With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
There is a practice point in Zen that borders on dogma: make no distinctions. From the Third Patriarch to the Sixth Patriarch to Master Dogen, we hear this admonition and because people repeat this without benefit of practice, their understanding becomes the dogma of parrots.
In my view, ‘make no distinctions’ is less about right and wrong, good and bad, than it is about the state of our heart/mind. It is about accurate perception.
From the Hsin Hsin Ming:
The tao is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind. When the deep meaning of things is not understood the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
This teaching is about practice: the position or platform of our heart/mind as we take up Zazen, indeed ,life itself. Do we like or dislike the cushion we are on? Is the air too cold, too hot, or is the scent of the incense too powerful? It is not the questions, per se, it is what our mind does with the questions, that is the point. Do we set up this over that does not do away with this or that.
In my view, then, ‘make no distinctions’ does not refer to something outside of us, a qualitative judgment about an external this or that, but rather the admonition points to the quality and state of our heart/mind: is it still, like a placid lake, so that it accurately perceives the moon? Or is it in the turmoil of judgment itself?
Here’s the thing, if the moon is accurately reflected it is still a reflection of the moon. In other words, as we practice and make no distinctions, or have no preferences, those things arising in our view are still what they are. It’s what we do with them that has the potential to distort things.
People assume we are to make no judgments and yet, to make no judgments is the mark of a fool. Instead, consider this: we are to make no judgments without understanding they have value in the relative world only: in the absolute world, in the world of the Dao, they make no sense.
However, because judgment make no sense on one level, does not mean it makes no sense on another level: that good and bad are relative does not mean there is no good or bad, it just means they are relative. This means we must look at our ethical judgments in a context. If our context is serene it is one thing, if it is choppy and disturbed, it is another. This subtlety is lost on those who do not practice.
From the Hsin Hsin Ming:
Be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves. When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity your very effort fills you with activity. As long as you remain in one extreme or the other you will never know oneness.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
There is a practice point in Zen that borders on dogma: make no distinctions. From the Third Patriarch to the Sixth Patriarch to Master Dogen, we hear this admonition and because people repeat this without benefit of practice, their understanding becomes the dogma of parrots.
In my view, ‘make no distinctions’ is less about right and wrong, good and bad, than it is about the state of our heart/mind. It is about accurate perception.
From the Hsin Hsin Ming:
The tao is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind. When the deep meaning of things is not understood the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
This teaching is about practice: the position or platform of our heart/mind as we take up Zazen, indeed ,life itself. Do we like or dislike the cushion we are on? Is the air too cold, too hot, or is the scent of the incense too powerful? It is not the questions, per se, it is what our mind does with the questions, that is the point. Do we set up this over that does not do away with this or that.
In my view, then, ‘make no distinctions’ does not refer to something outside of us, a qualitative judgment about an external this or that, but rather the admonition points to the quality and state of our heart/mind: is it still, like a placid lake, so that it accurately perceives the moon? Or is it in the turmoil of judgment itself?
Here’s the thing, if the moon is accurately reflected it is still a reflection of the moon. In other words, as we practice and make no distinctions, or have no preferences, those things arising in our view are still what they are. It’s what we do with them that has the potential to distort things.
People assume we are to make no judgments and yet, to make no judgments is the mark of a fool. Instead, consider this: we are to make no judgments without understanding they have value in the relative world only: in the absolute world, in the world of the Dao, they make no sense.
However, because judgment make no sense on one level, does not mean it makes no sense on another level: that good and bad are relative does not mean there is no good or bad, it just means they are relative. This means we must look at our ethical judgments in a context. If our context is serene it is one thing, if it is choppy and disturbed, it is another. This subtlety is lost on those who do not practice.
From the Hsin Hsin Ming:
Be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves. When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity your very effort fills you with activity. As long as you remain in one extreme or the other you will never know oneness.
Be well.
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