ED, Such sayings or writings as these, including ALL koans, say exactly what they say - and no more. There are no hidden meanings in zen, nothing eclectic or secretive.
'Selling water by the river' means everything he was teaching his whole life was readily available to all - without him as intermediary. 'My labors have been wholly without merit.' means he acted without any thought or hope of merit. He just acted. No self, no karma, no merit, no blame - Just THIS! ...Bill! --- In [email protected], "ED" <seacrofter001@...> wrote: > > > Master Sogaku Harada died at the age of ninety-one. > At his funeral service hung a piece of calligraphy written by himself: > > "For forty years I have been selling water by the bank of a river. Ho ho > ho. My labors have been wholly without merit." > > What did Master Sogaku Harada mean? > > > > --- In [email protected], Jue Miao Jing Ming wrote: > > > > Good Morning Bill, Chris, Mel and All, > > > > Thank you for your feedback. Because these terminology is not in the > > "usual" zen dictionary. I needed to know whether I should continue on > > this path, though Chan uses primarily Tao in practice and Buddhism in > > describing spirituality. I also sensed that probably people are too > > nice to me and left my post alone, because Zen does not speak this > way. :-) > > > > Buddha taught for 49 years. And his teachings probably contains the > > most material describing various states of spirituality. I sense > > probably it is time to talk a little about spirituality. > > > > Words such as Kensho, Satori, Samadhi are all from Buddhism and are > all > > labels for a certain spiritual state, or realm, or level, or whatever > > you prefer. Nonetheless, spiritual states are difficult to describe no > > matter what label we use. > > > > The goal here is trying to connect spirituality with our daily life, > in > > other words explain the relationship of our heart and our mind how to > > relate them to our practice. > > > > On the other hand, I noticed that there are very few discussion about > > nirvana, enlightenment, Buddhahood. These are the essence of our > > practice. These are not goals, as rejected by Zen purest, but > > spirituality states we could witness. After 6, 7 years on this forum, > I > > sense it is probably time to say it clearly that "we all can be > > enlightened in this life." Buddha did it in 13 years. My teacher did > > it in 8 years. Why can't we. > > > > We all can. Yet we have to start with the unfiltered communication and > > the unfiltered practice with an engaged and honest witness. If the > > communication are filtered by our mind, then the rest of it will also > be > > filtered out. > > > > JM > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
