Understand the jewel of liberation
and use it to benefit yourself and all others.
The moon rises over the river,
wind moves in the pines
all through the night. Purity. Calm.
What does this calm mean?
The jewel of liberation is just your mind.
Things are just as they are
There is no such thing as purity or stains, calm and chaos they are all one in the same.
I welcome comments, but I may integrate them into the commentary.
I hope that my efforts are helpful in clearing my own delusion as well as that of others, I recognise that I set myself up as a kind of teacher here in this commentary, I am not your zen master, you are!
Jordan
Acknowledgments
6 comments:
Hi Jordan,
Another beautiful picture!
This reminds me of the saying, "the truth will set you free" and there is a lot of "truth" in that!
Good Post!
Love,
Mom
Mom,
Read your blog post this morning. I really appreciate it.
I will make some comments when I have some more time, I have a Staff meeting in a few minutes. But I would like to share my daily Horror scope with you as I think it is somewhat relevant…
No matter how competent you are, you can suffer now if others don't recognize your contribution. Uncharacteristically, you might work even harder than normal to garner the attention you want. This, in turn, could make you may feel less romantic than usual. If you think you should be doing more, remember that it's inefficient to waste your energy on guilt. It's smarter to focus your attention on the love that is real.
Love
Jordan
Jordan, me feels you a bit too casual with this "just your mind" thing. In the "Faith Mind Sutra" by the Third Zen Ancestor he states "To seek Mind with the discriminating mind is the greatest of all mistakes." He seems to be referring to two minds. This discriminating or discursive mind is something I have a little experience with. I do not see how it would be of any benefit to myself or other. Part of the work and joy of zazen is the seeing through this small egocentric mind. You must be talking about some other mind?
This "jewel of liberation" is referred to by a famous poem called "On Zen" by Daito Kokushi, 1232 - 1308. (Emphasis mine.)
There is a reality even prior to heaven and earth;
Indeed, it has no form, much less a name;
Eyes fail to see it; It has no voice for ears to detect;
To call it Mind or Buddha violates its nature,
For it then becomes like a visionary flower in the air;
It is not Mind, nor Buddha;
Absolutely quiet, and yet illuminating in a mysterious way,
It allows itself to be perceived only by the clear-eyed.
It is Dharma truly beyond form and sound;
It is Tao having nothing to do with words.
Wishing to entice the blind,
The Buddha has playfully let words escape his golden mouth;
Heaven and earth are ever since filled with entangling briars.
O my good worthy friends gathered here,
If you desire to listen to the thunderous voice of the Dharma,
Exhaust your words, empty your thoughts,
For then you may come to recognize this One Essence.
I'm of two minds over the next lines. (Pun intended). First, on face value this sounds so pleasant.
Moon reflected in the river, branches waving in the breeze. A quiet pleasant evening. "Purity. Calm." Like my zazen?!?
My second mind sees moon has no intent, wind just moves. If this calm had any meaning, all of Zen would be fodder for the latrine.
My understanding is less than perfect and I look forward to being straightened out by my friends.
Hi Will,
Even the mind that separates this and that, me and you or heaven and earth (as Dogen put it) is just the one mind.
That's why we receive (accept) all aspects of the self in Zazen because, even though we may conclude differently at times, the whole universe, including our thoughts to the contrary, is just 'one human body', 'one bright pearl' (again, as Dogen put it).
I think everyones understanding is less than perfect and so it is quite perfect in itself in this sense.
"My second mind sees moon has no intent, wind just moves. If this calm had any meaning, all of Zen would be fodder for the latrine."
The practitioner is allowing things to simply be as they are. He is perceiving reality just as it is and realises that if he put any subjective intellectual value such as 'meaning' on it that it would no longer be reality. He's stating that the Zen method is a way of realising reality I think.
Regards,
Harry.
I think the 'Jewel of Liberation' in this context may refer more directly to the gem of the Dharma (as in the Three jewels; Buddha, Dharma, Sangha). But, they could all be said to be 'jewels of liberation' I suppose.
Regards,
H.
Will,
You might want to look over lines 37-39 again. Especially the part about the essence of mind. I hope that helps.
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Harry, did you perform the Irish mind meld with me when I was asleep?
Also even the “Three Jewels” are just concepts of mind.
Sorry y’all if I am leaning to the right lately.
Take care
Jordan
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