Because so much of life is caught up in self-centered dreams of thoughts, feelings, emotions, we believe it is whom we are. Even practice can become a form of self-centeredness. Life is being this wisdom and compassion that we are. But because of delusion and attachment-we don't see it, don't live it. So practice is seeing and working with body-mind. Not to fix it or change it, but so that the self-centered delusion and attachment of body-mind do not blind us to who we are, do not keep us from being who we are, from functioning as our life.
Master Tongshan practiced with the question 'Who can hear the non-sentient preach the Dharma?' When he asked his teacher this question, Master Yunyan lifted his whisk. The preaching of the Dharma by the non-sentient is inconceivable. If you try to hear it with your ears, it's hard to understand. When you listen with your eye, you know it.
All of us know about habits that are not yet exhausted, habits that arise.
'Why seek mind somewhere else?
Solitary now am I, and independent.
I meet my true nature everywhere.
Though I am all dharmas, I cannot become them, for they are already me.
Understanding it this way,
I can be as I am'.
Why seek mind somewhere else? Why seek any thing somewhere else? 'Wandering freely, I meet my true nature everywhere'. Be free! Meet it everywhere! People revile you, meet it here, being reviled. See, what is 'Just this?' As soon as we make it into some 'thing', it is something extra. Holding onto it, it is a dualistic idea. 'Just this', right-here-now is so straightforward, immediate, most intimate, and yet if we limit it to conceptual understanding, physical understanding, we miss; not because it is somewhere else, or something else, but because conceptual understanding, emotionality, reaction functioning, is not adequate, blinds us, is not the whole of who we are. It is not the whole of the reality we encounter. And yet there is nowhere else, nothing else. Not some thing, nor other than. Always, this is our practice. Giving self to self, being as we are. 'Just this' is simple, and yet most difficult. Not one millimeter separates us. And yet, mountains and rivers separate.
Dogen Zenji says, 'In general, hearing the Dharma is not confined to the spheres of ear as a sense organ, or auditory consciousness. We hear Dharma with our whole energy, whole mind, whole body, whole truth. There is benefit in each case of hearing the Dharma. Never say that there is no benefit hearing the Dharma without the involvement of mind and consciousness. Those whose mind has ceased and whose bodies are spent are able to benefit from hearing the Dharma. The Dharma is the truth, the reality, and those who are without mind, without body, are able to benefit. It is impossible for us to fully clarify the limits of body-mind.
This is our practice, whether we 'know it' or 'do not know it'. Be practice, be zazen. 'Knowing it', 'not knowing it', is extra to practice. No need to limit practice since in truth practice is not limited. To be the functioning that you are is beyond the limits of the words, beyond what you know. Being right here now, just this, no need to understand or add goals.
How does one hear the preaching of the non-sentient? How do non-sentient preach the Dharma? What is non-sentient? Non-sentient isn't something opposed to sentient. Insentient and sentient are just categories. This is our practice, to see clearly, to be, this non-dual life that we are. 'Not knowing is most intimate'. It allows us to be beyond what and who we think we are, which is exactly who we are. It supports us to be right-here-now.
'All phenomena are awakened sages who have put down their burden by realizing that no burdens were ever put upon them in the first place'. See, if we truly realize that there is no burdens in the first place, no limits, no knowing, no not-knowing, then we hear all phenomena, all dharmas, this non-duality and wisdom which is our life.
Keizan Zenji says, 'By revealing everything and being revealed by everything including the croaking of the frogs and the sound of earthworms, this Dharma preaches keenly and ceaselessly. It makes one raise eyebrows and blink. Our life is the functioning of non-sentient Dharma preaching. Not something else. Not two. It is not something out there, not some special feeling in here. It is not other than exactly who you are. Just this!
From the beginning, practice is being this that you are right now. This is exactly what we encounter from morning to night. This is Linji's, 'True person, no-rank, listening right here now'.
By/Elihu Genmyo Smith
Salam,
Cherine
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