{"id":357,"date":"2009-04-08T09:11:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-08T09:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/04\/old-dogs-birthday\/"},"modified":"2009-04-08T09:11:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-08T09:11:00","slug":"old-dogs-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/04\/old-dogs-birthday.html","title":{"rendered":"Old Dog’s Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLike a bird on a wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free\u201d
\u2013 L. Cohen<\/p>\n

Today is Shakyamuni\u2019s Birthday. And it\u2019s our birthday too.<\/p>\n

In Zen circles, the birth story of the Buddha includes the little oh-so precocious One stepping out of his mother\u2019s side (to spare her the pain of vaginal birth), pointing one hand to the earth, one to the heaven and saying, \u201cIn the heavens above and beneath the heavens, I alone am honored.\u201d<\/p>\n

This \u201cI alone\u201d sticks in the craw of many Zen students and his unqualified confidence does too. The tyke is surely stepping into the world as a sovereign, boldly going where no One has gone before. It\u2019s a challenge to the view that we should<\/span><\/span> make ourselves really small.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a little Dogen for ya from Ten Directions<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> that refers to this story:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne hand pointing to the heavens\u201d is heaven; \u201cone hand pointing to the earth\u201d is the earth. Although they are such, \u201cin the heavens above and beneath the heavens, I alone am honored.\u201d This is all the worlds of the ten directions as \u201cthe entire body of [a practitioner].\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The hand is heaven, the hand is earth, the ten direction universe springs from this very body. As such, \u201cI alone\u201d means there\u2019s nothing apart and apart there\u2019s nothing.<\/p>\n

In order to celebrate Shakyamuni\u2019s birthday, let\u2019s all practice and manifest this together endlessly.<\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span>
Happy Birthday one and all.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n