Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage
By Shitou Xiqian
I’ve built a grass hut where there’s nothing of value.
After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap.
When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared.
Now it’s been lived in–covered by weeds.
The person in the hut lives here calmly, not stuck to inside, outside, or in-between.
Places worldly people live, he doesn’t live.
Realms worldly people love, she doesn’t love.
Though the hut is small, it includes the entire world.
In ten feet square, an old man illumines forms and their nature.
A Mahayana bodhisattva trusts without doubt.
The middling or lowly can’t help wondering;
Will this hut perish or not?
Perishable or not, the original master is present,
Not dwelling south or north, east or west.
Firmly based on steadiness, it can’t be surpassed.
A shining window below the green pines —
Jade palaces or vermilion towers can’t compare with it.
Just sitting with head covered all things are at rest.
Thus, this mountain monk doesn’t understand at all.
Living here he no longer works to get free.
Who would proudly arrange seats, trying to entice guests?
Turn around the light to shine within, then just return.
The vast inconceivable source can’t be faced or turned away from.
Meet the ancestral teachers, be familiar with their instructions,
bind grasses to build a hut, and don’t give up.
Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely.
Open your hands and walk, innocent.
Thousands of words, myriad interpretations.
Are only to free you from obstructions.
If you want to know the undying person in the hut,
Don’t separate from this skin bag here and now.

I read this morning that the early Christian church took on the laws and structures of the Roman state. It was when persecutions of Christians ceased and mandatory affiliation as a Christian became the norm which led to persecutions of non-Christians. It was an ancient trend that is re-rooting in the United States. It is an old trend, in revival mode. Alongside this revival of an old trend of persecution and violence is a constancy of spiritual and religious freedom for all.

*****

Trends are nothing new, groups form and share what is attractive or fashionable and trends take hold. There are, however, some who feel the new impetus of violence, and force should be the national structure of the United States. Any religious regime for violence and hate, although growing, is not favorable for spiritual awakening.

Spiritual realization is a personal matter. Not subject to trends and drifts of forceful elimination of religious freedom.

Each of us, in our own way, seeks to return to Our True Original nature. Each one of us does that in our way of life whether we exclaim that is what we are doing or not. Experience is a powerful teacher which constantly gives us an opportunity to hear and know the Dharma.

Each one of us came from One Source which we cannot speak or define with our human limitations. Yet, despite our limitations, we seek to know our True Nature which is buried beneath our conditioned identity.

No one is to judge another – despite our tendency and inclination to do so.

When we judge, we “miss-the-mark.”

Where are we – those of us that practice the Dharma?

Our spiritual work is not a trend, although Zen Buddhism seemed to offer a flashy alternative for those who wanted to be in a chic, fashionable spiritual practice. Eastern traditions, however, offer more than fashion and style.

The “churches” whatever that might mean today, continue to struggle with ancient laws and the old structures of a Roman state. Although to affiliate with a particular denomination or religious dogma is not the norm today. Neither is it popular from a worldly perspective to study the Dharma unless it is hip deep into psychology and brain science. These new interests may be all the rage in Buddhist and Christian circles but they do not serve the spiritual seeker, and they may not be a favorable environment for spiritual liberation.

You see, the ego-self is happy to be in a dalliance with modern ideas, a romance with impermanence followed by suffering. For all ideas are fleeting, passing coquetry. We flirt with them to our detriment.

In such an affair, the ego remains strong, frivolous and the center of our lives. As long as the ego-self holds a central position our ability to know the Dharma is blocked.

• “What is the environment that matches an inner longing to awaken for you?”
• Is it to continue where you are, as you are?

Or is there a sense of seeking that is not quenched by the material world of psychology, science or even religious laws and dogma?

It seems there may be a sense of foolishness that conflicts with an inner sense of purpose and we get stuck on this ledge. It is on this ledge, we battle and may live out the short life we have been given in an inner skirmish between the ego and the Dharma.

We do not want to be as fools, but we do want to know our purpose. The ego bangs the door shouting, “You fool!” when we consider devotion to the Dharma as our purpose. It may come in the form of others berating such a purpose or it may be doubts of one’s devotion that weakens conviction and commitment.

Devotion of this sort requires guts and a keen sense of inner loyalty to this devotion. This type of devotion is not understood by the material world.

“Where is your allegiance?”

This work demands a greater honesty than psychological analysis, where defenses are reworked and rebuilt in more “appropriate” and “healthy” ways.  A mask of defenses is still a mask and it disguises and blocks knowing the Truth.

As human beings, we tend to relate to everything as “mine” and this masquerade although often acceptable in the material world is a death mask in the spiritual realm.

_____

Here is an example.

When we are alone, feeling blue or lonely we tend to want to find a way to get rid of this feeling. We hunt for things to make this feeling go away. The dispelling of the feeling often takes the form of a thought such as what can I do to feel better? Call a friend? Do something? The sense of “me” is central. This is the human condition and is normative in the material world.

“What about “me?”

“How do I look after “me?”

If we seek help from the material world, we will get directions on how to get what we need or how to get what we want so we will not feel “lonely” or “blue.” We can barely imagine another way, a way that looks for the Dharma of the feeling, of the moment, of what is actually going on in a given circumstance.

It is similar to being in the darkness, when we are in the darkness we hunt for a light switch to end the darkness. What if we remained with the feeling, facing whatever it is as the voice of Dharma trying to get our attention. Would we listen to the voice of the Dharma rather than react to an inner impulse to escape the feeling?

What if we met it, met the feeling as part of our interior landscape without rationalization or even reason, but just meet it. It requires an allegiance and devotion to seeing everything, the whole panorama of inner experience as the voices and sights of Dharma and letting go of the topography as “ME & MINE”  It means accepting whatever is happening, wherever we are, as our life.

This inner geography is our spiritual life, whether we see it or not. It requires relinquishing the fantasy for something to be better. Just accept what shows up and experience it and see what comes.

This practice is an expedition of leaving “ME and MINE” and crossing into the unfamiliar spiritual geography of solitude, silence and wholehearted engagement with the diversity of the Dharma, the assortments of existence and experience.

The ancient teachings of this practice do not rely on violence, mandatory affiliation and dogmatic laws. It focuses on the study of oneself in all the array of diversity and practice. It requires dispassion.

Author: Fly

Old Moon

Zen Contemplative of the Order of Hsu Yun

A Single Thread is not a blog.

 If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,

please contact editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com

Happy Holidays

Daily Devotion

Zen Chaplet Book 2 4×6

Double Back Again

How wonderful! I received three questions and thought I would respond to them in PART III of III.

Questions

• • • …is there higher and lower? Or could we just say different.
    • Or is the material realm and transcendence also one?
    • One growing out of the other like a flower growing from a seed?

Responses

• • • The simple answer is yes there is higher and lower, and we usually add different. We, however, focus on the lower, worldly realm. Clay pots are clay, but we focus on the function, look, size, color, utility, and workmanship rather than realize clay pots all come from the same source, called clay. A spoon is a spoon, but we want to have a certain spoon shaped in a certain way. All this desire keeps us focused on the material realm.
    • Yes, the material realm and the transcendent are one, however, we focus on the material realm. Very few want to transcend the material realm of wanting, having, getting, keeping, owning, knowing and so forth.
    • And finally, yes, a flower growing from a seed is one as is everything else. We do not, however, focus on the oneness. We tend to focus on the conditioned material realm of difference, likes, dislikes, picking, choosing and much more.

The questions are useful and offer us an opportunity to clarify and make another effort to understand how to practice. In this case, the stories ask us to understand admonishment and realization of our true-original nature. To follow this thread, please read the first two parts.

The essential distinguishing part is that the two girls in the stories offered an admonishment to those doing harm. The boys in the first story were drowning and killing ladybugs and the father in the second story was using language that upset his daughter to an intolerable degree. Both girls warned the offenders that doing what they were doing would result in their going to hell.

The first question is: “…is there higher and lower?” I take this to refer to the comment of higher knowledge in part II. The first response is a simple “yes.” Let us look at the action of the girls.

Both girls responded on a mundane or material level with admonishment that infers a higher ground of existence. Inference is a part of logic and is a reasonable truth as in where there is smoke there is fire. Both girls had an internal understanding that there is something truer than a tendency to ‘swear and curse’ or a tendency to ‘kill for fun.’ “Higher” is a teaching instruction of going beyond the material realm; to leap clear of the conditions of the ego-self altogether. A more precise word would be valid. Valid knowledge as opposed to invalid or delusional (not true).

The word higher refers to going beyond the material realm; to look beyond this delusion of existence. Delusion refers to the qualities of impermanence; not lasting. The practice is to study the conditions of the ego-self which are all impermanent. Delusion refers to a misconception of reality. The boys did not know their true nature and saw what they were doing as “killing for fun.” The father did not know his true nature and was stuck in a “habit of cursing.” Both admonishments were a reference towards these activities as unruly behavior which is the material way of conditioning behavior. This conditioning refers to behavior in the realm of birth, aging, sickness, and death without any assistance in discovering our true nature. The higher realm is a reference to that which does not change: the unborn, undying, and immutable. It is a referential teaching device. As in, put your mind above, not on earthly things.”  The youngest child heard the true knowledge when he heard that he and the ladybug are ONE.

The next question asks, “…is the material realm and transcendence realm also one? Like a flower growing out of a seed.”  The simple answer is there is ONE existence, not two. Everything continues from the One. But we tend to divide things up again and again. As the girls corrected the other with a fear and trembling intimidation. They offered a do this or else which is dualistic. There is heaven and there is hell, there is good and there is bad. Dividing things leads to judgment, discrimination, and splitting. The girls condemned the boys along the lines of ‘good and bad.’ Saying to the boys that you and ladybug are one is an offering of going beyond the material realm of this and that and seeing the ONE existence. Not easy to see, but possible. It is possible to go beyond the delusion of the material realm of things.

Again, the youngest child heard the true nature of things when he stopped hurting the ladybugs and covered his face in dismay. He on one level, saw himself and the ladybug as One existence. He cried out, “It’s true!”

There is no condemnation for the girls’ admonishments. They were offering what they knew to offer. They offered a material world response of “good and bad.” And it is here where I repeat, “there is a higher knowledge that goes beyond the “good and bad” construction of the world.”

It requires effort, determination, discipline, and teachings. We must be willing to let go of the worldly habits and go beyond to our true nature. This practice requires leaping clear of the world which attracts and tricks us into thinking the world provides lasting satisfaction. We all know this truth, but we ignore it.

May we with all beings realize the emptiness of the three worlds, giver, receiver, and gift.

OM

Double Back 

I received a story from soneone kind enough to send it on as a response to PART I.

Here is the response. It offers us an opportunity to clarify the teaching in PART I.

Yellow Flag with Black Dot: Alter Course to Port

PART II.

The Last Resort: Alter Course or Suffer the Consequence

Once upon a time, over half a century ago a young girl rode to school with her father. He was a man who had a habit of cussing and swearing. The young girl could take no more of his cussing and swearing and felt she needed to correct him. Guess what she said? You would be spot on if you said, “If you keep swearing, you are going to go to hell!”

That is an interesting story. Interesting because both girls warned those who were doing harm. The warning came in the form of a threat: “You are going to hell.” A fear and trembling intimidation.

In both instances the girls in the stories focused on the material realm of behavior. They threatened those who were acting out “habits” that came from underlying “tendencies.”

Rather than seeing the boundless field, each girl went to a level of black and white and a dualistic view of existence. It was a caution to those counseled to stop the tendency and end the habit of doing harm. The girls admonished which is an offering to purify the mind-state of those doing harm.

If we go with the child that covered his face with both hands when he heard that the ladybug was him, we have an altogether different approach to knowing the Oneness of existence.

In both situations the girls were doing their best to stop a behavior that was harmful although their admonishment was severe and misses a higher knowledge.

In Zen Buddhism, as in most traditions of transcendence, the higher knowledge is “Everything returns to the One, and the One returns to everything.”

There is ONE source…and we proceed and are that ONE existence with body and mind.

Sending someone to hell is not the literal truth but an admonishment of the material realm…i.e., stop harming that which is you. It is true that the conditioned world divides the world into good and bad, but that division comes from an ignorance of not ‘knowing’ what we are. In ignorance we tend to divide and measure the world according to social conditioning.

So, these girls responded from what they knew, but those of us practicing a higher knowledge need to be more like the little boy who responded with dropping his squirt gun and covering his face. He knew something in that moment that went beyond good and bad; he knew for a moment his true nature. A realization that he and the ladybug were one true reality underneath the camouflage of the body and mind.

The Last Resort: Hell 

Number 1.

One evening after work, I was going to my car when I saw three kids playing in the alley.  This alley isn’t much of a playground, there’s a dumpster, a fire escape, a small gravel parking lot and a graded dirt road that runs between several buildings including an apartment building, where these kids lived.

In between all these structures and pathways are small patches of plants that found their way through the tar and gravel.

The oldest girl was standing along these plants searching for ladybugs and caterpillars.  When she spotted one, would shriek and call out for one of the boys to come and see.  It seemed harmless enough until I saw what the boys did.  The boys pointed squirt guns at the unsuspecting ladybug or caterpillar in an attempt to harm the bug.

I watched and listened to the glee and pleasure that all three seemed to derive from their sport.  I watched and thought about how I could help the ladybugs and caterpillars.  I figured if I told them to stop, they’d wait until I drove off and continue their hunt.  It brought them so much pleasure I knew my admonition to stop hurting the bugs would be of little help to them or the bugs.

Finally, I walked over to them and saw a small black-dotted red ladybug resting on a single leaf.  The leaf was soaked with water.  The boys, crouching to continue their kill, looked up at me.  The girl turned to see what I was going to do.

“You are the ladybug” I said.  “You and the ladybug are the same.”  The youngest of the three dropped his squirt gun and held his face in his hands.  The older boy asked me why he shouldn’t keep shooting the bugs.  He wanted to have fun and this game was fun.

I looked at the youngest child again and said, “You are all living beings.”  He squinted his eyes and said out loud, “That’s true.”  The older boy continued his clamor to continue this fun.

Then I walked away.  As I was getting into my car, I heard the girl, who was the oldest, go over to the two boys and say to them harshly, “Now, you are going to go to Hell!”

Om Namo Guru Dev Namo