Water over stones

Now, in the unhindered and unobstructed dharma-opening of the dharma- realm there is no dharma, and yet no non-dharma; no opening, and yet no non-opening. Thus it is neither large nor small, neither in a hurry nor taking its time; neither moving nor still, neither one nor many. Since it is not large, it can become an atom, leaving nothing behind. Since it is not small, it can contain all of space with room left over. Unhurried, it can include all the kalpas in the three time periods; not taking its time, it can enter fully into an instant. Since it is neither moving nor still, samsāra is nirvāna and nirvāna is samsāra. Being neither one nor many, one dharma is all dharmas and all dharmas are one dharma.

-- Wonhyo, tr. Muller 

All this neither-nor stuff is all over Buddhism, and course it's all true, but only in the cumbersome sense of talking in the realm of talking. Dharma is in a place where what is not said takes up the whole universe, so we're probably best off just standing there stunned by the riffle of a bit of water over stones.

 

Drop that

 

Those interested in Zen tend to be hampered by the idea there is something esoteric to learn. But really all you need to know is that Zen is not "knowing about letting go" or "thinking about letting go" nor is it "feelings about letting go." (that last one is called religion)

It's just letting go.

Respect

 The reason for "fairness" is everything is equal. We insist on teaching this to children in kindergarten, but train them out of it in order to make them into "adults." Yet everything -- a cracked cup, an ocean shore, a nebula, a ruined feather -- is of equal value in the universe, that is to say, is part of the one thing. Our disaster was not to continue in fairness, and fairness is how one respects one's universe.

The practice of a true person

 

 

What gives me hope for the viability of Zen more than almost anything else is the extent, which is pretty wide, of appreciation for Tenzo Kyokun, Dogen's Instructions for the (Monastery) Cook.

Here is a passage to which I have returned multiple times:

When you take care of things, do not see with your common eyes, do not think with your common sentiments. Pick a single blade of grass and erect a sanctuary for the jewel king; enter a single atom and turn the great wheel of the teaching. So even when you are making a broth of coarse greens, do not arouse an attitude of distaste or dismissal. Even when you are making a high-quality cream soup, do not arouse an attitude of rapture or dancing for joy. If you already have no attachments, how could you have any disgust? Therefore, although you may encounter inferior ingredients, do not be at all negligent; although you may come across delicacies, be all the more diligent. Never alter your state of mind based on materials. People who change their mind according to ingredients, or adjust their speech to [the status of] whoever they are talking to, are not people of the Way. -- Dogen's Pure Standards for the Zen Community : A Translation of the Eihei Shingi ed./tr. Leighton and Okumura

When we make a judgment or show a preference, we impose a delusion on what's right in front of us, ignoring the co-dependent arising of all things. Buddhist ethics is training in thusness; that which is before us, rather than that which we wish is there or wish not there.

We can cover much, if not all, of the precepts by means of a single term: "honesty." Honest living simply precludes stealing, lying, misusing, murdering, willfully injuring, gossiping, disparaging, and disrespecting. Buddha spelled out these things because training in honesty is hard.

Dogen points out that the stakes are quite high. Though he continually refers to "just sitting" as the entire Buddhist project, he explicitly sets a high bar for the behavior that gives "just sitting" a chance to even happen: "People who... adjust their speech to whoever they are talking to, are not people of the Way."

We might try being honest to our vegetables and see if it doesn't feel a bit like training in "right doing." 😄 

As for the attitude while preparing food, the essential point is deeply to arouse genuine mind and respectful mind without making judgments about the ingredients' fineness or coarseness....  Although they create relationship to buddha, [donations that are] abundant but lacking [in heart] are not as good as those that are small but sincere. This is the practice of a [true] person.

Placement

In 2012, my dad said, "You put me wherever you put your momma!" We lost them both in that year; she was 84, he was 95.

The postal service misplaced my dad for a few days; we were rather frantic about it. Our postmistress handed him over with an apology in her one-room post office about five days after they'd mislaid him at the distribution center. It was a near thing.

I asked The Cowboy to help me pick the spot. We went on a long autumn day hike. 4/27