Hi Anthony,
1. Yes, you are right。 Kensho『見性』 is resulted from sitting, which
is a state before Samadhi『三摩地』。All these descriptions are resulted
from sitting. No different from describing the taste of Apple.
2. Don't know what you were trying to say.
3. Heart is everything you were talking about. It is the integration
of our mind and our physical being. Also mind is the collection of
every cell in our body. Heart is our complete being. Heart is the
center of our true "spiritual being". 『靈性』。 Please do not analyze,
categorize, think in terms of words. Practice and you shall witness.
Heart is extremely powerful.
All words are just descriptions of various states of being. Studying
these words, like ED was doing, is NOT practice. These two domains do
not intersect. Let me share a phrase with you from one China man to
another.
達摩祖師於其血脈論中說：「見性為禪，若不見性，即非禪 也。」又說：「性及
是心，心即是佛，佛即是道，道即是禪。」
覺妙精明合十頂禮
禪宗第八十六代總教授師。
Be Enlightened In This Life - We ALL Can
http://chanjmjm.blogspot.com
http://www.heartchan.org
On 11/23/2010 12:51 PM, Anthony Wu wrote:
JMJM,
Most of your remarks make sense. But there is a problem with the
following:
Most of us consider kensho a result of stillness, but you think it the
other way around.
Yes, the Sixth Patriarch did not write, because he was unable to. He
was illiterate. That does not mean he did not want to. His famous poem
was dictated by him and written by his fellow student on the wall, to
counter a different idea by Shenxiu. On the other hand, he read with
or without the help of others, including his teacher. His favorite
reading was the Diamond Sutra.
The third point is about the 'heart'. What do you think it is? The
organ that can be transplanted? An emotional center that is used in
the expression: I love my girl friend with all my heart? Or one of the
centers where you can manipulate your 'chi' (heart chakra)?
Anthony
--- On *Tue, 23/11/10, Jue Miao Jing Ming - 覺妙精明
/<[email protected]>/* wrote:
From: Jue Miao Jing Ming - 覺妙精明 <[email protected]>
Subject: [Zen] Three Buddhist Practices
To: [email protected]
Date: Tuesday, 23 November, 2010, 9:20 AM
Hi All,
The three fundamental Buddhist practices is "Discipline,
Meditation, Wisdom". In Pali, they are "sila, samadhi, panna", or
translated into "morality, stillness, wisdom." Word wise, jhana
and samadhi and stillness are the same. Morality and discipline
are the same. Some of you may disagree about this "same". They
are the "same" in practice. They are different only in our heads.
As you know, Chan is not taught through words. Chan is about
practice. Let me explain.
My Teacher calls the first practice "purification". When our body
and mind become pure, we automatically disciplined and moral. I
call the first practice "detox". Detox from all our habits -
habitual concepts, habitual actions, habitual food, habitual life
style. It is like a reboot.
When we reach this clean state of being, then we reach samadhi,
jhana, stillness or just Ding, as we call it in our school. It is
a state of stillness, yet spacious, expansive, clear,
thoughtless......
Maintaining in this state, enables us to be in sync with the
energy and wisdom of the universe.
Kensho is when our heart outshines our mind. It is also a
description of state. Usually it means a state of clear mind or
stillness before we reach samadhi.
Shigantaza however is the same practice (from the discipline,
through sitting to clear mind to kensho).
In short, if we can detach ourselves from the descriptions from
these states and simply Just Sit without thoughts and cultivate
our chi. We can reach all these states.
In our school, we have a fourth state, our Teacher calls it,
liberation. It means liberation of our heart after we quiet or
clear our mind.
There is really no need to comprehend, just practice. The Sixth
Patriarch did not even read or write.
:-)
Be Enlightened In This Life - We ALL Can
http://chanjmjm.blogspot.com <http://chanjmjm.blogspot.com/>
http://www.heartchan.org <http://www.heartchan.org/>
On 11/22/2010 6:47 AM, [email protected]
<http://sg.mc761.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]>
wrote:
ED,
My formal teaching has been in Japanese Zen Buddhism so most of
the terms of which I am familiar are Japanese.
These are my understanding of some of the terms we've been using:
Kensho: A brief and temporary glimpse of Buddha Nature.
Satori: Essentially the same as kensho but a much more
long-lasting and persistent awareness of Buddha Nature.
Shikantaza: 'Clear Mind', pure awareness. I call this state 'Just
THIS!'. Clear Mind with Awareness = Buddha Mind/Buddha Nature.
Wikipedia defines shikantaza as: .. (只管打坐?) ... a Japanese
term for zazen introduced by Rujing and associated most with the
Soto school of Zen Buddhism, but which also is "the base of all
Zen disciplines." According to Dōgen Zenji, shikantaza i.e.
resting in a state of brightly alert attention that is free of
thoughts, directed to no object, and attached to no particular
content—is the highest or purest form of zazen, zazen as it was
practiced by all the buddhas of the past.
Samadhi: I am familiar with this term only from reading. It
always seemed to me to be the same as shikantaza. Wikipedia
defines samadhi as: "...a non-dualistic state of consciousness in
which the consciousness of the experiencing subject becomes one
with the experienced object, and in which the mind becomes still,
one-pointed or concentrated though the person remains conscious.
In Buddhism, it can also refer to an abiding in which mind
becomes very still but does not merge with the object of
attention, and is thus able to observe and gain insight into the
changing flow of experience."
The Thai's use the term 'samadhi' to refer to Theravada Buddhist
meditation. They have a different word 'glai-glia' to refer to
other types of mediation.
>From my experience Clear Mind/shikantaza (samadhi?) and
kensho/satori are virtually the same. The only difference is that
kensho/satori denotes the point that you become AWARE of Clear
Mind (samadhi?). So if you have to put them in some kind of time
sequence, first there is Clear Mind without awareness, then
Kensho/Satori which is the realization/awareness of Clear Mind,
and then Clear Mind continues with awareness.
Koans, in my experience, are used as a tool to stop the rational,
discriminating mind's activities. It is only in this state than
kensho/satori can occur. There are other ways to stop the
discriminating mind such as just sitting (zazen). Eventually you
will reach the state of shikantaza (samadhi?) in which a pure
awareness can arise. This I call Buddha Mind/Buddha Nature.
All of the above occurs IN THE ABSENCE of
thinking/rationality/cognition. Part of zen practice AFTER kensho
is to re-integrate thinking/rationality/cognition WITHOUT forming
attachments to the concepts generated by thinking.
Having said all this I have to add the following caveat which is
a paraphrase of Genjo's caveat on the 5 subdivisions of koans:
'any number of subdivisions and terms describing zen practice and
awareness states could be devised, and all are ultimately
meaningless. Zen is everyday life. Zen is nothing special. Zen is
"Only Don't Know!". Zen is Just THIS!'
This is my experience.
...Bill!
