in the Cloud

“A monk asked, What is the ultimate teaching of all Buddhas? Hogen answered, “You have it too.”

Description: Case 27: Hôgen Points to the Bamboo Blinds

Hôgen pointed to the bamboo blinds with his hand. At that moment, two monks who were there went over to the blinds together and rolled them up. Hôgen said, "One has gained, one has lost."

Henry explores this penetrating koan. Gain and loss are amongst the most deeply ingrained concepts and assumptions that we hold.  Gain and loss, closely allied with success and failure, wind themselves around and through our consciousness. David Loy has said that western culture institutionalizes greed (gain), and that: “the self is intrinsically anxious precisely because it has a deep unsettling intuition that it doesn’t really exist.”  In this koan, when Hogen says “one gains, one loses,” he is sharing his world—a world where gain and loss are equally welcome, because both are full expressions of the fundamental fact of the universe.  Listen to this talk, dive into the depths of gain and loss, and hear the brief but profound teachings of Master Hogen.

Post Image Credit: Duality + Balance, by Hartwig HKD, CC BY-ND 2.0.

Featured Image Credit: Yin + Yang, by Hartwig HKD, CC BY-ND 2.0.

“In every realm of suffering there is a Buddha; flowers fall amid our longings; weeds spring up amid our antipathies…”

Description: Case 26:  Kyôzan Points to Snow

Kyôzan pointed to the snow lion and said, "Is there anything that goes beyond this color?"

Unmon said, "I would have pushed it over for him at once."

Setchô commented, "He only knows how to knock it over, but he doesn't know how to help it up."

Henry unpacks this startling koan to expose the shocking fact of emptiness—that all is united in one color or one “goneness.”  To support his explication Henry riffs elegantly on the significance of the “absolute" three treasures: buddha, dharma and sangha. Zen practice gathers and focuses each of us, so that over time we can look at our own mind, our own innermost consciousness which, ultimately, brings us home to our heart.

Post Image: Buddha Mind, by Hartwig HKD, CC BY-ND 2.0.

Featured Image Credit: Ordinary Mindness is the Way, by Hartwig HKD, CC BY-ND 2.0.

Description: Henry closes his Rohatsu series on Hakuin’s Song of Zazen with “l'esprit d'escalier” ("staircase wit”), a French term for thinking of the right repartee just too late, as one is leaving the party.  We learn more about Hakuin’s life and death. Hakuin’s fear, and also his pride, made it difficult for him to settle into really being himself, and seeing through into his intrinsic life and nature. Henry directly equates Haiku’s willingness to face suffering as the key characteristic that made him into great master. We are all called to the hard work of practice, to face both darkness and light, and to embody the one true nature that is shared by all.

Post Image: Tree of Life in Spring, by Hartwig HKD, CC BY-ND 2.0.

Featured Image Credit: #zazen, by toufeeq hussain, CC BY-SA 2.0.

How boundless and free is the sky of samadhi,

how bright the full moon of the four fold wisdom.

Truly is anything lacking at this moment?

Nirvana is right here before our eyes.

This very place is the lotus land, this very body, the Buddha. - Hakuin

Description: Henry continues his discussion of Hakuin Zenji’s Song of Zazen. He explores the “four-fold wisdom,” which includes “perfect mirror-wisdom,” where all things are seen just as they are, “equality wisdom,” (where all things are one, all beings are Buddha), “wisdom of true perceiving,” (where the fundamental reality is clear), and the “wisdom of true working” (where one can work to benefit all beings). Hakuin calls these four types of wisdom the “one full moon.”  We also learn about Yasutani Roshi, who in his own time, like Hakuin in his, thought contemporary Buddhist practice in Japan was missing the critical component of true experiential awakening.  Yasutani’s efforts at Zen renewal is one element within the roots of the Sanbo Zen lineage. Henry also discusses samadhi and how it makes us more vulnerable to a true experience of prajna. But Samadhi is not awakening, rather, it prepares us for awakening, helping us ripen for authentic experience.

Post Image Credit: Sunflower water drop, by Janet Ramsden, CC BY 2.0.

Featured Image Credit: #zazen, by toufeeq hussain, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Suffering and liberation are impossibly close, not even an atom’s distance apart. - Henry

Description: Henry opens this teisho by offering understanding and encouragement on this third day of sesshin, sharing some of his personal challenges on sesshin during his years of training.  He then continues explicating Hakuin Zenji’s Song of Zazen by first defining the meaning of zazen. Za is training and sitting, Zen is “seeing through” or awakening. Hakuin had thought that Buddhist practitioners of his time were practicing the Za without the Zen. You need both sides of Za-zen. Too much Za focus emphasizes ritual, chanting, sutra study at the expense of direct experience. Too much Zen focus encourages quick and incomplete awakening experiences in which a practitioner may incorrectly believe he has achieved full enlightenment. It is critical to have both Za practice and Zen experience.

Post and Featured Image Credit: #zazen, by toufeeq hussain, CC BY-SA 2.0.