bill..this is lovely..thank you..so poetical ..merle Merle and Joe,
Awakening can be like a a soft Spring rain or like a flash of lightening. Here is how the difference between awakening using Soto teaching techniques (focuses on shikantaza) and Rinzai teaching techniques (focuses on koans): Awakening using Soto's shikantaza is like strolling around in a light mist and then at the end of the day suddenly realizing you're soaking wet. Awakening using Rinzai's koan study is like being unexpectedly pushed into a swimming pool. You are suddenly soaking wet but when you surface you just float there sputtering not really knowing what just happened to you. ...Bill! --- In Zen_Forum@yahoogroups.com, Merle Lester <merlewiitpom@...> wrote: > > > > Â joe..so awakening is not a spring storm from what i gather here.. > .how can you make that clear assumption?.. > can not it be a spring storm?... > you have made clarification here > Â however i am yet to be convinced... > merle > > > Â > No, Merle. > > Awakening dawns in a lightning flash. There is no time taken. > > Experience this, and be happy. It may last for days, or months. It depends > on one's preparations (overall practice). > > It is not a one-shot deal: awakenings are possible continuously. > > Awakenings are mostly a physical state: if anyone tells you that awakening > has anything to do with thinking, or takes time to dawn, then they have never > been so blessed, themselves. Awakening is a grace, but it takes all one's > efforts to make oneself *susceptible* to the lightning striking. It strikes > gently. And changes everything. But you cannot measure the length of time > it takes to dawn. It is, well, "Sudden". And called-so, for millennia, for > good reason. > > Else, it's all fantasy, projection, and a posturing parroting of reading. > > This is serious. This is a matter of Life and Death. > > It concerns the body. In fact, it's the ONLY significant matter of life and > death, independent of health, or length of years lived. > > Awaken once, awaken several times, or never awaken. We have THIS life in > which to practice. We know nothing about other lives... . > > Again, this is ...SERIOUS. It's called, "The Great Matter". > > No, not the Grey Matter. Nope! > > Ancients said: "Awaken in the Morning, and happily die in the Evening!" > > Mayor Ed Koch of New York City said, in 1972, "Heroin: it's so good, don't > even try it ONCE." (and then it was plastered all over the Subway in > Public-Service-Announcement signs). > > Storms take time to manifest. Awakening does not. Zen is the "Sudden" > school. > > Even in Soto Zen, awakening is sudden. Progress in Zazen and overall > practice is steady (or not...), but awakening is Sudden, and something that > the Teacher will recognize, at about the same time that you do. There's no > hiding it. > > And, there's no faking it. > > ...no matter which of the three surviving Zen schools you practice in, or in > any hybrid of them. > > Quiet, gentle Lightning; not storms, Merle. > > One flash will do you. And it may last a while. Depending on you. And on > causes and conditions. And that is the *START* of Zen practice. Then you > may begin. > > --Joe / in Lightning-Country, Sonoran Desert, USA / Summer 2013 > > > <merlewiitpom@> wrote: > > > > Â joe...yes indeed... the music comes from the heart..the zen awakening > > comes as swiftly as a spring rain storm..merle >
