[MD] dharma, the way, zazen, path, the morning fog, etc...

[Heather Perella]

Hello everybody,

     I have some quotes, comments, and life to talk
about... life... that beautiful life... yes, this is
one of those moments where everything just seems to
glow brightly, warmly, and full of the pain and
closeness to living that makes a hug not just be for
love, but a reach for the soothing comfort amidst the
suffering on an earth that will keep spinning day to
night, day to night, day to night....

     ( http://sped2work.tripod.com/dogen_pool.html )
'Dogen's Reflecting Pool' presented by the Wanderling:
 "Dogen teaches that ignoring the dual differences
leads to one-sided understanding based on the
attachment to a firm existence."

     'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind' from the talks of
Suzuki (who was of the Zen lineage of Dogen):  ""...to
know things as they are. If we know things as they
are, there is nothing to point at; there is no way to
grasp anything; there is no thing to grasp."

     Commentaries at times tend to take away something
from the speaker, because they could narrow the focus
upon particular words, parsing things out too much,
and leading the reader of the commentary upon a path
that goes nowhere when the intention is to help
connect the dots between this kind of teaching and
that kind of teaching to eventually relate them
together into another kind of teaching.  Yet, that
teaching is in one's experience and then we talk about
our experiences on this earth soon to find over 6
billion voices.

     Again Suzuki:  "Zazen paractice is the practice
which includes the various activities of life... We
should forget all about some particular teaching; we
should not ask which is good or bad.  There should not
be any particular teaching.  Teaching is in each
moment, in every existence.  That is the true
teaching."

      What have all the people experienced throughout
time on this earth?  What have we done?  What models
of living have come and gone?  When I look at a turkey
I may dance as the turkey with full feathered stride,
when I am sitting quietly I may not hear myself as I
do not hear a maple tree talking, yet, who is like who
and who is not like who, are we not all born here?  Do
we not all die here?  "... in every existence.  That
is the true teaching."  

     Again the Wanderling:  "This awakening to the
perpetuation of suffering liberates one from fighting
against human reality and, through the recognition of
distinctions, one understands the ultimate."

     To ignore happiness and to ignore suffering is to
ignore human reality and how are we to realize
anything - as a human being would.  Is it just peace,
is it just war, is it not live or is it live?  What is
this being that experiences happiness and suffering? 
How can we experience such polarizing experiences? 
How are we not torn from the seams of reality by what
may seem to be such opposite, maybe even conflictive,
opposing experiences?  By what a bird may point to and
say that creature over there walking with two legs. 
That is how these experiences are experienced.  Are we
alone in such an experience, seemingly holding
together a reality that could possibly tear us apart
into two halves over and over again into tiny little
pieces that split over and over again?  Meanwhile as I
have put this into this question and that question so
on and so forth...

          the morning sun is dissipating the morning
fog
             as the earth is wet in the morning dew
          the morning birds are streaming the morning
sky
             as the air is warmed in the morning gone
          the stars have left us and so are the songs
             as the day goes on to where the moon is
again.

   
     ( http://www.alaska.net/~zen/lecture.html ) a
commentary by Shohaku Okumura on Dogen's 'Genjo-koan'
the first chapter in a collection of his teachings
called Shobogenzo:  "That is, we are the intersection
of equality (universality, unity, oneness of all
beings) and inequality (difference, uniqueness,
particularity, individuality). Emptiness includes both
unity and difference... 'Ko' and 'an' are in
opposition within this dynamic. 'Ko' is to be public,
we should think of all people as equal, and 'an'
means, as a private person each person has a different
and unique personality and each person takes care of
different things."

     Here we notice something seemingly in opposition
('ko' and 'an') placed together known as 'koan'.    

     Again Okumura:  "I often use the example of a
hand: this is one hand and each hand has five fingers.
When we think this is a collection of five fingers
each finger is independent and has a different shape
and function. The thumb has its own shape and
function. A little finger has its own shape and its
own function. We cannot exchange. Each finger has its
own unique way of being. And yet, as one hand, all
five fingers function together and there's no
separation. This is really "one" hand. We can see this
as only one hand and also as a collection of five
fingers. Not only a hand but each one of us is the
same. We have both sides of universality and
individuality.  And these are not two separate
aspects. Each side is absolute. One hand is 100% five
fingers. When we call this one hand, there are no five
fingers. And when we call this five fingers, one hand
is hidden...  Everything is different and independent
on the one side, and everything is equal and
interconnected on the other side. To see one reality
from those two sides is the basic view..."

     Let me try something here as follows:

     Okumura with injections of Pirsig's philosophy: 
"As a form (static quality), everything (quality) is
different. Everything (quality) has different form
(static patterns) and yet those forms (static
patterns) are empty (dynamic quality); empty (dynamic
quality) means no discrimination and separation. And
yet this emptiness (dynamic quality) is form (static
quality). We see (value) one reality (quality) as an
intersection or merging of equality and uniqueness
(thus, both together is quality)... In the case of
Dogen (Pirsig), however, to see one reality from two
sides is not enough. We should express both sides in
one action."

     Well?

     Again Okumura:  "How can we actualize both sides
within one action? That is the really basic point of
our lives. Not only for human beings but particularly
for human beings, because we think we are independent
beings. Particularly in modern society we put emphasis
on independence and individuality. However, when we
only think of ourselves as independent persons without
considering others, we cannot live together with
others.
     For example in traditional Japanese society,
family or communities, as well as schools or
companies, are more important than the individual
persons. Countries are more important than the people.
I think that is one extreme. That is called wholism. I
think that it is really unhealthy. But if we only see
our independence, and think "I can do whatever I want
to do," we become really isolated and egoistic. These
two are sicknesses caused by a misguided view of
reality... We need to avoid either extreme and
practice the reality as a middle way. We have to
create our own way because there's no certain fixed
middle way."

     Many times I have read on the MOQ.org discussions
that Pirsig left a lot for us to realize and he didn't
define much of what he wrote about or discussed,
thereby, some may and have expressed that his
philosophy is unfinished.  I would say they are
correct, because Pirsig cannot complete a philosophy
of life.  I think he understood that.  There are over
6 billion people in the world now - right?  Quality is
left undefined due to the experience of life itself
having no complete finished day or night.  Life
changes and is still here having no change in what it
is.  This is what is meant by asking a great blue
heron (a bird) what life is about and by the value of
its' experience some of what it may say is life IS
fishing and flying.  Ask a beaver what life is and
some of what it may say life IS the pond must become
deeper, and the dam work IS to be done, etc...  Ask a
tree what life is and it may say life IS leaves
falling, sun shining, cloudy winter days and thus it
IS the slowing down of sap.  Ask a human being what
life is and a human may say life IS quality IS this
undefined and IS that defined, we may not ignore all
of the creatures say life IS and think life must then
be only what we say it IS.  We then begin to think
life IS something more than all of what we think it IS
and therefore include life as being also what IS the
earth and sky, and then we die... what might we say
life IS then?  Meanwhile as I have, again, only put
this into question and that question so on and so
forth...

          the morning sun is dissipating the morning
fog
             as the earth is wet in the morning dew
          the morning birds are streaming the morning
sky
             as the air is warmed in the morning gone
          the stars have left us and so are the songs
             as the day goes on to where the moon is
again.


Thanks,
SA     
     



     

     

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