Zen Practice

[oldie]

Maku Mozo in English means, “Don’t be fooled”.

The First Zen Institute in New York City has this written over their zendo as do many other zen groups around the world.

It does not mean that you have to watch out for what others say or tell you or becoming a cynic, but has to do with resolving the essential matter of life and death. Not to be fooled by the ideas and thoughts of your mind, they are NOT who you are.

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To study the buddha way is to study the self.

To study the self is to forget the self.

To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind

as well as the body and minds of others drop away.

No trace of realization remains, and this no trace continues endlessly.

From the Shobogenzo of Dogen Zengi

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Chao-chou, (Joshu), was one of the greatest zen masters. He studied with Nan-Chuan, (Nansen) for 40 years until Nan-Chuan died. After that he traveled around China looking for zen teachers to help him deepen his wisdom for another 20 years. It was not until he was 80 that he settled down to teach, which he did for another 40 years. He died at the age of 120 years.

If you REALLY want to enter into the gateless gate, go away to Sesshin two or three times a year for twenty years or so. Practice with a teacher whose awakening was recognized by a true teacher.

This practice is not about acquiring a whole lot of knowledge about the subject. It is not about being able to give short, cool zen answers. But it is about intense personal reflection, and the wholly natural need to resolve the separation between self and other. My teacher of 20 years stressed that this practice is really very easy, just give up everything. That does not mean that you have to load all your possessions in a boat and sink them, but giving up all those ideas and opinions that color the true nature of reality. Isshu Muira Roshi said that, “You have to die on the cushion!” How many of you are willing to do that?

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There are a number of books that point us in the right direction, if you are interested . . .

“To Know Yourself”, by Albert Low. He is a dharma heir of Kapleau Roshi in the Harada/Yasutani line.

Any other book written by him is also recommended.

Any book by, Bill Porter, aka, Red Pine. Red Pine has written scholarly translations of the most important sutras in the buddhist canon. He is deeply awakened and a pleasure to read.

Three Pillars of Zen, by Phillip Kapleau, and other books by him.

Any book written by Robert Aitken.

[benos]

Any book by, Bill Porter, aka, Red Pine. Red Pine has written scholarly translations of the most important sutras in the buddhist canon. He is deeply awakened and a pleasure to read.

oldie,

Thank you for that nice post.

Red Pine's Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma is one of my all-time favorite books. And thanks to your reminder - I just ordered 4 books by Red Pine from alibris.com.

I searched for books by Red Pine some years ago. But maybe I only looked on amazon, because I didn't find any (and still don't). But alibris had quite a few.

be

[hanexp]

i hear zen is not what you think.

[benos]

i hear zen is not what you think.

What "hears" "thought"?

be

[hanexp]

i hear zen is not what you think.

What "hears" "thought"?

be

no thought

[Miranda]

why am I thinking about a falling tree?

I ask to understand the question.

one can not 'hear' a thought...

so you could have been asking

thinking a thought and hearing a sound are done by the same ability?

What they have in common is where my sense of me exists...

oooof

Zen always makes me wonder who is listening to when I talk to myself.

miranda

[AikiDale]

THWWWAAAACKKKK!!!!

[Miranda]

Once in my life I tried to understand Zen.

I won't even claim I got a a good look at it.

However, I did meet a man looking for a doorway....

I did try to find a path to understanding Zen.

I realized the path included a long hard look at who-ever I am.

My sense of humor kicked the last question out at me

during one of those introspections.

It is not a lack of respect for Zen.

It came out of a hard look at what I was doing.

I didn't laugh when I first had the thought. that came later.

miranda

[SiG Lady]

What Aikidale didn't say.

[photog]

Once in my life I tried to understand Zen.

I won't even claim I got a a good look at it.

However, I did meet a man looking for a doorway....

I did try to find a path to understanding Zen.

I realized the path included a long hard look at who-ever I am.

My sense of humor kicked the last question out at me

during one of those introspections.

It is not a lack of respect for Zen.

It came out of a hard look at what I was doing.

I didn't laugh when I first had the thought. that came later.

miranda

Budda laughed, too.

[DavidA]

why am I thinking about a falling tree?

I ask to understand the question.

one can not 'hear' a thought...

so you could have been asking

thinking a thought and hearing a sound are done by the same ability?

What they have in common is where my sense of me exists...

oooof

Zen always makes me wonder who is listening to when I talk to myself.

miranda

The following passages are from

"The Zen Teachings of Huang Po," ed John Blofeld.

If Huang Po's philosophy can be put into words

(which he repeatedly says it cannot)

it is that man must break through all of his false concepts based on

sense perception in order to see his true Self.

Though others may talk of the Way of the Bhuddas

as something to be reached by various pious practices and by sutra study,

you must have nothing to do with such ideas.

A perception, sudden as blinking, that subject and object are one,

will lead to a deeply mysterious wordless understanding;

and by this understanding will you awake to the truth of Zen.

Then how can it ever be a matter for discussion that the real Buddha

has no mouth and preaches no dharma, or that real hearing requires no ears,

for who could hear it?

Ah, it is a jewel beyond all price!

[Biloxi23]

When we're deluded,

there's a world to escape to.

When we're aware,

there's nothing to escape.

Bodhidharma

[benos]

When we're deluded,

there's a world to escape to.

When we're aware,

there's nothing to escape.

Bodhidharma

I'm a big fan of that one from Bodhidharma.

Here's a few more gems that went out to the Maku mozo! list...

If mind has something to value, it will surely have something to despise.

-Bodhidharma

If there are places that you understand, then your mind has something to be connected to.

-Bodhidharma

Realize that whatever mind discriminates is merely forms. If you awaken to the fact that mind from the outset has been void-quiescent and know that mind is not itself a form, then mind is unconnected. Forms are not forms. They are constructed in the manner of an illusion by your own mind. If you merely realize that they are not real, then you will attain liberation.

-Bodhidharma

What has been done - pass it by and do not regret it. Events that have not yet arrived - let them go and do not think about them. This is the person who is walking on the path.

-Bodhidharma

Whoever knows that nothing depends on anything has found the way.

-Bodhidharma

Question: If someone is determined to reach enlightenment, which is the most essential method he can practice?

Answer: The most essential method, which includes all other methods, is beholding the mind.

-Bodhidharma

Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible.

-Bodhidharma

[Biloxi23]

I like those too. Here are another couple of good ones:

If you use your mind to study reality, you won't understand with your mind or reality. If you study without using your mind, you'll understand both.

Bodhidharma

Everyting good and bad comes from your mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible.

Bodhidharma

Edited July 28, 2011 by Biloxi23

[benos]

Those are two of my all time favorites! (And not just from Bodhidharma, from any one.)