StrangeMed

“Mendicants, I will teach you about nine things rooted in craving. And what are the nine things rooted in craving? Craving is a cause of seeking. Seeking is a cause of gaining material possessions. Gaining material possessions is a cause of assessing. Assessing is a cause of desire and lust. Desire and lust is a cause of attachment. Attachment is a cause of ownership. Ownership is a cause of stinginess. Stinginess is a cause of safeguarding. Owing to safeguarding, many bad, unskillful things come to be: taking up the rod and the sword, quarrels, arguments, and fights, accusations, divisive speech, and lies. These are the nine things rooted in craving.”

Once, a certain nun asked,

“Even lay women practice and study the buddha-dharma. As for nuns, even though we have some faults, I feel there is no reason to say that we go against the buddha-dharma. What do you think?”

Dōgen admonished,

“That is not a correct view. Lay women might attain the Way as a result of practicing the buddha-dharma as they are. However, no monk or nun’ attains it unless he or she has the mind of one who has left home. This is not because the buddha-dharma discriminates between one person and another, but rather because the person doesn’t enter the dharma. There must be a difference in the attitude of lay people and those who have left home. A layman who has the mind of a monk or nun who has left home will be released from samsara. A monk or a nun who has the mind of a lay person has double faults. Their attitudes should be quite different. It is not that it is difficult to do, but to do it completely is difficult. The practice of being released from samsara and attaining the Way seems to be sought by everyone, but those who accomplish it are few. Life-and-death is the Great Matter; impermanence is swift?. Do not let your mind slacken. If you abandon the world, you should abandon it completely. I don’t think that the names provisionally used to distinguish monks and nuns from lay people are at all important.”

“The Buddha’s statement, “If you wish to grasp the meaning of ‘Buddha Nature,’” was His way of saying, “If you want to know the meaning of ‘Buddha Nature’ here and now.” His statement, “Just look at the conditions associated with the moment,” was His way of saying, “Just discern what the conditions at this moment are.” You need to realize that His saying “If you wish to know Buddha Nature” is synonymous with the conditions at the moment. And as to His saying “When the right moment arrives,” the moment has already arrived, so where is there room for doubt? Even if we should have doubts about whether it is the right moment, this is still Buddha Nature coming forth in us. You need to realize that the phrase “when the right moment arrives” means that we should not idle away any moment within a day. His saying “when it arrives” is as if He had said, “It has already come.” When we get all involved with ‘when the time comes’, Buddha Nature does not come before us. Hence, since the time has already come, this is “Buddha Nature manifesting before our very eyes.” In other words, the truth of It is self-evident. In sum, there has not yet been a time when the right moment has not come, nor is there a Buddha Nature which is not Buddha Nature manifesting before our very eyes right now.”

“Mendicants, the dawn is the forerunner and precursor of the sunrise. In the same way right view is the forerunner and precursor of skillful qualities. Right view gives rise to right thought. Right thought gives rise to right speech. Right speech gives rise to right action. Right action gives rise to right livelihood. Right livelihood gives rise to right effort. Right effort gives rise to right mindfulness. Right mindfulness gives rise to right immersion. Right immersion gives rise to right knowledge. Right knowledge gives rise to right freedom.”

“Where do quarrels and disputes come from? And lamentation and sorrow, and stinginess? What of conceit and arrogance, and slander too— tell me please, where do they come from?”

“Quarrels and disputes come from what we hold dear, as do lamentation and sorrow, stinginess, conceit and arrogance. Quarrels and disputes are linked to stinginess, and when disputes have arisen there is slander.”

“So where do things held dear in the world spring from? And the lusts that are loose in the world? Where spring the hopes and aims a man has for the next life?”

“What we hold dear in the world spring from desire, as do the lusts that are loose in the world. From there spring the hopes and aims a man has for the next life.”

“So where does desire in the world spring from? And judgments, too, where do they come from? And anger, lies, and doubt, and other things spoken of by the Ascetic?”

“What they call pleasure and pain in the world— based on that, desire comes about. Seeing the appearance and disappearance of forms, a person forms judgments in the world.

Anger, lies, and doubt— these things are, too, when that pair is present. One who has doubts should train in the path of knowledge; it is from knowledge that the Ascetic speaks of these things.”

“Where do pleasure and pain spring from? When what is absent do these things not occur? And also, on the topic of appearance and disappearance— tell me where they spring from.”

“Pleasure and pain spring from contact; when contact is absent they do not occur. And on the topic of appearance and disappearance— I tell you they spring from there.”

“So where does contact in the world spring from? And possessions, too, where do they come from? When what is absent is there no possessiveness? When what disappears do contacts not strike?”

“Name and form cause contact; possessions spring from wishing; when wishing is absent there is no possessiveness; when form disappears, contacts don’t strike.”

“Form disappears for one proceeding how? And how do happiness and suffering disappear? Tell me how they disappear; I think we ought to know these things.”

“Without normal perception or distorted perception; not lacking perception, nor perceiving what has disappeared. Form disappears for one proceeding thus; for concepts of identity due to proliferation spring from perception.”

“Whatever I asked you have explained to me. I ask you once more, please tell me this: Do some astute folk here say that this is the highest extent of purification of the spirit? Or do they say it is something else?”

“Some astute folk do say that this is the highest extent of purification of the spirit. But some of them, claiming to be experts, speak of a time when nothing remains.

Knowing that these states are dependent, and knowing what they depend on, the inquiring sage, having understood, is freed, and enters no dispute. The wise do not proceed to life after life.”

来時は空手、去時は赤脚。一去一来、単重交折

Raiji wa karate kyoji wa sekkyaku ikkyoichirai tanjuu sekkou

I came into this world empty-handed, and I leave it barefoot. My arrival, my departure: simple events that have become intertwined.

If there were a cause, nirvana would be conditional and impermanent. This means that no amount of effort can produce nirvana, because it does not arise from causes.

If you are practicing with the idea that your effort will engender nirvana, notice that you are still treating it as a special goal to be achieved. In doing so, you are actually reinforcing the grasping that is the defining characteristic of samsara.

Haemin Sunim, Seon monk

Before we can taste the fruits of practice there must be a flowering, and before that the sowing and cultivation of seeds. This sustained care is driven by a mind intent on uncovering bodhi-mind, or bodhicitta. The germination of the bodhi-mind comes from an insight into the seed of buddhahood which is already present in our own nature. The intent to grow a bodhimind is the care with which we nourish this seed first into bloom and then into fruit....

...Many practitioners, particularly those who have been reading too many books, think only about getting enlightened. They may give little consideration to the problem of uprooting the weeds of vexation or helping other sentient beings, even small animals, in distress. Such a practitioner is hoping for the fruits without being willing to make an effort. Such a limited approach cannot fulfil the causes and conditions essential to realisation. Such a practitioner is merely dreaming. Enlightenment happens in its own time on the basis of right causes and conditions. It is not something to be anxious about.

“In that case, Bāhiya, you should train like this: ‘In the seen will be merely the seen; in the heard will be merely the heard; in the thought will be merely the thought; in the known will be merely the known.’ That’s how you should train. When you have trained in this way, you won’t be ‘by that’. When you’re not ‘by that’, you won’t be ‘in that’. When you’re not ‘in that’, you won’t be in this world or the world beyond or between the two. Just this is the end of suffering.”

“There is an extremely easy way to become Buddha. Refraining from all evil, not clinging to birth and death, working in deep compassion for all sentient beings, respecting those over you and having pity for those below you, without any detesting or desiring, worrying or lamentation—this is what is called Buddha. Do not search beyond it. “

“We may believe them to be the most important elements of this life, but in reality we are all just a tiny part of the universe. Each of us is a combination of causes and conditions, a product of the evolution of life and the earth. I, for example, am made up of things that are not 'me'. The food I eat, the air I breathe and the water I drink are not 'me', yet I cannot live without all these things. In fact, all the things that keep us alive, and even life itself, are gifts we receive from the universe. If we reflect on human life, it is easy to realise that even the basic elements of our existence are given to us. For example, at birth, human beings are not at all self-sufficient, and in order to survive, children must be cared for over a long period of time. Before the age of one, infants cannot even stand up and are totally helpless, and later, children, unable to earn a living, must be fed and cared for at least until adolescence. To become truly independent members of society, human beings must study for perhaps twenty years or more. Until we are able to think for ourselves, we are essentially supported and cared for by society. Even language, the essential tool of thought, is a gift from society, and the education that society gives us teaches us to think and behave well. Since I was born and raised in Japan, I think in Japanese and act mostly in accordance with Japanese values. The Japanese language and value system derive from the culture created by all the people who have lived in Japan throughout history, so my way of speaking, thinking, and behaving is the result of all their lives. Each of us is connected to all beings past, present and future in the entire universe. This is not some mysterious truth that can only be understood through special spiritual insight, trance or some other extraordinary mental state. It is a very simple, obvious reality that we can understand rationally, yet we lose sight of it because we cling to words and concepts, separating ourselves from it with discriminating thoughts.”