Do not suggest
you can only be enlightened
on a cold day in hell
unless you are prepared
to carry the air conditioner
across the River Styx.
Even Cerberus
has Buddha nature
although none
of the heads will say so.
Enlightenment
ALONG THE WAY
There are those desperately searching,
who stumble along the way, tripping
over the dharma gems lying in their path.
Others proceed slowly, pausing
to examine each pebble, each twig
uncertain if it, just possibly,
was the key to enlightenment.
I wander along, going nowhere, knowing
that is where the path must lead,
and I am always where the path
and I must intersect in time and space.
A young child seeing this
merely smiles and returns
to his seat beneath the Bodhi tree.
THIS WAY?!
The young man asked the old Buddhist monk,
“If there are 64,000 gates, how will
I know through which I should enter.”
The monk paused, considered
the question, then smiled broadly.
“Why would you want to enter any gate?”
the monk said with a wink.
The young man replied, “because they
are the gates that lead to the dharma,
and that will lead to enlightenment,
so of course I want to enter the right one!”
“That is your mistake,” the monk
gently added, for there is no right gate,
they are all right gates, but your problem
is you want to go in through the gate,
but you must go out from where you are,
for that is how you enter the dharma.”
NANQUAN’S SICKLE
If you ask the teacher
where you can find the key
to enlightenment, what
do you do when the teacher
stares back at you in silence.
If the teacher asks you
where he can find the key
to enlightenment, do you
tell him that he possesses it,
and if you do, will he
simply stare back in silence.
Stop and consider,
have you both answered correctly,
or is the silence the key?
A reflection on case 164 of The True Dharma Eye (Shobogenzo)
AWAKENING
The epiphany comes,
he says with a smile,
when you first discover
the puzzle within the puzzle
and the hidden logic
finally triumphs. It is
always there, she notes,
right in the title
as clear to the eyes
as the nose
on the face of
armless man
who has no mirrors.
SELFLESS
The true self
is no-self,
and this self
is not self,
but illusion
and delusion,
where delusion
is enlightenment,
and nothing
is as it seems
for nothing is
and only seems
and so it is
with self,
so let go
of this self
and no-self
will appear,
though it was
always there.
RINZAI’S ENLIGHTENMENT 正法眼蔵 二十七
If you ask your question
you will find an answer
but ask another and the stick
will respond each time.
If you seek another teacher
will you change the question
or the answer, and does it matter.
Take up the stick, who
will you strike, your teacher
or yourself, and is there
any real difference?
A reflection on Case 27 of the Shobogenzo – Dogen’s True Dharma Eye
