A non-Buddhist translator comments on Zen Master Dogen's "Rules of Sitting-Zen for All"... and thus gropes ineffectually towards non-preaching of the backward step of turning light and shining.
posted by Mike Cross at 5:41 AM
From 1982 to 1997 I worked on the translation of Master Dogen's Shobogenzo, and understood the primary importance in the Buddha's teaching of full lotus sitting. Until 1994 my attitude to this sitting practice could be summed up in the words: "Don't think. Just do it!" Then in 1994 I returned from Japan to England to train to be a teacher of the FM Alexander Technique, and experiences with Alexander work woke me up to the opposite standpoint of "Don't just do. Think it!" Far from smoothing my path, however, Alexander insights (or reactions to them) caused a lot of trouble between me and my aging teacher in Japan. Then in 2008, seeking clearer water further upstream, I found a new lease of life in the extant Sanskrit works of the 12th ancestor in Dogen's lineage -- the great Indian teacher Ashvaghosha.
6 Comments:
Dear Mike,
My meditation has become dull and boring, and my friends freely use their interesting and exotic esoteric Tibetan practices to get girls (with great results).
Please, can you help me 'Pimp My Zen'?
Regards,
Harry.
Negtive, Harry. I can’t help you Pimp Your Zen. Pimping is none of your business. You are the Wanker.
The Wanker is the sad loser who reveres his own vivid thoughts.
The Zen Pimp is primarily interested not in what is going on within but rather in manipulating others. His method is first to tell his victim exactly what the victim wants to hear. After that it is not so difficult to get the poor dupe to engage in arse-licking and various other forms of dirty work.
Apopros of which....
Some doubter of the true dragon asks: “What is the One Commandment?”
My answer: For example, ‘Thou shalt not be a permanent fixture.’
Again, the student of fake elephants asks: “Can even a cheat, a liar, a pimp, or a wanker practice and experience the practice and experience that penetrates the Buddha’s enlightenment?”
My answer: In principle, it is difficult to think so. But in fact Fukan-zazengi has come to us like this only because there have existed on this earth two slant-eyed sons of Nippon named Gudo Nishijima & Kodo Sawaki, master pimp and king of masturbation, respectively.
Furthermore, according to Master Dogen’s teaching, we should perform prostrations to attainment of the marrow, irrespective of what kind of pimp, wanker or wild fox has got it.
The doubter asks still further, “Is it Master Dogen’s teaching to prostrate ourselves to a pimp?”
My answer: It is just to serve the marrow as the marrow.
Finally the doubter expresses one last doubt: “If a person speaks of being mellow, while at the same time spitting upwards, isn’t there a gap? Isn’t the inevitable consequence of spitting upwards that one covers oneself in spit?”
My answer: The principle to be learned is that of just spitting.
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...On second thoughts, you don't see the humour in this game (or anything else it seems).
See ya in the graveyard with all the other wankers Oh, Son of a Noble Family.
Regards,
Harry.
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Inhibiting unenlightened behaviour is the most serious thing in the world.
That is Marjory Barlow’s teaching -- I never claimed (I hope) to be particularly good at it.
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