Taking Refuge
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
What does it mean to be a follower of the Buddha Way? Yesterday at Temple, I offered a teisho on entering the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. I taught that the thing taking refuge requires first is a willingness to relinquish self. To study the Buddha way, Master Dogen says, is to study the self, and as we practice this Zazen, mind and body fall away. To practice Zazen is to relinquish the self and allow it to fall away.
We sit upright facing a wall. We do not move. We practice releasing our urges, our thoughts and feelings. We sit upright facing a wall. That is all. And in this sitting, we are taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. How so?
Buddha is the state of being awake. Present, Eyes wide open. Everything is there with us. Everything, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, are present and we are allowing them to just be. At some point the allowing ceases, there is no director directing, no perceiver perceiving, there is only awareness itself.
What is awareness aware of? The Dharma. What is Dharma? Pinch yourself hard. Sip a cold glass of water or a hot cup of coffee or tea. Experience directly what is there in front of you. It is your teacher when you get out of your own way.
Sangha is the non-dualistic universe itself. We like to make distinctions: this one is a monk, that one a lay person. This one is White, that one Black. That one over there is a Jew. Oh, and here is a flower, there is a weed. Distinctions. Duality. Delusion. In truth, everything is one, dependent on everything else. A great living web; an eternal green braid. Sangha is our home. It nurtures us and we nurture it. We cannot really do otherwise because if we do, we die.
When we sit facing a wall long enough these truths become manifest. They come from the inside out. They are not laws they are the actual nature of things. Entering the Buddha Way is the practic! e of bec oming synchronous with reality.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
What does it mean to be a follower of the Buddha Way? Yesterday at Temple, I offered a teisho on entering the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. I taught that the thing taking refuge requires first is a willingness to relinquish self. To study the Buddha way, Master Dogen says, is to study the self, and as we practice this Zazen, mind and body fall away. To practice Zazen is to relinquish the self and allow it to fall away.
We sit upright facing a wall. We do not move. We practice releasing our urges, our thoughts and feelings. We sit upright facing a wall. That is all. And in this sitting, we are taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. How so?
Buddha is the state of being awake. Present, Eyes wide open. Everything is there with us. Everything, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, are present and we are allowing them to just be. At some point the allowing ceases, there is no director directing, no perceiver perceiving, there is only awareness itself.
What is awareness aware of? The Dharma. What is Dharma? Pinch yourself hard. Sip a cold glass of water or a hot cup of coffee or tea. Experience directly what is there in front of you. It is your teacher when you get out of your own way.
Sangha is the non-dualistic universe itself. We like to make distinctions: this one is a monk, that one a lay person. This one is White, that one Black. That one over there is a Jew. Oh, and here is a flower, there is a weed. Distinctions. Duality. Delusion. In truth, everything is one, dependent on everything else. A great living web; an eternal green braid. Sangha is our home. It nurtures us and we nurture it. We cannot really do otherwise because if we do, we die.
When we sit facing a wall long enough these truths become manifest. They come from the inside out. They are not laws they are the actual nature of things. Entering the Buddha Way is the practic! e of bec oming synchronous with reality.
Be well.
