Category Archives: Teachings

Nothing to Seek

July 22, 2013 Mugo 6 Comments

From the Eihei Koroku – Dogen’s Extensive Record. Another gem from this huge tome.

Zazen within Desire and Stumbling
I can remember, Dharma Teacher Dayi of the Tang dynasty asking Master Ehu, “There is no dhyana in the realm of desire, how can we cultivate the samadhi of dhyana?”
Ehu said, “You only know that there is no dhyana in the realm of desire. You do not yet know that there is no desire in the realm of dhyana.”
Dayi had no response.

and that, you might think, was the end of that but no…
After a pause Dogen said:

Within seven tumbles and eight falls we still take up and use [meditation]. Both “no desire” and “no dhyana” are not true. In steadfast immovable effort there is nothing to seek. How can this be equated with the three realms [of desire, form, and the formless]?

We are constantly being pointed to ‘going on beyond’. No resting place and no ‘stumbling’ place it would seem.

Teachings

Worry and Anxiety?

July 16, 2013 Mugo Leave a comment

Who doesn’t? Who hasn’t at some time worried and been anxious? There is usually a ‘story’ isn’t there, one that can be returned to and ‘seen’. Somebody said to me the other day that one way of thinking about or viewing the difficulties of worry and anxiety is to see them as a negative use of our powers of Visulization! This is not to suggest one then replaces the negative with the positive more to say that what we return to tends to be what we return to, over and over and over again. Pictures are compelling. Returning to just sitting, allowing thoughts to arise and pass without judging them, or oneself for having them, is worth a go. Regularly.

Simply sitting and opening oneself to oneself, which doesn’t look like much, does weaken habits. That happens without needing to consciously unravel the tangles of our minds. As one of our scriptures states The obstacles dissolve….

Out and About, Teachings, Transmission Lineage

Living Buddha Life – No Beginning, No End

July 14, 2013 Mugo Leave a comment

'Passage' Eden Benchmarks, Stenkrith Park, Kirkby Stephen. Crumbling. — ‘Passage’ Eden Benchmarks, Stenkrith Park, Kirkby Stephen. Crumbling.

It’s a long time since I made myself a new day robe. Years possibly. Time passes and one doesn’t necessarily see the frayed cuffs and faded fabric. Imperceptibly, day by day material things age. A rip does get ones attention signally something needs to be done however for the most part the everyday wear and tear goes unnoticed. If the garment does the job that’s good enough and with a weekly wash appropriate smartness is maintained.

Yesterday was almost entirely devoted to making myself a new robe. That involves measuring the old one and then cutting out new fabric ready for sewing. So I’ve been taking a closer look from the outside at what I’ve been wearing every day. The fabric is not at its best, several seams need a few mending stitches and the sleeve cuffs are worn through and overdue for repair. I’ll be giving it some TLC after the new one is finished and then it will become my second best.

And I love that robe! Anything used, worn and handled daily builds a loyalty and a caring and a cherishing which forges a bond. One could say this is just attachment and in part that is true. Recognizing this dynamic between oneself and items of personal use though doesn’t mean the next step is to get rid of, or lower ones regard and gratitude. Not at all. In fact items of personal use that once belonged to revered masters and teachers are highly valued as an object of remembrance. I’ve several things which my late teacher used. In fact I have a brown small kesa made out of fabric from one of her day robes!

What’s stuck in my mind is a conversation from yesterday. I’d been chatting generally to an acquaintance and mentioned what I’d been doing all morning. Oh, are you going to put in part of the old robe? she asked. Why would I do that? I replied. For continuity, was her response.

Now pondering on this business of continuity generally I’m left thinking the marks we make in the world, which gradually crumble and eventually decay, are the visible marks of the life of the Buddha having been lived. I love my old robe because it has given me shelter to live this life, which has no beginning and no end!

The day in and day out living the life the Buddha taught is that which lives on. Unbroken continuity?

Teachings

Green Leaves Turn Red

July 10, 2013 Mugo 4 Comments

Days of heat have left my brain numb. Coming to write here, thinking about writing here, has been like contemplating climbing a long and steep hillside. My mental feet not able to take many steps before having to sit down. At last this evening I pick up THE BOOK*, it is still rather heavy however this catches my attention:

You should know that becoming a buddha is not something new or ancient. How could practice-realization (training and enlightenment) be within any boundary? Do not say that from the beginning not a single thing exists. The causes are complete and the results are fulfilled through time. Great assembly, please tell me, why is it like this?
After a pause Dogen said: Opening flowers will unfailingly bear the genuine fruit; green leaves meeting autumn immediately turn red.

Let us endevour to be that opening flower and aspire to be the responding leaf.

*The Eihei Koroku – Zen Master Dogen.

Daily Life, Teachings

Spiritual Fire

July 4, 2013 Mugo 2 Comments

Yesterday I was talking to a monk who I’d trained with as a novice at Shasta Abbey in the early 1980’s. We remembered the intensity of those days, the intensity of the everyday life training. You could say there was a spiritual fire lit under us which was fanned constantly by our engagement with what was before us. That’s hard to explain and easy to misunderstand as some kind of striving, although there was probably some of that too.

Years ago I advised somebody to Train as if his hair were on fire! Not that I remember the event, it’s just I have been reminded of having said that relatively recently. Is there ever a time when the fire goes out? Or more correctly the intensity wanes? I’d say yes and no! That is to say the conscious awareness of spiritual fire/practicing intensely comes and goes and sometimes one has to, with all urgency, fan the flames. As a senior monk there is nobody other than oneself to pick up the fan and that’s the same for everybody actually, at any time. However long one has been meditating and however enlightened. One could say that the right use of the will is the koan (problem) of daily living?

Anyway, now returning to Dogen Extensive Record (Eihei Koroku) translated by Taigen Dan Leighton & Shohaku Okumura. Just looking at the closed book on my desk causes some anxiety to arises! Even after years and years translating Dogen Shohaku Okumura confesses he doesn’t understand Dogen at all! This gives me some hope. This morning the book opened to Dharma Hall Discourse #60, page 117, This Genjokoan. Rev. Jiyu-Kennet translates the word Genjo-koan as The Problem of Everyday Life.

In just about every discourse Zen Master Dogen is encouraging the listener, and now the reader, to keep up with practice. Not to drift through ones day, not to merely get by pleasing oneself and falling asleep to ones purpose. To be where one is and not to be where one is not. In this discourse Dogen says:

It is just our present rolling up the curtain and letting down the curtain [at the entrance to the meditation hall], and getting up and getting down from the sitting platform.

I remember everything about that curtain. The sound of it coming down at the end of the day, the feel of the fabric while rolling it up. The importance of getting the line of the rolled up curtain straight and not left at a rakish angle. The discolouration of the fabric where hands had repeatedly grasped it. This is not an expression of sentimentality. More that no time has passed. Early in the talk Dogen says:

What is this genjokoan? It is just all buddhas in the ten directions and all ancestors, ancient and present, and it is fully manifesting right now. Do you all see it?

At the end of the discourse he says:

Today this mountain monk [Dogen], for the sake of all of you expounds this again and repeatedly.
Then Dogen pounded the floor with his staff and immediately got down from his seat.

Well that says it!

Jade Mountains Buddha Hall