Pleasure is insubstantial.
The cessation of pleasure is pain.
Pain is insubstantial.
The cessation of pain is pleasure.
—Ippen Shonin
We are quite predatory creatures ourselves; we think we are civilized but we have a really bloody history
We are quite predatory creatures ourselves; we think we are civilized but we have a really bloody history – literally. It is just filled with endless slaughters and justification for all kinds of iniquities against other human beings – not to mention animals – and it is all because of this basic ignorance, this unreflecting human mind that tells us to annihilate what is in our way.
However, with reflection we are changing that; we are transcending that basic instinctual, animal pattern. We are not just being law-abiding puppets of society, afraid to kill because we are afraid of being punished. Now we are really taking on responsibility. We respect the lives of other creatures, even the lives of insects and creatures we do not like. Nobody is ever going to like mosquitoes or ants, but we can reflect on the fact that they have a right to live. That is a reflection of the mind; it is not just a reaction: ‘Where’s the insecticide spray?’ I also don’t like to see ants crawling over my floor; my first reaction is, ‘Where’s the insecticide spray?’ But then the reflective mind shows me that even though these creatures are annoying me and I would rather they went away, they have a right to exist. That is a reflection of the human mind.
The same applies to unpleasant mind states. So when you are experiencing anger, rather than saying, ‘Oh, here I go – angry again!’ we reflect: ‘There is anger.’ Just like with fear – if you start seeing it as my mother’s fear or my father’s fear or the dog’s fear or my fear, then it all becomes a sticky web of different creatures related in some ways, unrelated in others; and it becomes difficult to have any real understanding. And yet, the fear in this being and the fear in that mangy dog is the same thing. ‘There is fear.’ It is just that. The fear that I have experienced is no different from the fear others have. So this is where we have compassion even for mangy old dogs. We understand that fear is as horrible for mangy dogs as it is for us. When a dog is kicked with a heavy boot and you are kicked with a heavy boot, that feeling of pain is the same. Pain is just pain, cold is just cold, anger is just anger. It is not mine but rather: ‘There is pain.’ This is a skillful use of thinking that helps us to see things more clearly rather than reinforcing the personal view.
Ausok Aditta
With thanks to THE WAY OF ZEN -Peace Love and Compassion.
Practicing with Strong Emotions
When you touch a hot stove, as soon as you become aware of the pain, you immediately pull your hand away. You don’t let it rest on the burner in order to explore the pain. In the same way, we stay present with strong emotion only very briefly at first. The instruction is: short moments again and again. Rather than trying to endure prolonged exposure to intense feeling, we touch in for only two or three seconds, then pause and breathe gently before touching in again. Or we might simply stay with the troubling feeling for five or six minutes and then go on with our day, more in touch with our emotions and, therefore, less likely to be dragged around by them.
Becoming unstuck
We hear a lot about the pain of samsara, and we also hear about liberation. But we don’t hear much about how painful it is to go from being completely stuck to becoming unstuck. The process of becoming unstuck requires tremendous bravery, because basically we are completely changing our way of perceiving reality, like changing our DNA. We are undoing a pattern that is not just our pattern. It’s the human pattern.
– Pema Chödron
from the book “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times”
With thanks to Just Dharma Quotes
Guidance; Corona #26 ~ by Shodo Harada Roshi
Dear All,
Some say that there may be a vaccine next year and that only in the spring of 2022 the pandemic will have settled. If the restrictions are taken off too soon, there may be new cases appearing. Some people who are infected may have no symptoms while they could infect others. We do need to reflect upon our wisdom, if we were to get sick, how we can deal with this situation in the best possible way.
What this means for us in our training is that we do need to have patience. It is not about yesterday and today only, but we need to continue our efforts. We need to see how we actually can live within challenging situations. We receive the wisdom of Vimalakirti.
Vimalakirti says, “because society is sick, that is why I get sick. We need to have a huge mind and not only see our own life.” Vimalakirti taught us how we can greet and support someone who is sick. Now how about if we ourselves get sick? This is what Vimalakirti is teaching us now.
Monjusri visits Vimalakirti, yet both encounter each other with a bright mind, that it is hard to know, who is the sick person. When we get sick, we easily get depressed, we cannot go outside and depend on others’ support. We feel this as a heavy burden. Yet Vimalakirti does not even look as if he is sick. His state of mind is bright and clear, and the person visiting him does not feel any pressure put on him.
Monjusri asks him: “You are sick yet you do not look sick. How are you managing?” Vimalakirti answers: “If sickness catches us and we fall into sickness, that becomes a heavyweight for us. Of course, I am actually sick. I have symptoms of sickness. Yet what truly makes us sick in mind are those attachments, memories, grudges which we carry around from the past. And because of these arising, that is why we feel the pressure. It is because of those past unclarities, that we feel heaviness.”
These are not extraneous thoughts, yet they do colour our experience of the moment. We cannot get stopped by them. Our physical body which we have received from our parents may get sick, and since we identify with this body, that is why we create our own heaviness. We, of course, may get sick, yet it is not our body alone that feels the sickness, it is mainly our mind that feels the sickness.
Ikkyu Zenji said in his death poem:
“The body that I have borrowed, today I do return it.”
Because we only see the physical body, we are not aware of the huge mind, which uses this body. Of course, we do not want to get sick, yet going through the experience of sickness, we need to bring forth wisdom which helps us rise above this physical experience. We cannot stay stuck in our body only, this would be a big mistake.
It is important that we do not feel stuck in our sick body, or else we create an even greater sickness than our physical one. This is what we need to awaken to. We may feel bad, have pain, have difficulty breathing, have no appetite, or sense of smell, yet we cannot let our mind get drowned within this experience.
Over 100 years ago in Japan, the poet Masaoka Shiki lived, he practiced zazen from a young age. He said that Zen was about being prepared to die anytime, yet later in his life, he said that he realized when he was sick, when he did not know how long he had to live, he said that Zen is not about being prepared to die anytime but Zen is about receiving this life energy anew each moment, receiving the energy to live.
There is a flower that blossoms in June in yellow colours, this flower must have been all around, in this season he was ready to face his last moment of being sick with tuberculosis. The pain must have been huge, while the students gathered around only wished to give their teacher some relief. In this uncertain situation, he gave the first two lines of the poem, then again was struggling to get some air, the students had tears running down their cheeks. They wanted to take the pain onto themselves. They quietly sat by his bedside, waiting, when Masaoka Shiki gave the last line of the poem: Is this the Buddha? Masaoka clearly looked at his own sickness, and when the end neared he called his students and gave this poem: The Hejima flower is blooming, mucus is filling up my throat, is this the Buddha?
Someone who has died is said to become a buddha yet also someone who is awakened is called a buddha. Masaoka gave this poem, his breathing must have been difficult, when this mucus fills his throat, that is the last moment. He speaks about himself as if he is watching himself from high above. It is about himself, yet his state of mind is quiet and filled with wisdom.
That is what Vimalakirti is saying, that we cannot stay stuck in our body, that we cannot drown in our suffering, if we down then we are at the end. That is not how it should be. From a high level, we can reflect upon our state of mind, we can review our state of mind. It is the mind that uses this body, the mind is not stuck in this body. It does need to depart from this body at one point, yet we can awaken to our true nature and share this experience with many.
I may be suffering but there are others who suffer even more. If there is a chance, I would like to use my life to help others, to support others. That is what we need to see as important in our life, Vimalakirti is teaching us.
(calligraphy by Shodo Harada Roshi: The Mysterious Not Two)
Zen Flash 
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