Wednesday, November 24, 2010

praise gets a pass, blame takes the blame

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In the course of wondering why, in Zen practice, praise and blame were equally pointed out as barriers and freight, still it seemed that blame came in for an extra dollop of effort and yet students did not seem shy about praising one thing or another ... I tried looking up what various teachers had to say.

In the course of that search, I did not find anything that seemed to respond to my question, but there were some nice other quotes:

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 enlightened by the ten thousand dharmas. To be enlightened by the ten thousand dharmas is to free one's body and mind and those of others. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.
 -- Dogen-zenji (1200-53)
 "No trace of enlightenment remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly" ... I thought that was very nice.

And then:

The Buddhas and all sentient beings are only one mind; there is nothing else. This mind, since beginningless past, has never been born, never perished; it is not green, not yellow; it has no shape or form. It is not subject to existence or non-existence, and is not to be considered new or old... This very substance is it; stir your thoughts and you miss it. It is like empty space; it has no bounds and cannot be measured. Just this one mind itself is Buddha. Buddha and sentient beings are no different; it's just that sentient beings grasp appearances- seeking outwardly, they become more and more lost. If you employ Buddha to seek Buddha, use mind to grasp mind, you may go on all your life until the end of time, but will never succeed. Don't you realize that if you cease thinking and forget thought, Buddha will spontaneously appear?
 -- Obaku [Huang-po Hsi-yun] (?-849)

 My mind dances like kids on a Florida beach during spring break to read such words. I am delighted. I feel the praise rising up unbidden ... sort of a wordless "yummy!"

This morning I am reduced to second-hand pablum, relying on others because I can find no point of interest in my own mind. I dislike using others to pull my cart. I dislike the inference that because you can quote, you therefore are. I dislike it in others and I dislike it in myself. I dislike it ...

And yet this morning, it is yummy.

PS: The quotes come from this site.
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1 comment:

  1. didn't bother to read all the rubbish u wrote today, but genkaku, just wanted to tell u that today, i found myself at this very moment that i have feelings for people again. erm, i not exactly right. maybe to put it more subtlely, i feel that if anything happened to u today, although i barely know u, i may cry.

    because i will be upset if anything happened to u.

    but if u had.. say.. found a really old stamp in your attic and want to tell somebody how excited you are, like as if it was yesteryear, i would really happy if i could share in ur joy.

    i can also use a tinge of embarrassment, like puppy love. or a playful makeout with a girlfriend who sees me as being silly.

    woo....

    _/|\_

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