Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Is everyone eating leftovers?

Master Dogen writes: The ordinary states, the outer ordinary states --- bamboo in the mountains, cypresses in the yard. Partial sage,ultimate sage --- spring flowers, autumn moon.
When you have attained the realm of Zen, there is no Zen; when you clarfy the realm of desire, there is no desire.
There is no one in the whole world who understands Buddhism --- everyone is eating leftovers.
To say it is like something would miss it --- it is not in the company of myriad things. What stages are there? What do you want with the beyond?

Eihei Koroku (translated by Cleary)


Our practice of the Buddha Way is our practice of the Buddha way. Yours is not mine. Each of us must enter the gate ourself. My words to you are like shit. They mean little to nothing, mere tracks of one who has gone before.

When we experience the wind in our face, the shock of a sound, or the smell of a corpse or flower, we are experiencing ourselves. As I paint a picture, it is just a painting of a picture. Quite different from your actual experience.

I urge you to practice the Buddha Way for yourself. What does this mean? Nothing really. Just stop and sit still. Create an opprtunity for you to experience the universe as it is, rather than as you think it is.

Be well.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear So Daiho Hilbert-roshi:

I really liked this:

"Just stop and sit still. Create an oportunity for you to experience the universe as it is, rather than as you think it is"

I am translating to spanish some of your thoughts in my blog, so other people may benefit...

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

roshi, I was an enthusiastic reader of brad warner's blog. Wonderful writing.. But he eventually grew tired of all the arguments and the misunderstanding of his readers. so he quit writing it. I didn't understand everything he taught but I found a lot of it very valuable. It really pissed me off when he quit. but I do understand that he has other interests. So that was that.

Now you are saying, "my words to you are like shit." I guess that might be true in a sense.. But if we do not understand something that you write, that is our problem, not yours. If your words are like shit to us, just keep throwing enough of it at the wall and maybe some of it will stick.

Daiho Hilbert-Roshi said...

Bruno, please send me a link to your blog. We have some Mexicans and other Hispanics on our Yahoogroups ZenLiving email group who might be interested.

Jeff, Brad Warner-sensei is a good teacher, in my opinion. He visted our little Zen Center last year and we enjoyed him very much. I. too, read his blog. You are misunderstanding Dogen's Teaching through my poor attempt to clatify it. My point is, my words are just my words. We each need our own. Dogen (and I) ask you to discover your own words, do not follow the tracks, i.e., shit, of others. Be well.

Anonymous said...

Dear So Daiho Hilbert-roshi:

My blog is:
http://www.brunoruiz.blogspot.com

Thanks...

Anonymous said...

I quess my misunderstanding was another good example of the point you were making. words often just obscure things.

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