardware).
The behavior of this monk is in itself an answer to the question master Joshu. It is a concrete demonstration of the spirit which acts properly without discrimination as required by the actual situation.

In the third phase of the koan, the jisha wants to understand what are the real feelings of the master on the action of the monk who slapped him. This question is sincere, it is a question that comes from actual experience and not just participation in a philosophical game.

In answer him master Joshu, the expression "the person sitting" refers to itself (the master) and "a person standing" refers to another monk. Thus, the master asserts the understanding of the monk. They were able to see each other clearly. Their understanding of Buddhism was the same.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Is Macular Dystrophy Curable

The collection of koans master Dogen

TEN

One day a monk asked the master Seigen Gyoshi: What was the intent when master Bodhidharma went from India to China?

Seigen Gyoshi said He just acted like he was.

The monk said: Could you repeat what you just told me in terms I can understand?

Seigen Gyoshi said: Come here.

The monk approached the master.

Seigen Gyoshi said, clearly Remember this!


Commentary Nishijima Roshi:

The first question of the monk was a standard among students Buddhists asked why Bodhidharma came to China to bring the Buddhist teachings. The question is really about the fundamental purpose of the Buddhist life. Master Seigen Gyôshi said that the behavior of Bodhidharma was just what he was. He did what he did. His behavior was a simple historical fact, which followed the circumstances of his time and the proper character of Bodhidharma.

course, one can find meaning and significance to the actions of Bodhidharma, but in response to questions from the monk, the master chooses to emphasize the simple goal of the behavior of Bodhidharma.

The monk did not understand this answer and wanted a more detailed explanation, the teacher asked him to get up to approach him. While doing this, the master said: "Remember this clearly!".

master's intention here is to get the monk to forget his abstractions a moment, and simply noted the reality of this simple action. Just walk just act naturally in response to real demands of the situation. That is why Bodhidharma left India for China. That is the heart of the teachings he transmitted.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Kates Playground Bathtub Vid

Gathering of koans master Dogen

NEW

Master Obaku left Mount Obaku one day, leaving his disciples and went to the temple, Dai-An. He mingled with other workers and made the household of the Buddha hall and conference room.

One day, the Prime Minister Haikyu went to the temple to burn incense. A shuji (one of the officers of the temple) received him.

The Prime Minister, on seeing a portrait on a wall, asked: Which character is it there?

The monk replied: is the portrait of a reverend monk.

The Prime Minister said: I can see the portrait, but where is the reverend monk?

None of the monks did not know how to answer his question.

Premier asked there any men in this temple of zazen?

The monk replied: There is a monk who came to work at the temple recently. It could be a man of zazen.

The Prime Minister said: Could you bring me, I can ask him?

The monks left immediately in search of master Obaku. Seeing this, the Prime Minister had looked happy and said Right now, I had a question, but none of the monks can answer it. I would like you to answer for them, and give me a word that can change my life.

Obaku Master said: Mr. Prime Minister, please ask me your question.

the Prime Minister told him.

The master shouted loudly: Mr. Prime Minister!

The Prime Minister replied.

The master asked: Where are you?

The Prime Minister was awake, as if he had received a pearl from the knot in the hair of the Buddha Gautama.

He said My master is really a reverend monk.

Then he re-Obaku invited to open the temple.


Commentary Nishijima roshi

The question of the Premier "I can see the portrait, but where is the referenda monk?" separates the portrait of what it is - an abstract representation that portrays the physical body of the monk represented. The issue is the difference between the views idealistic and materialistic. In "response" to the question, the teacher reminds the Prime Minister in a loud voice. This is a fact of life, a real physique and brings attention to the second view, which is concrete.

At Prime Minister's reply, master Obaku asked him "Where are you?" , which focuses on the actual location, the real situation in which they are involved. This question opens the eyes of the Prime Minister to the reality of the situation as it actually exists in this very spot. The distinction between the portrait, or the idea, and what it represents has been transcended. There were not two things: the image of something and what was referring to this image, there was only one reality.

The Prime Minister had found the reverend monk. Would you say that this master was Obaku reverend monk? What the Prime Minister? Could we not also say that he was himself the reverend monk in our history? Maybe that Reverend monk had found his own true self?

And what about you in your lives? You have undoubtedly seen many pictures or supported many ideas about what should look like Reverend person. But will you find that person in real life, in your own life? This is the real task of a Buddhist.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Make Your Own Grecian 2000

The collection of koans master Dogen

EIGHT

Master Baso Do-itsu Kôzei in the district of Ko served jisha (Secretary to the Master Nangaku Ejo intimately and received the seal of the spirit of Gautama Buddha. He lived constantly in the temple sitting in Denpo zazen and was the most notable disciples of Master Nangaku. Baso latter knew that showed exceptional qualities in the study of Buddhism.

Master Nangaku sought out and asked Baso: But then, great monk, what is your for when you practice zazen?
Baso Do-itsu
replied I want to become a Buddha.

Nangaku Ejo picked up a piece of tile and began to polish it on a stone, facing the entrance to the hut Baso.
Baso Do-itsu
said Master, what are you doing?

Ejo Nangaku replied I polished this tile into a mirror.
Baso Do-itsu
said How do you make a mirror by polishing a tile?

Ejo Nangaku replied How do you think you become a Buddha in zazen?
Baso Do-itsu
said What would it do?

Ejo Nangaku replied When a man traveling by car if the car is not moving, what should he do? Hit the car or hit the ox pulls the?
Baso Do-itsu
not know what to say.

Nangaku Ejo taught more: Learn zazen is to learn that you are a Buddha in zazen. When you learn zazen is different from everyday behavior, such as sit or lie down. However, when you know you are a Buddha in zazen, the Buddha is beyond any fixed form.

Ejo Nangaku said In the Universe, do not choose good or evil at the moment. When you practice being Buddha in zazen, you inevitably get rid of the concept of Buddha. Focusing on a seat, it did not understand fully the principle of zazen.

On hearing this teaching of the master Baso felt as if he had drunk a sweet nectar.

Quote:
Commentary Nishijima roshi

are interpreted in general this koan in that it is not possible to become a Buddha just by practicing zazen. But Master Dogen's interpretation is quite different. This is the idea of becoming intentionally attack it. When a person is sitting in zazen, it is outset of a Buddha. She can not re-become a Buddha. Polishing is not making a mirror, it is just polishing action - the action of a Buddha.

What this means is that when a Buddha sits zazen? Sitting in zazen, we directly face the reality. We face our thoughts, emotions and discomfort (physical and mental). We also find that the reality is much more than thoughts or body.

This is hard to watch, especially for beginners. When seated, they usually feel is pain and boredom, which departs much of the idealized image they have of enlightenment or Buddhahood. However, the pain and boredom are their reality.

In our daily lives, we are making great efforts to escape this aspect of reality or to sweep under the carpet. In zazen, we confront it directly. One can not escape, he must live it and experience it. The reality is that pain and boredom, there are many other aspects of reality very different and even deeper. They are also facing their zazen, but they are facing as they naturally arise of themselves.

images that our intellect formed of the awakening will under no circumstances accelerate this process. The intellect itself is nothing but a thin surface layer on the surface of an ocean of the reality of the body / mind that is much deeper.

Master Baso then asked what to do and Master Nangaku uses the parable of the oxcart. If beef is restive, we can advance by beating him, but if the wheel of the car is stuck, we can beat the beef as you want, it will not move the car. We must be attentive to the reality of the situation and does not project our preconceptions above. The

ox represents the mind or mental factors. The chariot represents the body or material factors. The idealist thinks only spur beef. He ignores the chariot, until, perhaps, one day it lost a wheel and overturned in the mud.

The materialist thinks only tank. He may want to be pretty fast, or decorate it with gold and gems, leaving the beef to starve, so that his chariot could not move.

Zazen is the practice of body / mind, the whole being. The Buddhist tends to be both beef and char.

Master Nangaku goes on to explain the difference between zazen and daily behavior. It explains what it means to learn zazen is to say, we learn that a Buddha in zazen. It stresses the difference between regular zazen and behavior that are, for example sit and lie down. How is it different? In our everyday life, we are usually associated with thoughts. We struggle to see reality because of these thoughts. In zazen, we cut through clouds of thoughts that obscure the landscape.

other hand, zazen is also different from our usual state of relaxation, in that it maintains a certain tension and a certain physical attention mental. Master Nangaku wants to make this distinction between zazen and our lives every day because there was, and still there, Buddhists who contend that the conduct of our daily life is no different from zazen. And it is true that they are the same in that they both exist in reality itself, but in our daily life is much more difficult, and for most people, impossible to see clearly the reality.

In zazen, we sit in reality and in doing direct experience in a way that only happens very rarely in our lives every day. It is gradually changed by the experience. When we sit in zazen, we are Buddhas. A Buddha in zazen has no fixed form. He may be tall and blond, small and large, this may be an athlete, an old woman, a teenager. In addition, a Buddha in zazen has several states: peaceful, serene, distracted, bored, happy, etc..

There is no single statement that could point the finger and say, 'This is what you seek. When you have reached this state, you have attained Buddhahood. " Such ideas are only images in our brain. There is no closed form for a Buddha. Every person sitting in zazen has its own form. It thus we can say that Zazen is adorned with infinite forms of Buddha.

Nangaku Master Baso said then not prefer good or evil at the moment. In the instant flash of reality, either good or evil exist. There is neither Buddhas nor non-Buddhas. In actual practice zazen, you will not find any "Buddha" our concepts of Buddha have been left behind and we are free to sit in the reality itself. We are free to be Buddhas.

If we focus on the physical form of seating, for example by focusing on breathing or encouraging attention physical constant, we will not understand that zazen is to sit in the unity of body-and mind-state where it does not focus on the mental or physical.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Pet Duckbilled Platypus

The collection of koans master Dogen

September

Master Beiko City Keicho told a monk to go ask teacher Kyozan Ejaku: Can a man who lives in the moment requires the Awakening or not?

Master Kyozan Ejaku said It would be wrong to say there is no enlightenment, but I can not avoid falling into the dual consciousness.

Back to Beiko master, the monk reported that master Kyozan said.

Master Beiko vigorously upheld the words of master Kyozan.

Quote:
Commentary Nishijima Roshi

"Falling into dual consciousness" means entering the state in which our consciousness is divided. In this state, there is an "I" which looks at some koans called the "second person". This is the subject-object mode of being in the world, that is, by its very nature, part and it does not cover the whole of reality. When we act, our consciousness is unified and we cease to perceive the separation between subject and object.

Kyozan Master said that even if he does can deny that there is for him a state of arousal, it is equally true that he sometimes falls into a way of viewing the world divided. This is a very realistic and honest answer. The idealist view is that enlightenment is sudden and complete. Once we'd won the grand prize of spiritual enlightenment, spiritual we become supermen or gods, never troubled by the concerns of the pathetic existence. But Master Kyozan argues that even if sometimes we experience a state of arousal, it also happens that our consciousness is divided.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Small End Plate Osteophytes

The collection of koans master Dogen

SIX

One day a monk Roya asked master Joshu Ekaku District: It is said that the Universe is pure and shows its original form. How then is it possible for him to show mountains, rivers and earth?

Ekaku Roya said The entire Universe is pure and shows its original form. How then is it possible for him to show mountains, rivers and the earth!

Quote:
Commentary Nishijima Roshi:

Roya Master answers the question of the monk, repeating his question. But his rhetoric is repetition. He said in effect that it is not possible to express the universe mountains, rivers and the earth as it is pure and shows its original form. The mountains, rivers and land are concepts and ideas used to describe the ineffable reality of the universe. It is always pure and shows its original form.

On the other hand, we can also say that the original form and purity of the universe are nothing but mountains, rivers and land. The four philosophies can help us solve this koan.

In the first phase, we have a Buddhist idealistic assertion, that the Universe is pure and shows its original form.

The question of the monk is in the second phase. It can see the purity of the universe nor its original form. Everything he sees, what are the mountains, rivers and land. This is the materialistic point of view. The answer

master Roya is located in the third phase, which is a synthesis of two views earlier. The mountains, rivers and earth do not exist: these are just labels that attempt to describe what is, ultimately, beyond any description and who is the original form of the universe clean. This original form is not a vague idea or a mind floating somewhere in space. This is nothing other than reality itself. These are the mountains, rivers and land.

The fourth phase is the reality itself. It can be seen as pure and original form as the universe, or as mountains, rivers and earth, but ultimately it lies beyond any description of this kind. We must live it directly. And the practice can directly experience the reality called Zazen.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Baby Finger Prints Tattoos

Shinji Shobogenzo, collection of koans master Dogen

FIVE

A layman named it Ho-Jo asked District teacher Sekito: What kind of person is independent of all things and all phenomena?

Master Sekito covered his mouth with his hand.

To this the Lay realized the truth clearly and suddenly.

Another time, he asked the same question to Master Baso Do-itsu.

Ho was told: What kind of person is independent of all things and all phenomena?

Master Baso Do-itsu said I will answer you when you drank all the water in the river Seiko one gulp. The secular

realized the truth when they spoke.

Commentary Nishijima roshi

"A person independent of all things and all phenomena" means someone who reached the Buddhist truth. Ho asked the teacher to him describe the state of a person who has transcended the world of things and related phenomena. He had asked this question and was about to sit down to hear the response of the master.

Sekito Then he had placed his hand over her mouth. This represents a shift from idealistic sphere or mental issue in the tangible world with one hand and a real mouth. Ho had asked his question and suddenly found himself unable to speak, just as it was impossible for the master to say anything that could describe the state of arousal. The sudden change in the world of the intellect to the material world has to Ho we clearly see the two aspects of reality. He was able to discover the nature of a person who is independent of all things and all phenomena.

The second part of the koan is similar. Lay poses his question and the teacher returns it as an application just as impossible. This shows the nature of the first phase: it is easy to imagine swallowing river water Seiko in one gulp, but do it in reality is something else.

It is easy to create an image of a person awake or theorize complex or opinions, but actually live in reality, actually sit on his cushion and practice is an entirely different order.