Amida's name, Your breath
Jizo, on a grave of An Yo Ji.I laugh and cry a lot with all Buddhas and forms.
Flowers in space.
My bowl is getting more and more broken.
Nothing to mend and it's perfect just the way it is.
Nothing to mend and it's perfect just the way it is.
Wishing to allow the upward direction,
Pure land is the pavement on which I walk,
Amida's name my breath as it is.
Wearing the robe, being kicked out,
Wearing the robe, being kicked out,
I belong.
posted by Taigu at 4:31 AM
2 Comments:
"Wishing to allow the upward direction" is a way of sitting in the full lotus posture with the mind. It is a way that has to do with thinking, with volition, and that opposes habitual doing.
Belonging to a totally different dimension is sitting in the full lotus posture with the body. It has to do with feeling, with doing something -- with crossing the legs and sitting upright.
These two approaches both belong to the area of remembering ourself. They are relatively low. But even though they are relatively low, Master Dogen exhorted us to practice and experience them both.
On a totally different dimension altogether from these two lowly approaches there is the dimension of forgetting myself. So Master Dogen exhorted us further to sit in the full lotus posture dropping off body and mind.
Hi Pierre. I am back in England. Back on broadband. Back from my 20 days in France - from 20 days spent, for the most part, remembering myself. Except in odd moments -- maybe like the moment when you realized that the buddha who uncaringly dropped his thousand-yen note into your bowl was simply expressing reverence for the 9-striped kesa.
Having been blessed with even just one of these moments, how can we resist opening our big blabbermouths and spoiling everything, in our vain attempts to share our experience with others through words?
I came back from France thinking that really I have only one mission to accomplish, to clarify, as best I can, in deed and word, what I believe to be the essence of Master Dogen's Shobogenzo:
Sit in lotus with the body.
Sit in lotus with the mind.
Sit in lotus dropping off body and mind.
Thank you, Mike.
Yes. I can't resist opening my mouth and spoiling the beautiful things I recieve.
And I won't blame myself for it.
My dimension is low, my bowl is broken. Even somebody like you cannot understand. Nobody can put himself in somebody else's shoes.
When we both sit, it's very quiet.
When it comes to talking, we both make an awful racket.
Your observations are always tainted with antipathy. You cannot help arguing. You want to pick up a fight. You never left the pub.
My observations are always on the romantic, passionate side. Too sweet, honey-like. Sticky sometimes. I never left my mother's arms.
Very different guys.
I must say, I am tired sometimes of our blablabla.
And I am happy to sit with you.
Enjoy England, birds, garden, kids.
Love
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