<\/a><\/p>\nThe first water lily leaves are showing themselves on Bald Eagle Lake. The leaves are imbued with oil so much so that they rise out of the water while being an expression of the water itself. Once while canoeing on a still, still backwater of the Mississippi, I set a full can of water on a one such leaf and it hardly bobbed at all.
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Speaking of bobbing, we\u2019re working through a passage from Dogen\u2019s Genjokoan<\/em>, accompanied by Dogen\u2019s challenging call to practice our insights (which requires confidence and honoring what\u2019s true ala the 10th precept: I take up the Way of not abusing the great truth of the Triple Treasure).<\/em> Spiritual experiences not manifested in daily life are simply head trips. Daily life without spiritual insight is bone dry and so we human\u2019s (especially of the American variety) stuff up our lives with meaningless things.
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To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all things.<\/em> To be verified by all things is to let the body and mind of the self, and body and mind of others, drop off.<\/em> There is a trace of realization that cannot be grasped. We endlessly keep expressing the ungraspable trace of realization.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been remembering about forgetting the passage (along with the whole works) above \u2013 kinda funny really. Zen is one bad joke after another moving rather quickly, intimately, continually loosing.<\/span><\/p>\nSo why stop with just some little losses? Why not go all the way? Drop the subject and object drops off too. This is Great Death. And Great Life \u2013 a trace that cannot be grasped (or controlled, or contrived, or forced). Nor is it at all apart from these.<\/span><\/p>\nSomeone might say, \u201cAre you kidding? What kind of lame trace cannot be grasped?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nOne American lay woman, for example, upon seeing mu<\/span>, came to sanzen with a zafu in hand and threw it at her Japanese-Zen-priest teacher saying something like, \u201cAll of that for this?\u201d<\/p>\nLikewise, Kyogo and Sen\u2019ne limp through this in their commentaries, ducking and weaving with \u201cThere is nothing particular to be discussed here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe heart of their nothing-particular-discussion is this:
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There is no time that \u201crealization\u201d is \u201cnot grasped.\u201d This is why it says \u201ctrace of realization that is not graspable\u201d is \u201cbeing expressed endlessly.\u201d<\/em> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAnd \u201c\u2026since [it] has no boundary, \u2018endlessly keep expressing.\u2019\u201d<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\nReflection and comment<\/strong> (practice participants please post here): <\/span><\/span><\/span>A 20th Century Japanese lay teacher (whose name I forget) expressed it like this: \u201cWhen there is nothing to do, what do you do?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nIf there is no time that realization is not grasped, if it is being expressed endlessly so that there is truly nothing to add, no seam, nothing left out, then what do you do?
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Please don\u2019t get cute with something like \u201cThen I do nothing.\u201d Take this seriously and playfully and practice correctly and you\u2019ll find yourself in a corner where you cannot move an inch. Then what do you do?<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019ve been enjoying the comments, by the way. Thank you for your practice!<\/span><\/p>\n
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