Creds: Thomas Merton – Sandow Birk – Marcus Sanders

-Lili

Remarks: An emailed fragment of the case. No associated introduction, commentary, etc.

Introduction: Found in spice rack 11/13/97 9:28 pm during Tucson Labor Day sesshin.

Case:

Cooking curry
w/cayenne.
Hot, hot.
Mañjusri comes-up
out the pot.
Popped him with a spoon.
“Get out!
We don’t need you!”
Cayenne’s hot, hot. Hot.

Commentary: Mañjusri, Great Wisdom Bodhisattva, holds both a book of learning and a sword for cutting off delusion.

Ikkyu’s Verse:

Lots of arms, just like Kannon the Goddess:
Sacrificed for me, garnished with citron, I revere it so!
The taste of the sea, just divine!
Sorry, Buddha, this is another precept I just cannot keep.
-A Meal of Fresh Octopus

Introduction: Scribbled illustration of Sutra Walking (Kinhin) found on bunkhouse floor after Endless Sesshin. These words written on the back side.

Once Yun-Men was holding forth at his temple and asked his monks if they wanted to get to know the old worthies—to see with their eyes. Before anyone could answer, according to the case recorded in the Iron Flute, he answered for them, “The patriarchs are under your feet.” Getting blank stares and silence from his monks Yun-Men muttered, “I baked a cake and put it on a platter, but Hungry Ghosts are hungry ghosts.”

Commentary

Just before the recent sesshin a hasty trip was made in search of a kyosaku of the right heft. During that foray I had the good fortune to obtain this page.

Bumper to Bumper on the Great Highway.
Kanzeon at the wheel.
Jizo—shotgun.
Manju—backseat.
“Watch this,” Kan says thru a mischievous grin
as she slows
majestically motioning
Strip Mall Auto to enter the stream in front of her.
Auto smiles and waves.
Zips through the crossroads.

Red light!

The Three Pals — trapped at the light.
Behind – Autos trapped at the light.

Autos glare & blare. “I’m dying here!”
“My life has stopped.”—trapped at the light
“All because of you.”—stopped by the light.

“Just trying to help,” Kan deadpans.
Man smirks.
Ji rolls her eyes.
◦
◦
◦
Kan’s Volvo, rocks with laughter,
Bumper to Bumper on the Great Highway.

Smash Mouth Says
Takin’ the back streets—
Your brain gets smart,
But your head gets dumb.

Though clear waters range to the vast blue autumn sky,
How can they compare with the hazy moon on a spring night!
Most people want to have pure clarity,
But sweep as you will, you cannot empty the mind.
Keizan Zenji – the hazy moon

Poisoned words from the pages of the obscure Record of Brown Grounds. Found scattered about the mountains and beaches of Oregon, written on the piñon and junipers around Santa Fe, and in the dust of Amarillo and Tucson.

edited by Gluttony & Comfort
revised by Comfort & Gluttony

Like the sky, you lean on nothing.

The great elephant does not loiter on the rabbit’s path.
Great enlightenment is not concerned with details.
Don’t belittle the sky by looking through a pipe.

If you still don’t understand, I will settle it for you.

Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
-Robert Aitken Roshi

“Like the sky, you lean on nothing.” This was the last line of a poem of praise to Shakyamuni the Buddha by the Bejeweled Accumulation. Some people miss such joyous exposition because they limit their formal practice to the preliminaries of work on their cushions and are not able to practice leaning on nothing in their daily lives. They are like the elementary school student whose education is just a series of workbooks.

Miniatures of the Zen Master
Robert Aitken

The hunter returns to the stump expecting another rabbit. One of my fave metaphors from the Cliff. Talk about an intermittent reward schedule! It’s like hitting one jackpot in Vegas and always going back to that very same machine convinced that with patience … another Big Score. For certain. Why can not we take whatever flash-of-light experience we have with acceptance and gratitude AND just let it go? Do not disrespect the sky by looking through a pipe.

In a contest of skill, Drona tells each of the Pandavas to strike a target, the eye of a wooden bird in a tree. He asks each one in turn, “O prince, tell me what you see.” One by one they respond, “I see my teacher, my brothers, the tree and the bird.” Drona tells them, “Then you will not hit the mark.” Arjuna, however, says he sees only the bird, and in fact, only the eye of the bird. Thus, focused on his target alone, he strikes with total accuracy.

However the burning iron ring revolves around my head,
With bright completeness of dhyana and prajna I never lose my equanimity.
If the sun becomes cold, and the moon hot,
Evil cannot shatter the truth.

The carriage of the elephant moves like a mountain,
How can the mantis block the road?.

Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
-Robert Aitken Roshi

A tyrannical king of China once killed a Buddhist monk who refused to marry the royal princess. At the last moment the monk said: “These groups of four elements have not belonged to me from the beginning. The five skandhas deceived you, giving you the illusion of a body. Your sword may as well cut off my head as this spring breeze blows the blossoms from the tree.”

Zen offers no miracle to save your life at the last moment, but it can give you equanimity at all times. Just train yourselves in meditation to shut off both your subjectivity and your objectivity. Then you can shut off your subjectivity and melt into your objectivity, or shut off your objectivity and live in your subjectivity. When you can open both your subjectivity and your objectivity; carrying your day’s work smoothly and happily, you will be living in Zen. The teaching of Buddha is too simple, so people hesitate to practice it.

The “great-wheels” are Buddha-Dhamma, and the elephant is enlightenment. In China, the mantis has always symbolized a person who overestimates his power. Like a teacher who juggles the ancient names derived from religion and philosophy, seeking to block the road to independent thought, the mantis stretches his legs, but the elephant-drawn carriage rolls on.

Buddhism and Zen
-Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless

Just click your heels together and say, "There's no place like home."

When we see truly, there is nothing at all.
There is no person; there is no Buddha.
Innumerable things of the universe
Are just bubbles on the sea.
Wise sages are all like flashes of lightning.

Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
-Robert Aitken Roshi

Jews and Christians find it difficult to erase the idea of a god separate from man; although Buddhists know that Gautama Buddha was once a person like themselves, most of them cherish the idea of becoming a Buddha only in some future life. All are caught in the web of dualism, wisdom and ignorance. Whatever you see, hear, smell, taste, or think, are the phenomena of your subjectivity and objectivity. No matter how subtle or refined these phenomena may be, Zen insists that you cannot attain enlightenment as long as you are the slave of your dualistic attachment.

Buddhism and Zen
-Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless

y'all got your sunglasses on

The King of the Dharma deserves our highest respect.
Tathagatas, innumerable as sands of the Ganges,
All prove this fact by their attainment.
Now I know what the Mani-jewel is:
Those who believe this will gain it accordingly.

Diamond Sangha Sutra Book
-Robert Aitken Roshi

Although there is nothing to be termed great or small in Prajna, all people cherish comparative thoughts until they are enlightened; therefore, Yokadaishi says that the innumerable Tathagatas prove that Zen provides the most direct route to wisdom for those who are strong enough to undertake this path. Even though most people will avoid this steep, rocky course, those who follow it make the choice themselves . . . they are not chosen by a god, they are not accidentally a member of a favored race, nation, or creed. Such superficiality have nothing to do with Zen. Each one of you may become a Bodhisattva.

Buddhism and Zen
-Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless

Not many people stick around when the main practice is Zazen. No fellowship. No potlucks. No entertaining talks. No workshops. No discussion groups. Only bone grinding Zazen. If they get past the screaming boredom of wall gazing, they might settle in. They might become intimate with it.

-Raptor Roshi commenting on his very small Sangha