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{"id":1613,"date":"2013-03-15T10:42:08","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T16:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?p=1613"},"modified":"2013-03-15T10:42:08","modified_gmt":"2013-03-15T16:42:08","slug":"arousing-the-way-seeking-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/03\/arousing-the-way-seeking-heart.html","title":{"rendered":"Arousing the Way Seeking Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>What is the Way Seeking Heart?<\/p>\n

Sometimes it is referred to as the \u201cthought of enlightenment\u201d and in Sanskrit, bodhicitta<\/em> (click here<\/a> for the Wikipedia entry). In Guidelines for Studying the Way, <\/em>Dogen takes up this issue, saying the various names for the Way Seeking Heart all refer to \u201c\u2026one and the same mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same and one mind. Hmmm.<\/p>\n

What mind is that?<\/p>\n

The first piece of reflection in the just-launched Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a> is about this essential question because it is a touchstone for our practice.<\/p>\n

Vine of Obstacle students are beginning to dig into this and so today it\u2019s on my mind too and I\u2019ll offer a few reflections on the Way Seeking Heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust return to your first intention,\u201d Katagiri Roshi used to say.<\/p>\n

For me it was when I was a kid, laying in bed in northern Minnesota and hearing the fading sound of a far-off train. I knew then that I would die.<\/p>\n

Dogen in Guidelines for Studying the Way<\/em> (and elsewhere) encourages us to see impermanence of both this fleeting world and \u2013 turning the light of awareness around \u2013 the fleeting self too \u2013 the fleeting subject that experiences this fleeting world.<\/p>\n

Like Issa\u2019s poem<\/a> when his baby daughter died:<\/p>\n

This world of dew
\nIs a world of dew
\nAnd yet \u2026 and yet\u2026.<\/p>\n

Cut through the bullshit, in other words, and drop prettying up the rawness of the Way Seeking Heart by calling it a \u201cworld of dew\u201d or \u201cunborn\u201d or \u201cthree thousand worlds in a moment of thought\u201d (Dogen\u2019s examples) or any other cognitive reframing trick.<\/p>\n

Just look at how selfish this very mind is, currying favor with phenomena constantly, for our own benefit, for our own fame and gain.<\/p>\n

Just look at \u201c\u2026the breath going in and out, which ties a lifetime together: what is it after all?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"