More Mud, More Buddha

Well, we sure can make a mess of things, eh?

One more point on the Genpo situation and then this old blog is moving on to the issue of submission to a teacher and beyond.

There’s a letter coming out from a bunch of respectable teachers that I decided not to sign for a number of reasons. Obviously, I’m not respectable.

But also I would keep it simple. Imho, organizations affiliated with Genpo should cut him loose. He oughta step back from all teaching indefinitely. Beyond that, I don’t know.

So here’s a little Dogen for ya. Keeps coming to mind these past few days. It’s from Dogen’s Extensive Record #140 and … you’ll have to read it through for the muddy part. I’ve tweeked it a bit (forgive me Shohaku and Taigen):

Dogen said: I remember, a monk asked Zhaozhou, “Before there was this world, already there was this nature. When this world is destroyed, this nature will not be destroyed. What is this indestructible nature?”

Zhaozhou said, “The four great elements and five skandhas.”

The monk said, “These still can be destroyed. What is this indestructible nature?”

Zhaozhou said, “The four great elements and five skandhas.”

Dogen said: Although Zhaozhou said it like this, Dogen has a further saying about this. When the water is deep, the boat rides high. When there’s a lot of mud, the buddha is big.