The Ten Oxherding Pictures

                               http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/mzb/oxherd.htm        

The Ten Oxherding Pictures

From The Manual of Zen Buddhism, D.T. Suzuki

By Shubun (15th Century)

 

1. Undisciplined

With his horns fiercely projected in the air the beast snorts,
Madly running over the mountain paths, farther and farther he goes astray!
A dark cloud is spread across the entrance of the valley,
And who knows how much of the fine fresh herb is trampled under his wild hoofs!

2. Discipline Begun

I am in possession of a straw rope, and I pass it through his nose,
For once he makes a frantic attempt to run away, but he is severely whipped and whipped;
The beast resists the training with all the power there is in a nature wild and ungoverned,
But the rustic oxherd never relaxes his pulling tether and ever-ready whip.

3. In Harness

Gradually getting into harness the beast is now content to be led by the nose,
Crossing the stream, walking along the mountain path, he follows every step of the leader;
The leader holds the rope tightly in his hand never letting it go,
All day long he is on the alert almost unconscious of what fatigue is.

4. Faced Round

After long days of training the result begins to tell and the beast is faced round,
A nature so wild and ungoverned is finally broken, he has become gentler;
But the tender has not yet given him his full confidence,
He still keeps his straw rope with which the ox is now tied to a tree.

5. Tamed

Under the green willow tree and by the ancient mountain stream,
The ox is set at liberty to pursue his own pleasures;
At the eventide when a grey mist descends on the pasture,
The boy wends his homeward way with the animal quietly following.

6. Unimpeded

On the verdant field the beast contentedly lies idling his time away,
No whip is needed now, nor any kind of restraint;
The boy too sits leisurely under the pine tree,
Playing a tune of peace, overflowing with joy.

7. Laissez Faire

The spring stream in the evening sun flows languidly along the willow-lined bank,
In the hazy atmosphere the meadow grass is seen growing thick;
When hungry he grazes, when thirsty he quaffs, as time sweetly slides,
While the boy on the rock dozes for hours not noticing anything that goes on about him.

8. All Forgotten

The beast all in white now is surrounded by the white clouds,
The man is perfectly at his ease and care-free, so is his companion;
The white clouds penetrated by the moon-light cast their white shadows below,
The white clouds and the bright moon-light-each following its course of movement.

9. The Solitary Moon

Nowhere is the beast, and the oxherd is master of his time,
He is a solitary cloud wafting lightly along the mountain peaks;
Clapping his hands he sings joyfully in the moon-light,
But remember a last wall is still left barring his homeward walk.

10. Both Vanished

Both the man and the animal have disappeared, no traces are left,
The bright moon-light is empty and shadowless with all the ten-thousand objects in it;
If anyone should ask the meaning of this,
Behold the lilies of the field and its fresh sweet-scented verdure.

Complete explanation and entire book MANUAL OF ZEN BUDDHISM by D.T. Suzuki found at

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/mzb/index.htm

THE FIVE STAGES OF SPRITUAL PRACTICE

“The Most Excellent Mirror Samadhi”: Parte I

Introduction: THE FIVE STAGES OF SPRITUAL PRACTICE 

Ozmo Piedmont, Ph.D.

In his book, BUDDHA RECOGNIZES BUDDHA, Rev. Master Daishin Morgan, a disciple of Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett, the founder of our Order of Buddhist Contemplatives, describes the 5 stages of spiritual practice as it is presented in a scripture of great importance to our tradition of Soto Zen Buddhism, which is entitled, “The Most Excellent Mirror Samadhi”, written by the Master Tozan in the 9th century of this our current era.  Utilizing the poetic symbolism of a mirror, it describes the Absolute in relation to the relative, or rather, the relation of the individual to the Cosmic Buddha.   In his analysis, Rev. Master Morgan advises us that we shouldn’t try to identify where we are in the series of stages, since all 5 stages are functioning in us from the beginning of our spiritual practice, with an emphasis more on one than the other, besides the fact that in Dogen’s “Rules for Meditation” we are told that “this practice is not something that is done in stages; it is simply the lawful gateway to carefree peace.”  Zen is a discipline of sudden Enlightenment, since from the beginning of the practice of meditation there is the mind of our Buddha nature expressing itself, in which the practice is Enlightenment itself.  However, we have to practice continually in order to realize this Reality, and see how it applies to our lives.  The five stages of spiritual development are: 1. THE ABSOLUTE CALLS TO THE RELATIVE; 2. THE RELATIVE ANSWERS THE ABSOLUTE; 3. THE ABSOLUTE AND THE RELATIVE MEET; 4. THE ABSOLUTE ONLY; and 5. THE RETURN TO THE  WORLD. 

1. THE ABSOLUTE CALLS TO THE RELATIVE

The first stage is about the discovery of the necessity to practice spiritually in order to overcome suffering.  One begins to look inside, realizing that we are responsible for our own problems.  Somehow we must find a way to live better, becoming open to question everything, and more importantly, to find help.  We realize that perhaps we were wrong in our conclusions and the ways we led our lives.  If I was wrong in the past, it could be now time to leave my own opinions aside, being now ready to receive guidance from others, including the Sangha, a teacher, and the Universe itself, in order to find peace. It is in its core a lesson of how to love without desire.  It is also a lesson that everything we are looking for in life can be found right here, inside of ourselves, right in the present.  Now, instead of looking for endless proofs confirming that the Infinite exists, we are now ready to receive the Truth directly in our hearts, listening now to the call of the Absolute. 

2. THE RELATIVE ANSWERS THE ABSOLUTE

In the second stage, one commits him/herself to practice, following the Noble Eightfold Path, and with the intention to practice the Precepts.  Now we are actively on the path of studying the causes of suffering and learning how to eliminate them.  We begin now to do what is good without attaching ourselves to greed, anger, and confusion.  This stage can be very lone, sometimes called “the long littleness.”  It is the time when one must face all of one’s doubts, one’s patterns of errors, and the resistance one has to change one’s old conditioned and damaging habits in our daily lives.  Often at this time we distract ourselves with substitutions for the real study, with less profitable undertakings, such as erudition, intellectualization, and pedantries.  But eventually we realize that there are no short cuts, that one must face him or herself and do the work in our natural and daily lives.

3.  THE ABSOLUTE AND THE RELATIVE MEET  

In the third stage, the personal sense of separation from the Infinite now dissolves.  The commitment to follow the spiritual path grows even more.  One comes to trust more and more in the compassion and wisdom of the Infinite as fundamental aspects of the Universe.  One begins to see one’s true nature within, resulting in what is called Kensho, which may manifest suddenly or, for most practitioners, very slowly over a long time, as a profound experience of reality based on Buddha nature.    Now the worries disappear and one is filled with gratitude and appreciation.  One now experiences all acceptance and equanimity.  One no the longer attaches to anything, including the experience of Kensho.  One finds the true Self, and at the same time one empties oneself, knowing that one doesn’t know anything.  One just gets on with the work of each day to eliminate all the causes of suffering for oneself and others.   

4.        THE ABSOLUTE ALONE   

In the fourth stage, one reaches a profound understanding of emptiness.  There is now no little “self” that knows anything.  The Universe is completing itself in each and every moment.  One eliminates greed and desire completely from one’s mind.  One sees everything as the unfolding of conditions in the world which are asking for direct responses of compassion.  One experiences the “self” as empty, only doing that which needs to be done in each moment.  One sees the fullness in everything, the fullness of emptiness.  

5.        THE RETURN TO THE WORLD  

In the fifth stage, one begins to work as a bodhisattva, committed to the wellbeing of all beings, expressing kindness to everyone.  The idea of a little self has now disappeared, and one discovers that everything is empty and pure.  One makes an effort to embrace and value the whole world just as it is.   

Understanding the five stages of spiritual development, now one is ready to consider the scripture “The Most Excellent Mirror Samadhi.”  It is an Enlightenment poem of transmission from teacher to student.  It is a poem that shows how the Infinite, or the Cosmic Buddha, is right inside of every one of us.  The image of a “mirror” in the poem represents Zazen, or Serene Reflection Meditation as it is known in our school of Soto Zen.   Rev. Master Daishin Morgan says that one should not do Zazen in order to reach Enlightenment, but rather it is actually the mind of Buddha expressing itself in that moment.  One cannot grasp this mind of Zazen.  One can only give oneself to this mind, which in its core is Buddha Nature.    The mirror of Zazen reflects everything just as it is, recognizing the individuality of each person, while every reflected image is never separate from the mirror itself.  In fact, the mirror is the Absolute manifesting itself as the individual in the act of doing Zazen.  The mirror and its reflections are not two separate things, since one depends upon the other, and at the same time the two are distinct aspects of the unity.  

The word “Samadhi” in the title is a symbol for the activity of the mirror of Zazen helping to purify our Karma.  The only thing that it is necessary to do is to let the greed, hate, and confusion to be reflected  in the mirror of Zazen, allowing the mirror to do all the work of purification.  Samadhi is the state where one totally gives oneself to the mirror, including all our greed, anger and confusion, the three poisons that block the direct experience of our Buddha Nature. 

In Zazen, everything is reflected in the mind, and using mindfulness, we observe it without reacting in any way, without rejecting the image, nor attaching to it.  This includes thoughts, sensations, emotions, and feelings.  In the act of allowing everything to enter in our mind, including memories of the past, our karma, and our pain, the fact that we do not attach nor reject anything, we are trusting the Infinite to rectify and cure our illness.   One gives oneself completely to the Absolute, and we let the Infinite carry us, clean us, and purify us.  Then we give ourselves completely to the guidance of the Infinite in our lives, following It’s counsel showing us what it is good to do in every moment.  Seeing things as they are, we give ourselves to the Absolute, and following the advice of THAT, we do our spiritual work. 

In “The Most Excellent Mirror Samadhi” part II, it will be shown how the Absolute and the Relative are found in each moment, along with the value of faith, and then how one attains the overcoming of suffering which results in our salvation. 

THE EIGHTFOLD PATH: A MAP AND GUIDE FOR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

 THE EIGHTFOLD PATH: A MAP AND GUIDE FOR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

Ozmo Piedmont, Ph.D.

The Eightfold Path is a guide for living presented by the Buddha.  It is as relevant today as it was 2,500 years ago, when the Buddha first expounded it.  It contains wisdom based on the pragmatic observation that we all have a tendency to suffer in life, due to our fundamental desire to find happiness which has become misdirected.  Our culture has told us that the momentary pleasure gained through sense stimulation, possessions, and physical comfort will satisfy all our needs, and bring ultimate happiness.  We buy into this promise again and again, only to find that something is missing in our lives.  This discontent and interior emptiness is what the Buddha meant by suffering.  Though everyone experiences this basic discontent in life, the normal reaction is to do more of the same: buy more, do more, or find more stimulation in hopes that this will drown out that nagging feeling that something is missing deep down in our hearts.  Yet we yearn for something that we can’t even find expression to.  The real desire is a need to return to the Unborn, the Infinite that manifests as a deep wellbeing that finds expression in every act of our lives.  The Buddha recommends a specific technique to apply in our everyday life in order to reconnect ourselves with the Unborn, which is the EIGHTFOLD PATH: RIGHT UNDERSTANDING, RIGHT INTENTION, RIGHT SPEECH, RIGHT ACTION, RIGHT LIVELIHOOD, RIGHT EFFORT, RIGHT MINDFULNESS, AND RIGHT CONCENTRATION.

            The Eightfold Path is a roadmap for spiritual practice with specific tools that will liberate us from suffering.  The first step is RIGHT UNDERSTANDING, which involves the 4 Noble Truths, the three poisons, karma, impermanence, no-self and the skandhas.  If we understand the problem of suffering we can also learn how to end it, as the Buddha explained in the Four Noble Truths: Life is suffering, desire causes suffering, the elimination of desire eliminates suffering, and the way to eliminate desire is by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path.  Strong desire leads to the three poisons of greed, aversion, and confusion: greed being a demand on life that you must have something external in order to be happy; aversion being the frustration, resentment, anger, fear, worry, or hate that result from an unfulfilled desire or the desire to avoid or eliminate something in order to be happy; and confusion being a set of erroneous beliefs that contribute to or maintain patterns of suffering to oneself and/or others.  Why do these desires arise to begin with?  They are due to our Karma.  Negative Karma involves patterns of intentions we carry from life to life which tend to create more suffering.  Positive Karma involves intentions that result in the cessation of suffering.  For example, if our intention is to hurt others in order to obtain our desires, this pattern of thought leads to actions that not only causes pain to others, but in turn hurts ourselves, due to the fact that all is interconnected and nothing is permanent.  All is impermanent and in constant flow, one thing giving rise to another thing, all forms arising and evolving into something else, what the Buddha termed dependent origination.  However, the belief in a separate and permanent self is the fundamental confusion that allows us to hurt others, believing that if no one sees or knows that we are being selfish, then it will not affect us.  In turn, it is paramount to preserve and maintain this little, separate self at all costs, so the ends justify the means.  I must survive at the expense of others.  I fear that this separate little self may be killed or terminated, therefore I imagine all sorts of ways to hold on to an eternal little being called “me”.  However, the Buddha explained that there is no separate and permanent self, the term he used being “anatman”, meaning “no-self”.  This means that all is interconnected and made up of basic elements of the universe: earth, fire, air and water.  In addition, we ourselves are made up of basic elements, called skandhas, which consist of material form, sensation, perception, mental activity, and consciousness.  We all have a body and mind to experience the world.  This body receives messages from the environment as sensations, which are then recognized in the brain as perceptions.  These in turn are  manipulated or strung together into patterns of thinking that include impulses and mental activities to respond to the environment.  All this is held together by consciousness, which is a basic self-awareness that there is a here and now where body sensations and perceptions arise that are being strung together as ideas in the mind.  The ego is nothing more that a series of thoughts and associations based on the experience of a functioning body/mind complex.  Although we are individuals, this individuality is never separate from the whole, as an ocean and its waves.  The wave is both individual form and an integral part of the whole ocean.  We are individual forms arising, each with our individual experience and karma, but at no time are we separate from the Unborn. 

            Once we have right understanding of these basic principles of the Universe, we realize that any suffering we experience is due to our own misguided beliefs and intentions based on conditioning and desire.  In order to free ourselves from the old patterns that lead to suffering, we must develop the RIGHT INTENTION to practice spiritually, renouncing egocentric desires, thereby freeing ourselves from confusion, allowing us to return to our identification with our true Self, the Unborn.  Through the practice of caring for others as we do for ourselves, and through acts of benevolence, kindness, love and compassion, we purify karma, breaking our selfish patterns based on greed and desire.  The right intention is to do no harm, help others, and renounce desire. 

            Once right intention has been awakened, we must apply it in our daily lives, which are the next three steps of RIGHT SPEECH, RIGHT ACTION, and RIGHT LIVELIHOOD.  We become aware how our own speech and actions impact those around us.  Our words carry weight, and if we use thoughtless language, we hurt others.  If we are careless of our treatment of others, this can cause pain.  Ultimately, due to the law of cause and effect of karma, that which we sow, we reap.  If our intentions cause suffering, we suffer.  Plain and simple.  What we do to others, in reality is what we are doing to ourselves, since all is part of the same whole.  In addition, if our jobs somehow contribute to suffering or negativity, that will effect how we feel about ourselves and others, creating more pain all around us.  We come to see how we are part of a giant web of interactions.  As all in nature is part of bigger and more complex ecosystems, we begin to take responsibility for our own work and how it contributes to the world.  We become more ecological in our awareness, seeing that all of nature is our responsibility to care for and protect, that all beings in the universe have intrinsic value, and deserve to live life free of pain and suffering.  We search for ways to earn a living which will do the least amount of harm to those living systems, and we try to work in harmony and balance to care for the environment in which we live.  How do we know that we are out of harmony with the universe?  That which causes suffering in ourselves or others is exactly that which we need to focus on, to purify and to rectify in our intentions and our actions.  

            The sixth step in the Eightfold Path involves RIGHT EFFORT, the energy actually required to implement change in our old karmic patters of intention. Everyone is responsible for his or her own training.  Passively sitting on a cushion in meditation is only half the effort required for spiritual practice.  The other half is application into daily life.  Sitting provides our realization of re- connecting with the Unborn.  We then bring that realization into expression in daily life, as we encounter our karma of past intentions and actions that manifest as suffering or love, and we make the effort to change those patters into  egoless expressions of Divinity.  In so doing, there are 5 obstacles that tend to arise: 1. Sensual desire; 2. Ill will; 3. Laziness; 4. Restlessness; and 5. Doubt.  The first, sensual desire, includes all the addictions we suffer based on a belief that physical comfort and mental stimulation will bring happiness: food, sex, drugs, alcohol, expensive cloths and possessions. The second, ill will, includes all types of aversion, like anger, irritation, aversion, hate, rage, hostility, impatience, and jealousy.  The third, laziness, includes mental or physical sloth and torpor, the inertia that permeates our thoughts seducing us into procrastinating our meditation sessions or our spiritual practices  to another day when it may be more convenient or feels better.  The fourth, restlessness, includes agitation, regret, the need for constant stimuli, the dread of boredom, worry and fear.  The fifth and final obstacle is doubt, which arises when we forget, distrust, or lose faith in the Unborn as our anchor and foundation in life.  We practice to decrease these five obstacles, while fomenting the 7 factors of Illumination, which include: 1. Mindfulness; 2. Investigation; 3. Energy; 4. Rapture; 5. Tranquility; 6. Concentration; and 7. Equanimity.   Mindfulness is our primary tool of spiritual practice and meditation. It allows us to be in the present and helps us purify our karma.  We maintain an open attitude to investigate spiritual truth, the Dharma, generating a wholesome energy to apply ourselves to spiritual practice, which leads to deepening levels of joy, rapture, peace and tranquility.  All of this requires concentration through meditation, and equanimity as  surrender and gratitude to the Unborn.

            The seventh tool of the Eightfold Path is RIGHT MINDFULNESS .  Though external events and inner thoughts are changing constantly, we develop the ability to maintain tranquil attention that is alert, impartial, and indifferent.  Mindfulness is focuses on the present arising of experience, avoiding over identification with either future or past thoughts, avoiding conceptualizations or interpretations.  We just watch how thoughts and sensations arise, last for awhile, then subside.  Everything changes and is in a constant flux and flow. Nothing is permanent in the environment, the body, or the mind.  This attentive observation includes mental processes, body sensations, internal and external phenomena.  The active application of right mindfulness in daily life is made through application of the AAA OF SPIRITUAL PRACTICE : 1.  ABSTAIN,  2. ATTEND, and 3. ANALYZE.  When an intention is based on the three poisons of greed, aversion, or confusion, we ABSTAIN from acting on that impulse.  We then ATTEND to the arising thought or sensation, watching it without pushing it away or attaching to it, waiting until that idea, sensation or thought changes or subsides.  We then open ourselves to the Unborn and ask with an open heart, “What is it good to do right now?”  We also attend to the intuition, feeling or guidance that arises from the Unborn which guides us to do what is right in that moment.  Once we have then acted on that guidance, we let it go, trusting in the Wisdom of the Divine.  Finally, we take a moment to ANALYZE  what has happened, how it relates to our spiritual principles, and how to do better the  next time a similar pattern, or karma, arises.  Practicing mindfulness with the Triple A’s allows us to return to identification with our Buddha Nature, so we can receive guidance from the Source of the Unborn.

            The eighth step of the Eightfold Path is CONCENTRATION , which is the practice of  Serene Reflection Meditation, also known as shikantaza, silent illumination, vipassana and zazen.  Through sitting in silence, we can learn to balance body and mind, to observe without reacting, to be present, applying compassion, impartiality, equanimity, and gratitude.  We learn to dis-identify with our thoughts, sensations, desires, and fantasies, all aspects of an illusory ego self that ultimately causes suffering.  Everything we need to learn about truth, the real Self, and practice, begins with meditation.  Meditation can bring direct experience of the Unborn, an intuitive understanding of Truth, and the realization of our Buddha nature in everyday life.  Meditation is fundamental to our understanding and our practice.  Through meditation and application of the Noble Eightfold Path, we have the possibility of  unlocking the Secrets of the Universe.  As Dogen, the 13^th century master and teacher of Soto Zen once wrote, “Zazen is simply the natural and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of Buddha´s wisdom.”

Bibliography

Bodhi, Bhikkhu.  The Noble Eightfold Path.  Pariyatti Publishing: Onalaska, WA. 2008.

Why Study Zen Buddhist Meditation?

Why Study Zen Buddhist Meditation?

Ozmo Piedmont, Ph.D.

Those of us who are truly seeking joy in our lives may find in Zen Buddhist Meditation that which we seek.  We all wish to be free, to find love, and to understand the meaning of our lives.   Zen Buddhist Meditation offers techniques of self study to help realize these goals.  It has been practiced for thousands of year by millions of people all over the world,  first in India, then throughout China and the Far East, and now in Europe and America, refining and adapting these techniques to the people and cultures it has encountered along the way. The foundations of Zen Buddhist Meditation are built upon the direct experiences and insights gained through sitting in silence for a few minutes daily, and the transformation this may bring to one’s personality, one’s perceptions of the world, and how one interacts with others.  One literally rewires old outworn patterns of thinking and experiencing, and in so doing one may change one’s reality of the world.  From the first session of Zen Buddhist Meditation one begins to experience a deep sense of tranquility and peace that seems completely natural and innate.    For most people, Zen Buddhist Meditation can be learned simply and easily, if one is willing to make time to sit quietly daily.  How much is peace of mind worth?  Who wouldn’t be willing  to sit in silence if the result could be the end of suffering, fear, doubt, and delusion? 

                Zen Buddhist Meditation is a way of life in its practical applications and techniques that bring harmony, balance and healthy living.  It is a religion in that it aims to connect us with an Infinite source of love, wisdom and compassion, an un-nameable Presence that is without beginning nor end, is both impersonal and intimate, is unchanging, yet adaptive to all needs and circumstances.  Zen Buddhist Meditation is a also a psychology of self discovery and a scientific exploration of inner space and consciousness, answering the questions of who we are, why we do the things we do, and how we can eliminate unhealthy ways of thinking to bring about healthy changes.  Zen Buddhist Meditation is also mystical, in that it opens us to levels of direct experience with the Mystery of Life, a knowing that is outside of our rational, Western, dualistic confines of thinking and perception.  We learn to transcend our limited ego selves and rediscover our true Selves that are one with the Universe.

                Zen Buddhist Meditation is not just about sitting in a quiet place, harmonizing body and mind, although that is indispensible for rediscovering the Unborn.  Zen Buddhist Meditation also requires active involvement with life.  When we bring the active awareness of the Unborn into our lives, we learn to act in the world based on principles of respect, ecology, compassion, ethics, morality, insight, and beauty.  The study of Zen meditation requires both sitting in silence, as well as, action in the world through study and practice.   Sitting in Silence, as well as, our daily study through practice, are the two wings of the bird of Illumination.  With these two wings, we soar into the sky, learning to be free of our suffering, and becoming one with the Infinite. 

                Zen Buddhist Meditation is for many of us who continue to live practically in the world.  We must face the challenges of earning a living, raising a family,  cooking, cleaning, making love, travel, stress, and negotiation with our partners, spouses, bosses, employees, and the general public.  The Buddha indicated that there are 4 paths of Buddhism: 1. Male monks, 2. Female monks, 3. Male lay practitioners, 4. Female lay practitioners.  

                Those of us who are lay practitioners can take as a model and example the life of Vimalikirti, a Chinese businessman who lived in the 5^th – 6^th C  B.C.E. (Carré 2000; Ramirez 2002).  He was the quintessential lay practitioner who was so well versed in Buddhist wisdom, that saints and scholars from all over the world came to consult with him on learning the bodhisattva path.   What is a bodhisattva?  It is a being who has renounced his/her own salvation, refusing final Liberation into Nirvana, until all beings of all existences are also able to accompany him/her there, too.  This is a symbol of the Buddhist Ideal of compassion, where the individual is willing to give up all personal desires, including the desire for Liberation, until all are equally free.  It serves to take the conceptualization of Nirvana as a mental construct based on ego desires, bringing it to the level of every day work for the good of all.  It reveals the ideal of altruism and compassion for others before one’s personal gain.  Vimalikirti is an image of how each one of us can carry the commitment of a monk, as well as our temples and meditation cushions, right into the middle of our hearts every day.  When we do so, we are Nirvana itself.  It is no longer something in the distant future, but rather our actual lived experience of now.  If we do not live our religion in every moment, if we do not worship the Infinite in every experience, than we have compartmentalized the Divine into a cold stone statue that we only take out of the closet on special occasions, or whom we only visit when we think of it on special days, but which otherwise has little relevance to our lives.

   

Vimalikirti 5th-6th BCE

We the laity who choose to live in the everyday world of business, home, family, sex, restaurants, shops, driving, television and movies, have a particularly challenging path of choices that requires constant grounding and moment to moment considerations of practice which is quite different from living in a monestary.  Perhaps our biggest challenge is choice.  The world of human beings is one of multiple and often contradictory choices.  How to spend our time wisely, choosing to go in one direction as opposed to another?  It is often a very daunting job.  The demands of work, children and socializing with friends can appear to us that there is not a single minute free to sit in silence, let alone the undertaking of the study of Buddhist teachings.  But life is a mirror, showing us exactly what we need to know in each moment.  If we cannot take a minute for quiet reflection, than perhaps we are being run by the stress and strain of the world, as opposed to our choosing how to be in the world in each moment. 

                The Buddha said that basically, life is suffering. Perhaps we don’t even realize how much we suffer.  Suffering includes the discontent, irritations, impatience, and general angst of our existential dilemma, feeling that something is missing in our lives, wondering if this is all to living, wondering what it all means.  We suffer because we have misidentified ourselves with this body, this ego centered consciousness.  The Buddha said that we do not have individual, permanent, nor separate souls.  If we did, there would be no hope of true transformation resulting in our liberation.  We would be locked into isolated, unchanging beings, that could never really connect into anything truly transcendent or Divine.  Instead, the Buddha said we are like waves on a sea of consciousness, taking the individual wave for the whole picture, not seeing that below the surface, we are all one, unified in our consciousness, all parts of the great Ocean that is the Infinite.  The Buddhists use such terms as the Infinite, Unborn, Unchanging, and Undying, to break away from any limiting conceptualization of a finite God that can become an anthropomorphic reflection of our own limited perceptions.  Instead, That which is beyond all conceptualization is our true nature, our Buddha Nature, our True Self, and we work to discover this connection in every moment of our lives.  Zen Buddhist Meditation is a most precious tool to the realization to that True Self in the Divine. 

                                                                                            

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carré, Patrick (Trans).  Soûtra de la Liberté inconcevable.  Librairie Arthème Fayard : France, 2000

Ramírez Bellerín, Laurean  (Trans).  Sútra de Vimalakírti.  Editorial Kairós: Barcelona, Spain.  2002.

DANCING WITH THE STARS

DANCING WITH THE STARS

By

Ozmo Piedmont

I was a dancer for many years in New York City.  Some of my most memorable experiences happened when dancing, the most important of which occurred toward the end of my career when I was still in peak condition.  I was at a cross-road in the process of changing my career from dancing to psychology.  I had let go of my attachment to dreams of stardom and fame, and continued to dance for many months for the sheer pleasure of it.  This is much like meditation.  When we sit to meditate, we do it without attachment and expectations of what it will bring or make.  When we do our meditation for the imagined benefits and rewards it will bring, it diminishes our direct experience in the present.  In life too, while I was attached to fantasies of fame and fortune in some distant future, then I was in a constant state of agitation and dissatisfaction with the dance, leading to my eventual falling away from the practice of dance.  But it is in the actual doing of the dance that had its own benefit, as when Dōgen writes “…there is only one thing—to train hard for this is true enlightenment.”[1] Like training, dance is enjoyed through its practice, allowing something beautiful to arise through the partnering of body, mind, and heart.  When that truly happens, the world becomes a beautiful work of art.

I had been studying dance for many years in my teens and early twenties.  After attempts at making a living in the art and entertainment world, I became disillusioned.  I had been studying ballet at various academies in New York City, all the time surrounded by skilled professionals from around the world.  I had been far too concerned comparing my skills with theirs, and feeling the futility of reaching the goal of perfection.  I was on the verge of giving up my dream of becoming a professional dancer.  Of course, this had created my own gap, creating opposites of perfection/imperfection, good/bad, and judgments that haunted my direct experience of dance. That separation was my own delusion, my own ego that said, ‘You are not good enough, you will never reach the goal you seek, it is not enough to just dance.’  While I held on to this mistaken belief of what my mind was telling me, I was despondent and dissatisfied with life. 

Nevertheless, there is always the possibility that one can let go of these little ego attachments, and have a direct experience of Truth.  For me, this moment became quite apparent one afternoon at ballet school.  I was going through the typical stretches and movements of warm up in the class, without any sense of trying to prove something to anyone.  My little self was beginning to fall away from the expectation.  Toward the end of the class, the teacher presented a series of steps that started from one corner of the room and wound their way to the opposite corner of the room.  The mirrors were there, the people were there, which in the past had kept me bound by doubts, criticisms and judgments of little self. But for some reason, this time it was different.  I just let go of it all.  I was not dancing to impress or to gain anything.  I was in the moment, just dancing, nothing special, and nothing out of the ordinary.  But in that ordinariness came the blessing. 

The steps begin.  My body moves and turns across the floor.  The grand piano plays a lilting waltz that buoys my steps.  The sun streams through the gauze of drapery in front of enormous glass panes from floor to ceiling.  I glide effortlessly, focusing on the steps, feeling the music, and letting go.  I do not really comprehend at this moment what is happening.  I allow myself to just dance, and in so doing, I enter a gateway of spaciousness.  As I continue the combination of steps, the music crescendos while I turn, twirl, and leap into the air: I seem to be flying.  Suddenly the moment stretches into eternity…the room falls away…I am free…filled with joy…complete…at one with the universe. 

Then it is over.  I continue down the floor, completing the choreography.  I know something important has happened, but have no words to describe it.  What ends in an apparent moment of time, begins a quest that guides my life from that time on. 

The search to understand led me through a life that left the dance world of New York, traveled to India, returned to California, studied a doctorate, and moved to Mexico.  The search continued for decades, but something always haunted me.  Then, a couple of years ago, when I began practicing Sōtō Zen, my understanding shifted.  I realized that I had been searching for something outside myself, something extraordinary that would change my life.  I have since learned that happiness is not found in some distant dream, but rather right now. It is found in the simple ordinary life we all lead. 

Dōgen makes this very clear.  He writes: “The kōan appears naturally in daily life.”[2] The search had begun the moment I experienced the ineffable.  I didn’t have the framework way back then to comprehend what it was.  Ego continued to play its silly games of wishes, wants, and future recompense.  But something was calling.  The little self can never fully comprehend what the Truth is, it will always judge, divide, compare, postpone, and create the gap of experience that leads to the mistaken belief that we are inferior somehow.  When we stop searching for something external to ourselves, something in the distant future, something that we have to gain or earn, when we refrain from this delusion, then we discover the essential Truth that is always present, our Buddha Nature, the harmony that can permeate all experience.  There is no gap, no separation between formal sitting and life.  When we sit, we just sit.  We surrender to that moment.  We open ourselves to the universe.  We watch the thoughts pass by, like a dance across the floor, observing, doing, being in the moment, and in so doing the moment becomes eternity. 

We often miss the present in our search for future.  Just living is its own reward.  We do not need to make it into something else.  As we go through the activities of daily life, we become aware of that stillness that permeates everything.  Little self begins to surrender to that stillness.  Most of us do not want to believe this is possible.  We clutter our minds with all kinds of attachments and delusions, thinking these will make us happy.  We believe that if we could just have a little more money, have the right job, marry the right person, get something outside of now, then we would be happy.   Or we do the opposite, thinking if we could just avoid that which is undesirable, get away from the person we don’t like, avoid the pain we feel, then all would be well.  But it doesn’t really work.  We become stuck in the same old patterns of delusion that believe nirvana is somewhere out there just beyond reach. This belief keeps us bound to our karma and suffering, an endless cycle of wanting and avoiding and feeling dissatisfied.   Eventually, we learn through sitting, to be in the ‘now’ to face that which is presenting itself.  We learn to approach life with the same presence as our sitting.  Nothing is outside of meditation and practice.  In a sense, we are all learning to become better dancers.  We want to dance, but often don’t know how. 

This is my kōan, a spiritual riddle for my life:  How to dance with others?  I see myself as part of a team, all of us doing the best we can to get the work done.  Nevertheless, I often get in the way of the work flowing naturally.  My little self wants to lead the dance, without consideration of others, their feelings, their fears, and their desire to do better.  When I remember to dance according to the Precepts of training, the dance becomes an invitation for others to dance with me, to a rhythm based on harmony, interdependence, and mutual trust.  When I let go of my judgments and little self demands, I begin to dance with love and respect, revealing the best of myself as I follow the paces in my day.   I begin to see the ‘dance’ of work in fresh ways.  I see the talents of others, their ability to contribute to the overall wellbeing of the workplace.  It is as if I am learning to dance ensemble.  I am learning to be mindful of others and their needs, taking the time to offer a kind word, a gentle thought, or a helping hand. 

At times I lead, at others I follow.  The dance cannot work if everyone leads at the same time.  Some learn through example.  They watch as we practice, as we carry out our responsibilities and interact with others.  This is the ongoing practice, applying the Buddha’s Precepts as if we are learning the steps to a dance.  At some point, we must stop rationally thinking about the steps, allowing the presence of Truth to emerge and express itself fully through the movement.  Our lives become guided, much like choreographed steps, skilled and dignified, moment to moment, at work, at home, while cooking, cleaning, discussing with our partners, figuring out the solutions to life’s challenges, each step gracefully following the other, all perfect in its simplicity: “The kōan appears naturally in daily life.”[3]   Dōgen teaches the steps to a balanced life, the choreography to unleash our creative potential.  In so doing, we become set free, ‘dancing with the stars’.

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[1] Great Master Dōgen Rules for Meditation

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.