[ BANKEI ZEN Translations from the Record ofBankei by PETER HASKEL ]
Abide in the Buddha Mind
A monk asked: "My regular practice is to read the sutras and perform zazen. I feel these activities are meritorious and do them all the time. Should I now give them up as useless?" The Master replied: "Practicing zazen and reading the sutras is fine. Zazen is something that all monks who seek to draw the water of Shaka's stream must practice and not despise. Daruma's wall-gazing,24Tokusan's ridding himself of his sutras,25 Gutei's raising his finger,26 Rinzai's 'katsu!'27— even though these vary according to the different circumstances at the time and the particular manner of the teacher involved, they all just have to do with experiencing for yourself the One Unborn Buddha Mind. You don't mistake the sound of a gong for that of a drum, the sound of a crow for that of a sparrow, the sound of a sparrow for that of a crow—all the sounds you hear are individually recognized and distinguished without your missing a single one. It's the marvelously illuminating Buddha Mind that's listening, the Buddha Mind which is unborn. The words of Rinzai's Record28 and these things I'm telling you are exactly the same, there's no difference between them. From here, the only question is whether or not you have faith. Sermons • 85 If you can't abide in the Unborn Buddha Mind just as it is, and stir up different thoughts, regretting the past, worrying about the future, then, in just a day's time, without even knowing it, turning and transforming, you'll have changed the Buddha Mind for passing thoughts, and you'll never have a moment's peace!
"Now, you may be doing zazen and reading the sutras, but abide in the Buddha Mind that you have from your parents innately, just as it is, and realize the Unborn. If you practice zazen or read the sutras with some deliberate aim in mind, hoping to accumulate merit, or whatever, you'll only be changing the Buddha Mind for merit, or changing it for zazen and sutras! That's how it is, so all you've got to do is acknowledge with profound faith and realization that, without your producing a single thought or resorting to any cleverness or shrewdness, everything is individually recognized and distinguished of itself. And all because the marvelously illuminating Buddha Mind is unborn and smoothly manages each and every thing
Windrakes formula: What is our trouble? Where is it? Who is it? What does it taste like? Can you see it rise and fall? What of it? Trully! We bash our heads against ghost! Where is your suffering?
What did I gain? We know immediately high and low we just do not have faith! Faith is a loaded word so lets just call it getting out of the way, or finally coming out of hiding.
My thinking is never ok with anything and I have no expectation this will one day change. Something else is going on here.
I cast my flowers before an unknown god receiving prayers already sung
The hand that gives is the hand that takes away
As they are carting me out of the monistary
I see the Buddha smoking a cigarette in the receiving hall, worried his wife is cheating on him
I never could embrace this while living
so I hold my breath and try again
I vowed to live while here
The mistake I made was thinking I knew how to do that
Life carries on with or without my approval
It is a gift to be here
Submitted November 06, 2018 at 12:47PM by windDrakeHex https://ift.tt/2Qnf21Q
No comments:
Post a Comment