Fugen's poke

Hi.
In zen you have expression's like Joshu's bowl and Huineng's flag.
Apparantly we now also have "Fugen's poke", which is what you get when you get on a forum with me...

Now, Don't expecting something out of me, as all you'll get is nothing...



Mtfbwy
Fugen

Bookreview: Jake fades

Hi.

Have you read ”tuesdays with morrie” by Mitch albom?
Then you’ll love this one.
It’s the sequel novel to that one.
Although written by another writer, it touches the topic started in Albom’s book, death, impermanence and the joy of life.
It all starts out with the standard relationships, father-son, teacher-student, life-death in a way you might not suspect. The teacher says to his student that he’ll leaving some of his teaching in the upcoming retreat to the reluctant student.
What then follows is an magical journey through the space and time.

This book opens a somewhat different look on zenpractice, commitment, relationships, and it shakes the foundation of some of the most fundamental concepts the “hamsterwheel-human of today” might have.
A book for everyone to read and ponder upon.

The author, David Guy, teaches at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He is the author of numerous books, including The Autobiography of My Body and The Red Thread of Passion. His book reviews appear regularly in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and other papers, and he is a contributing editor to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

Your own thinking

Hi.

On the importance of doing your own thinking Dogen says the following

“Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear and you will realize the unity of all things.”

- Inmo (it, that)

But who's thinking are you doing?

“When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves.”

-Genjo koan

Mtfbwy
Fugen

Moving, but always here...

Hi.

A couple of friends of mine have moved their videoblog to here.

But they're always here.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

Nanquan's sickle capping verse

Hi.

Due to a discussion with a great friend of mine, and his wanting to keep everything public, i am posting this here, for all to ponder.

Don't be deluded by the words
"the great way."
Realize that it is nothing other
than what you do from morning till night.

- dogen,the true dharma eye, case 154 "Nanquan's sickle"

If it is not other than what you do from morning till night, what is left?

Mtfbwy
Fugen

A motherly heart...

Hi.

So-called "motherly heart" is the spirit of fathers and mothers. ... Without regard for their own poverty or wealth, "parents" earnestly turn their thoughts toward raising their child. Without regard for whether they themselves are cold or hot, they shade the child or cover the child.

...

A "motherly heart” is a heart which maintains the Three Jewels as a parent cares for a child. A parent raises a child with deep love, regardless of povertyy or difficulties. Their hearts cannot be understood by another; only a parent can understand it. A parent protects their child from heat or cold before worrying about whether they themselves are hot or cold. This kind of care can only be understood by those who have given rise to it and realized only by those who practice it.

-Dogen, Tenzo kyokun


You are not a mother/father just by giving birth to a child, it goes deeper than that. It is not until you give yourself up in favour of the child that you become a mother/father.
When you think of your childs wellbeing before yours, when shading him in the sun, giving him your coat when cold, thats when you go from being parent to being a mother/father.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

Happy new moment!?

Hi.

Master Dogen wrote on Time (in Being-Time, Uji):

See each thing in this entire world as a moment of time.
Things do not hinder one another, just as moments do not hinder one another. …
Each moment is all being, is the entire world.
Reflect now whether any being or any world is left out of the present moment.

Master Dogen wished to convey that each moment of time and being is not anything apart from you. It is your existential time-and-being. So, he wrote in Uji:

Because real existence is only this exact moment, all moments of Being-Time are the whole of Time, and all existent things and all existent phenomena are moments of Time …
If Time does not take the form of leaving and coming, [a task done in the past] is the present as Being-Time.

If Time does take the form of leaving and coming, you yet have this present moment of Being-Time, which is just Being-Time itself.

So each moment is in itself the whole, but is it new?

Happy new moment?

Mtfbwy
Fugen