Just this. Just that.
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Zazen is a metaphor for living directly. Here it is: life. Do you see it? Do you smell it? For you hear, taste, think it? Who or what is this "you" of which I speak? Who am "I"? Especially, who am I in relation to you?
And all of these questions are directed at discover the truth of the thing before the thing is named. The name and the thing are not the same.
So, how does one live in this way? In the way of Zazen?
Master Dogen says that we should think the thought of not thinking.
Hmmm. Whatever does this mean?
When we are thinking we string one thought together with another, as though we were making strings of popcorn. Dogen would simply say, don't string the popcorn! Here's your kernel: Smell it, taste it, chew it, listen to it, know it, then swallow it.
The same is true in other areas of our lives. As we talk to one another, we talk to one another, then we don't. We make no more of it than the thing itself. We should let it settle there and not carry it with us, just as we do not carry a zafu on our backs, but leave in the meditation hall when we leave.
Its true, I think, that we moderns believe we 'think' entirely too much, but we rarely think at all. What we do is we stew in a thought or feeling that is stuck in our mind the same as a string of music can be stuck in our ear. This is not "thinking". This is ruminating.
Thinking is far different and is a function of our mind. It is one of the "aggregates" that together with the other four define us as human beings. When we think, we should actually think. Just as when we taste, we should actually taste. Tasting while thinking while watching TV is a recipe for mud.
So, live Zazen. Upright. With complete attention and no lingering here and there. No mixing of this and that. Just this. Just that. Live as the buddha you are.
Be well.
Daiho-sensei
Good Morning Everyone,
Zazen is a metaphor for living directly. Here it is: life. Do you see it? Do you smell it? For you hear, taste, think it? Who or what is this "you" of which I speak? Who am "I"? Especially, who am I in relation to you?
And all of these questions are directed at discover the truth of the thing before the thing is named. The name and the thing are not the same.
So, how does one live in this way? In the way of Zazen?
Master Dogen says that we should think the thought of not thinking.
Hmmm. Whatever does this mean?
When we are thinking we string one thought together with another, as though we were making strings of popcorn. Dogen would simply say, don't string the popcorn! Here's your kernel: Smell it, taste it, chew it, listen to it, know it, then swallow it.
The same is true in other areas of our lives. As we talk to one another, we talk to one another, then we don't. We make no more of it than the thing itself. We should let it settle there and not carry it with us, just as we do not carry a zafu on our backs, but leave in the meditation hall when we leave.
Its true, I think, that we moderns believe we 'think' entirely too much, but we rarely think at all. What we do is we stew in a thought or feeling that is stuck in our mind the same as a string of music can be stuck in our ear. This is not "thinking". This is ruminating.
Thinking is far different and is a function of our mind. It is one of the "aggregates" that together with the other four define us as human beings. When we think, we should actually think. Just as when we taste, we should actually taste. Tasting while thinking while watching TV is a recipe for mud.
So, live Zazen. Upright. With complete attention and no lingering here and there. No mixing of this and that. Just this. Just that. Live as the buddha you are.
Be well.
Daiho-sensei