BEN: Effort
KON now, the present
JIN people
KA how? how not?
BEN make effort
In Japanese:
KONJIN NANZO BEN ZEZARU
KONJIN people today
NANZO how?
BEN ZEZARU not make effort
“How could people today not make effort?”
The kind of effort Master Dogen has in mind can be understood from the context:
Gautama Buddha devoted himself to sitting for six years before his first turning of the Dharma wheel; Master Bodhidharma devoted himself to sitting for nine years after coming to China. The ancient sages were like that. How could people today not make effort? Therefore we should change our direction, turning away from intellectual work in favour of the backward step of turning light around.
Yesterday I devoted a lot of time to responding to comments on this blog. Last night I recited Fukan-zazen-gi in Japanese. Early this morning I woke with one sentence still ringing in my inner ear:
posted by Mike Cross at 5:38 AM
3 Comments:
You've had decades of effort. You should be able to walk on water and appear on TV by now.
You always give the impression that ONLY you are the true seeker. ONLY you are the dedicated hard-working monk who deserves it.
In CrossLand there is it would appear that there is but ONE TRUE SEEKER, only ONE WHO IS WORTHY and that is Mike Cross unrecognised sage of the age.
Everyone else are part-timers, dabblers, misled, shallow, followers of a misguided old man. Whatever.
In your world there is only one perfect person and that's you.
Remember the days when that you demanded that anyone who wishes an audience with The Great Mike Cross should first shave their head as a mark of respect [to the Dharma]. Where the fuck is the natural humility.
You've finally caught onto the fact that the Fukan Zazengi does not mention shaving your head, dressing up or plucking eyebrows.
Yet, still people come to your blog and you feel the best way to help them is insult them.
It may be a classic technique for a Zen Master to operate but is supposed to be from a heart that is naturally full of love and compassion.
You seem to oscillate in your mind from Sage to Wounded Animal to Lowly Serf to Victim and back to Sage again.
The one thing that you seem really good at is not learning from your teachers even if it is your money on the line.
For decades now you dance around a handbag that you claim you cannot see. In all that time you fail to trip over it.
That sort of effort and attainment is fucking amazing.
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The FU of FUKAN-ZAZENGI expresses universality.
Master Dogen's exhortation to follow the traditional rules of sitting-zen was for everybody, without distinction, for all times.
Just as the reformation paved the way in the Christian world for "a priesthood of all believers," Fukan-zazengi paved the way for a priesthood of all sitters.
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