{"id":155,"date":"2010-06-16T10:08:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T10:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2010\/06\/invitation-to-the-blues\/"},"modified":"2010-06-16T10:08:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T10:08:00","slug":"invitation-to-the-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2010\/06\/invitation-to-the-blues.html","title":{"rendered":"Invitation to the Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p><p><\/p>\n<div style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">Above you\u2019ll find Tom Waits from 1977. No accounting for taste, as they say, but I love it.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\"><br><\/span><\/div>\n<div style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">Below you\u2019ll find a piece of my writing practice that doesn\u2019t seem to fit well with the manuscript I\u2019m working on \u2013 I\u2019ve wiggled this way and that. Some of these passages will be familiar to the regular reader. I often first explore a line of inquiry here and then cut\/paste\/edit into the manuscript. This is a self admonition. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\"><i>She said \u201cHow you gonna like \u2019em, over medium or scrambled?\u201d <\/i><i>You say \u201cAnyway\u2019s the only way,\u201d be careful not to gamble <\/i><i>On a guy with a suitcase and a ticket getting out of here <\/i><i>It\u2019s a tired bus station and an old pair of shoes<\/i><br><i>This ain\u2019t nothing but an invitation to the blues<\/i><\/span> <\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif;text-align: center'><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">Why is Zen practice an any-way\u2019s-the-only-way invitation to the blues? <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">Because when we truly seek for the truth of this one great life, replete with a guy (or woman), a suitcase, a ticket, a tired bus station, and an old pair of shoes, we first see how far we are from it. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">And when we receive the alienation and tragedy of our life and impending death as the truth itself, we are ready to begin again. Or in Dogen\u2019s words:<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\"><i>When a person first <u>seeks<\/u> after the <a href='https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/library\/buddhism' target='_blank'>dharma<\/a>, the person becomes far from the boundary of the dharma. When the dharma is correctly transmitted to the self, the person is immediately the original person.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">\u201cSeeking?\u201d you might ask. Isn\u2019t Zen about no-gaining idea and not seeking? Everybody\u2019s looking for something. After all, seeking for nothing is also seeking for something. Turning toward and turning away both wrong but if we don\u2019t exhaust them, we won\u2019t have the chance to discover the middle way ourselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">Above we have old man Dogen straightforwardly recognizing seeking and the estrangement that comes from it. If you\u2019ve got to seek, why not seek for the dharma, for what\u2019s really true. In so doing, you at first become alienated and isolated \u2013 these are normal parts of the path.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">Soto Zen master Bokusan (1821-1910), one of the most important teachers of the modern period, put it like this:<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\"><br><i>We should be aware of the tendency for beginners to say, \u201cIt\u2019s not good to seek for dharma, so I will not pursue it.\u201d <u>Don\u2019t make this mistake<\/u>\u2026. It is not possible to perfectly fit with dharma at the beginning of our practice. <u>Not seeking for the dharma is out of the question.<\/u> You must endeavor with urgency, even sacrificing filial piety for your own mother. By doing so, you come to understand that nonattainment is the true face of the dharma.<\/i><\/span> <\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">We come to dharma practice when we recognize our estrangement from ourselves and the ten thousand things \u2013 then we get more of the same. To really practice enlightenment, sacrifices will be required \u2013 physical, emotional, relational, vocational, economical, procreational. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">Zen that clings to the upper middle way is bullshit.\u00a0And yet even if you fully give yourself to the way, there is no guarantee. You may not fully realize the way in this life. There may not be a chicken in every pot.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">If you want to have a doctorate, ten kids, three wives and\/or husbands, a 60-hour work week and build a 5,000 square foot dream house by yourself, you will likely not be able to devote yourself to Zen study in the manner necessary. It is unlikely that anyone will be able to have it all and fully realize the wondrous, true, subtle dharma.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">What to do? Sit down and shut up. Stop the whimpering and whining about the self that you yourself impose. With uncommon bravery and single-pointed devotion, break through the barriers of self-limitation.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">Generously cultivate a tolerance for the inconceivable by giving it all away. Turn the dharma wheel by wholeheartedly engaging the practice you are given and know that the dharma wheel will turn you when it is good and ready to turn you but it won\u2019t be by your timetable, buddy.<br><\/span> <span style=\"font-size: large\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">What should you bring for the journey? Most important is a willingness to be cornered where you cannot move an inch, be it a tired bus station, a sterile cubicle at work, a relationship that just isn\u2019t working, and sitting facing a wall. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><span style=\"font-size: large\">This is an invitation to the terminal bus station that is simultaneously the start of the journey.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: large\"><span style='font-family: Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif'><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/4330911338438640912-4980917231742291646?l=wildfoxzen.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Above you\u2019ll find Tom Waits from 1977. No accounting for taste, as they say, but I love it.\u00a0 Below you\u2019ll find a piece of my writing practice that doesn\u2019t seem to fit well with the manuscript I\u2019m working on \u2013 I\u2019ve wiggled this way and that. Some of these passages will be familiar to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Invitation to the Blues<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Above you'll find Tom Waits from 1977. 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