Shifting Sensation Dissolves To Stillness

Nagasawa Rosetsu

SIITING IN ZA (at rest) or in the midst of the everyday, there is this enduring, shifting flow of thought, moments, weathers, mountains, continents, planets, moons, stars, galaxies, atoms, aging, breath, sounds, remembrances of phrases of sutras, scientific data, daydreams,

and in all of it , a cognitive understanding of a sense of nothing to which dust can reliantly

cling, and therefore nothing to which to attach to—all affirming Siddhartha’s disturbing, 

albeit comforting dictum that change is a constancy.

With realization, suddenly, there is stillness in all this change.

There is this direct experience of one thing in all of this shifting sensation.

With realization of just one thing, stillness emoting calmness, tranquility, serenity, eloquence, grace.

In Buddhist lore, in morning star, What does Siddhartha directly see that passes through the gate of shifting sensation?

Not buddhas, not oneness, not emptiness—all shifting things--

Something very direct, very intimate, very simple.

No Mind No Body No Buddha

Keep beginner’s mind.

PONDERING THIS MIND, what if the words were “How much does your mind

weight?”

Two ounces + 100 quadrillion tons = 0 might realize true nature.

What if the words are “You have no mind.”

What if the words are “You have no body.”

What if the words are “There is no Buddha.”

What if the words are “You have no mind, no body, and there is no Buddha.  Neither

mystic nor esoteric, but rather rational and practical, what does Siddhartha see?

Eternal Life

Lance Kinseth, The Speech Of The Flower, 48x60”

ABBOT ZENKEI SHIBAYAMA [1894-1974] whom I met in late 1960s writes,

Silently a flower blooms,


In silence it falls away;…


The glory of eternal life is fully shining here.

How can the quickly fading flower demonstrate eternal life?

Yet here now, at this moment, at this place,
    

The world of the flower, the whole of
    

the world is blooming.


This is the talk of the flower, the truth
    

 of the blossom;

Flower buds, blossoms, shrivels, and disappears—still, no birth and death, and flower not “there” and you “here.”


Zen Furniture

Lance Kinseth, detail from Self As Landscape II

WHEN YOU READ Zen literature or hear dharma speech, you presume that you are learning about Zen.  At some point you may begin to understand that rather than describe the essence of Zen, helpful Zen words tells you what the primary point of Zen is not about to try to extricate you from concepts to have a direct, personal experience of reality that is wordless.

The one who tastes knows

The one who explains lies.

Al-Rabia

As Zen practice becomes shared, the literature and discussion and activities become more about creating a house of Zen and stocking it with a particular Zen furniture: gods, hungry ghosts, nirvanas, rebirth, robes, cushions, altars, Buddha image, bells, scriptures, right procedures, vows, classes, gatherings, birth and death days—just like before Siddhartha, something to be overturned. 

There is neither house nor furniture.  This “No” is what Zen is trying to say.

Zen and its No are not answers—only a luminous gate where there had appeared to be a wall.

The landscape of Zen—houses of bodies and rivers and moon and stars and cities—is empty.  All these things, and yet there is no furniture anywhere.  There is no place in any of it for dust to alight. 

Wordless, every day and every night, Siddhartha raises a flower and Kasyapa smiles.

With nothing but “NO,” with nothing to which to cling, “who am I” falls into what?

Unhidden, suddenly, what very specifically is experienced in bodies and rivers and moon and stars and cities? 

Only One Koan Matters

"You"
     Ikkyu Sojun



The barriers of "you,"

"I,"

"This," “That,” “He,” “She,” “It,” “They,” “Those,"

“One,” “All”

Being Everything

HOW IS THIS possible?

Not “becoming” or “relating to…” everything in a sort of eco-holistic way (things in relationship):

In a gathering of sparrows, the fallen leaf, insects in backlight, soft wind, a drink of water,

What does Siddhartha see?

Not six realms, twelve influences, or three barriers or three treasures.

In China, buddha-dharma escaped the grasp of the tentacles of Hinduism and extracted the acultural essence/core,

Now, in Siddhartha’s same-old morning star, or right now in the fall of the sparrow down to the feeder, and in the impermanence of the changing colors of a fallen leaf, in the wind and water and temperature of that moment,

Right now, in this very moment, in some event be it minute or vast, what does Siddhartha-you, very, very specifically experience?

Neither Buddhas Nor Patriarchs

M. C. Escher

There are neither Buddhas not Patriarchs; Bodhidharma was only an old bearded barbarian.  Sakyamundi and Kasyapa, Manjusri and Samantabhadra, are only dungheap coolies….Nirvana and bodhi are dead stumps to tie your donkeys.  The twelve divisions of the sacred teachings are only lists of ghosts, sheets of paper fit only for wiping the pus from your boils.

            Hsuan-chien

What does Siddhartha see that makes this truth/dharma?

No buddhas, not even a Siddhartha; how can this be?

 What is Siddhartha’s true nature?

Sounding rash but kind, Hsuan-chien cuts off wrong turns.