Nirvana, The Waterfall

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SF-03495
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Sesshin 3 Day 2

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the change in
yeah i do during exams
in today's the jews are donated his words morning

this morning
several well i said that i would talk about
birth and death and people have been asking me if i'm going to do that so just morning and going to do that and i'm going to
i used suzuki roshi talk
which is well known
when he talked about the waterfall at yosemite
hmm which am
expresses his understanding of birth and death
which is was published in their mind beginner's mind
hmm so he says
if you go to japan and visit a ag monastery
just before you enter you will see a small bridge called
hen shaku kill which means half dipper bridge whenever dogan zingy dipped water from the river and he's used only have a different full
returning the rest to the river again without throwing it away
that is why we called the bridge hancock who kill half dipper bridge at ag when we wash our face we feel the patient to just seventy percent of its capacity and after we wash we empty the water towards rather than away from us
this express it is respect for the water
this kind of practice is not based on any idea of the economical it may be difficult to understand why you had returned half the water he dipped to the river this kind of practice is beyond our thinking when we feel the beauty of the river when we are one with the river with
the water we intuitively do it in dojos way it is our true nature to do so but if your true nature is covered by ideas of economy or efficiency dog the way makes no sense
we think in terms of utility a lot and when we think of zen practice we do think in terms of conservation of energy
and conservation of energy very important but conservation of energy isn't necessarily meant to conserve something
ha
conservation of energy is means
that we get down to the essence of our life
when we use just what we need
and when we use it in a way that
we use the least amount of effort to do the most work
like it doesn't
then
with are more in touch with her a big mind
we let go of what is not necessary or what we don't need and simply focus on
what really necessary to do something
and when we focus on what's really necessary to make something work
ah we are more attentive to our fundamental nature
so
in when we're working often when we want to do something or carry something from one place to another we may load up our arms with stuff
and take it and things are kind of falling you our elbows and we take it from her own place to another when i carry as much as we can in one load in order to get to where we're going
but actually just to take one thing they get up and take it to where we're going and then come back pick up one more thing and take it and to ever doing so that we instead of
the utility of moving a lot of things at once
we actually relate to each object that we're moving
we relate to egypt object and and give that one object
our hold attention
and the way we handle the one object
takes out hold attention
in how we actually handle something as not a not as an object
there are no object
ha our attitude and practices that there are no object
whenever we are handling whatever were taking care of
is
a part of ourselves
so we treat everything as ourself
tolkien says you should treat the pots and pans as your own ed
everything that you use in the kitchen you you should treat with great respect
i think there's a ceremony well and ended
i don't have it fits in some temples in japan and and know if it's at aig and ipad
where all the pots and pans out
and that
incentives offered and bows and great respect the offered to all these parts of ourselves that we use
daily which we call pots a band for convenient for identification thing
but they're not object and we don't should never treat them as objects
the
when in put back from other water the water is not an object water is life itself so he's returning life to life
he paying great respect to the life of the water
hmm
this should actually very important part of our practice if this is the main focus of our practices that there are no object this is totems realization when he saw him
a reflection in a stream
is it everywhere i turn i beat myself
he didn't say everywhere i turn i meet objects
software for chosen everything is
and a manifestation or aspect of himself so the whole universe is subjective
even though things still exist in an objective way for us
but it's only because our consciousness creates
object
by discriminating
so in a religious statement minutes you know careful
if careful family way the be careful
attention to how we relate to everything
i remember one time when i was in the hiroshige room and several people were there
and
someone who brought him a t i mean a incense burner from japan or maybe in a teacup t nagar the table
and i'm sure everyone passed it around to look at it
and when it came to me i was looking at it he said no to put it down on the floor
don't hold it up to look at it went down the floor so it's resting on the floor and then you turned the ball to look at it
the there was a big
teaching for me about
not looking at this as an object not examining it as an object but actually
ha
relating to it as something very close and very intimate
hmm
i don't always act that way but
there are things that remind me to act that way
sometimes
he said i went to yosemite national park
and i saw some huge waterfalls
the highest one there is one thousand three hundred and forty feet high
and from it the water comes down like a curtain thrown from the tip of the mountain top of the mountain it does not seem to come down swiftly as you might expect it seems to come down very slowly because of the distance
and the water does not come down as one stream but is separated into many many many tiny streams from a distance it looks like a curtain and i thought it must be a very difficult experience for each drop of water to come down from the top of such a high mountain it take
the time you know a long time for the water finally to reach the bottom of the waterfall and it seemed to me that are human life may be like this
we have many difficult experiences in our life but at the same time i thought the water was not originally separated but was one hole river
only when it is separated doesn't have some difficulty in falling
it is
as if the water does not have any feeling when it is one hole river
only when separated into many drops can begin to have or express some feeling
when we see one hole river we do not feel the
the living activity of the water but when we scoop a part of the water into a deeper we experienced some feeling of the water and we also feel the value of the person who uses the water
friehling ourselves and the water in this way we cannot use it in just a material way it is a living thing
ah
so originally
oh
discriminated objects are discriminated subjects are discriminated things are originally one being one whole big being
and this is to negotiate main point course
that everything and just splinter or a spark or
ha ha manifestation of this one big
whole thing
being big being
and only when ah
we find separation do we begin to feel and think
in discriminate
and this is
i'm pretty much my am i had a buddhist well i would just a buddhist understanding
the wheel of conditioned co production
begins with separation
and when the child and very young
ah
this very little discrimination and so the feeling of separateness is not present aren't way
very mild very
ah fiddle and as the child grows older and begins to make sense of the world
ha
it begins to see things in color and inform and in
in the beginning is just the will to live
this will to live is actually called ignorance but not in the sense of stupidity
is ignorant and essential blind will to live
blind well for existence
after the separation process
the at the beginning of
this particular manifestation called existence
if
ah you know the newborn child is actually existing in both worlds and in the world of
when this and the world of separation and learning how to be separate we all learn how to be separate
and then as we learn how to be separate we forget where we came from and forget the that we all belong to the same and ah yes the tiny russian to say we all belong to the same know whole society
ha
can we manifest as different personalities and we were we actually become a person it takes time to become a person takes time to manifest as and to learn how to become a person
we'll have to learn how to see and we will have to learn how to
makes sense of what we hear may censor what we touch
and it's mostly learned
behavior
and then our world appears to us through our learned behavior and we act out through our learned behavior and we call this the world
so we
delusion comes to only
acting out our separateness without realizing that were part still part of this whole thing being called to nature
essence of mine whatever we want to call it
so before we were born we had no feeling
we were one with the universe this is called mine only or essence of mind or big mind or buddha nature
and after we are separated by birth from this oneness as the falling water from the waterfall is separated by the wind and the rocks then we have feeling
and you have difficulty because you have feeling you attached to the feeling you have without knowing just how this kind of feeling is created
so we have this
instinct or blind will to survive
once we are splintered off as an individual
our cask is how to survive
so ah
some people have an easy time some people have a difficult time but the whether we have an easy time or a difficult time we all have a difficult time
doesn't matter whether you if you're poor person you can have a really difficult time surviving
an unhappy life or you can actually have quite a happy life without anything but
is the problem
and it sit for lifted a monk has nothing and is happy with nothing whereas a poor person has nothing and a very unhappy with nothing
it's very strange
hum
a wealthy person looks like they're very happy because they head whatever they want but because they have whenever they want they're very unhappy
and flapper we think that wealthy people often we think that wealthy people are very happy because of they will but actually they suffer a lot because of their position
can you imagine how insecure you'd have to be in order to amass a great amount of wealth
in order to feel secure
the great suffering you just don't understand the suffering
but it's a different kind
you may have everything you want to eat
and all the conveniences of life but
it's all just
suffering
when we entered the realm of feelings feeling and thinking
this is where our problems begin
hmm so you attach to the feeling you have without knowing just how this kind of feeling is created
when you do not realize that you are one with the river or went with the universe you have feared
whether it is separated into drops or mit are not water is water our life and our death or the same thing when we realize this fact we have no fear of death anymore and we have no actual difficulty in our life
so we have this fear because the more separate we feel the more fearful we are
the more separate be hard our individualistic we are the more we see the world as an object
ha the more we see the world as an object to more diluted we are the more fear we have
and it's fear of
ah dying
because we don't understand that living and dying
our two
aspect of the same thing two sides of the same coin
and that we're always dying at the same time that were being born
being born and dying or happening moment by moment
faster than we can think
this is also the stream
the drops of water
my separating from the stream and reuniting with the stream
in the waterfall
the waves just like the waves in the water
the water is the essence and the waves are the activity
waves are the activity of the water
so our lives are the activity of emptiness
an emptiness is the essence of activity
stillness is the essence of movement and movement in the activity of stillness
so in the water returns to its original oneness with the river
it no longer has any individual feeling to it it resumes his own true nature
i'm divided nature and finds composure
how very glad the water must be to come back to the original river
if this is so what freely will we have when we die
i think we are like the water in a dipper
we will soon have composure then
perfect composure
it may be too perfect for us just now because we are so much attached to our own feeling to our individual existence
for us just now we have some fear of death but after we resume our true original nature there is nirvana that is why we say to attain nirvana is to pass away to pass away is not agree adequate expression perhaps to pass on or to go on or
or to join
would you that maybe one of those who think that maybe to join a be better will you try to find some better expression for death
giving us this question what will you say
when you find it you will have a quite new interpretation of your life it would be like my experience when i saw the water and the big waterfall imagine it was one thousand and three hundred forty feet high
the new members this statistic
the proud of his autistic
so we say everything comes out of emptiness
one hole river or one whole mind is emptiness when we reached this understanding we find the true meaning of our life when we reach this understanding we can see the beauty of human life because we realize this fact everything that we see is just delusion sometimes they overestimate the
beauty sometimes we underestimate or ignore the beauty because our small mind is not an accord with reality
so sometimes it's hard for people to say when we say subject and object or not to
time for people to understand this because
we're only looking at things from the point of view of separation
when we let go of the point of view or our viewpoint which is only the point of view of separation
then we can see that subject and object truly are not to they are too but they're also one
we also say not to and not one
because the non dual contains the door
why the two sides are contained in the wonders that right understanding
then we can live our life in a duel world
and with right understanding
because we understand that what is do is offer one
do a duality exists within the wonder
so birth and death are two sides of life
don't like to say i never use or terms life and death because death is not the opposite of life
death is the opposite of birth
but life is a term that encompasses both
birth death
so it took the life of life and it's a life of birth and it's the life of death
a dog is
birth is everything is contained in burn everything is contained in death
birth is one side that is the other side but when we talked about birth or death what are we talking about so there are two birth and death
one birth and death i had understanding is that you were born and a certain day and you live your life and you died in the certain day
and you went out of existence that that's one understanding the other understanding is that there's no such thing as birth and death
there is only continuous transformation
and in the realm of or the reality of continuous transformations which is quite logical
and it's not it may be mysterious but it's quite logical
in the realm of continuous transformations there's only manifestations of
something
karmic energy so he say
when you die or
when
this man body mind complex
has a radical change
the first six vision yeah knows
i hear no sense vision is the sense
faculties and mount of his nana
disintegrate
and monash which is personality
and alive his nana which is the she'd consciousness seedbed of consciousness the energy which is could be due to the conservation of energy those two aspects of consciousness
the energy of those two aspects of consciousness continue in some way to influence
another manifestation
which we call birth
so whether this a true or not
i don't know but this is the understanding
that
i have visited the scene
the seeds of consciousness and the person that the because manners is karma
so the karmic energy continues to influence things
and and those two aspects of consciousness together create
our look for another opening
and
some you know
how
accurate that is some
say that
this blind energy
looks for the will to live look for its parents
and six out
a certain
parental
couple
and but it must be pretty ignorant you know because
i think for a lot of you need her to i thought out these people by parents
but
i didn't know something happens
we don't know what happened but you know this is like the i say something right so this isn't isn't the tail
but you can see how the energy is circular not linear so rebirth energy in circular it's not reincarnation
the tibetans believe in what in reincarnation maybe
i'm tibetans have this most mostly figured out
i think they have a to i figured out but
ah
rebirth energy
does not mean reincarnation
it means the action influence of with a contains the seeds and the karma
the continuation the action influence and instead of going in a straight line
after the disintegration of the sixth vision as deck action influence continues and enters in through another
coupling and enters through the room and
is a burger somewhere
so addition you in there are people who document rebirth
and and you read books about you know
but how how did motor come out you know ah
at three years old in a plane
l these wonderful competitions and where do you learn to play the piano
you know it's really interesting good mozart also was considered one of the two best violinists of his time where they have time to learn to play the violin
i seriously they spent all his time playing the piano
the you know people bring these these kinds of cases up and there are thousands of them you know
so the there's a lot of seemingly convincing
arguments
and case histories to
proved his point
but
i don't know going to actually prove the point but it seems to prove the point
interesting so
ah
and
terrified of buddhism the understanding is that were ancient that one candle lights another is at the same candle means the same light or different light
when you light one candle from another is a shame iron different light
well it's the same and is different right
so the idea of rebirth is also like when you have a seal and you stick it into the clay you put out and seal has the same imprint
so
this imprint
is what creates the next
i'm
ha existence so to speak and that has all that and all the quantum qualifications for another
for a berth influenced by these characteristics
so that's interesting
but the interesting part is
much for me is not
how what is reborn or who is reborn who you are or you are but the fact that
life is continuous it does if if that this particular wave of our life
is just which we call my life is just a wave in the ocean of existence
the big ocean of existence
and ah
so
our birth and death are happening all the time
birth and death is happening all the time
but life itself is not lost so if we identify only with this psycho physical structure as myself then we
we get lost
because of a separate and are separating ourselves from identifying with life itself as are too so
so there's the old thing
that
true life with the mark
oh
ah sure human being is the heart a true
person is the whole universe
so to identify with the flow of life
well then the what we try to preserve as are manifestations
so to appreciate the fact that we die
rather than to resist the fact that we die
but our will to live and so strong that we then
we keep putting off right which is good we should be put into because we want to live so sometimes people they will buddhism is you know and of a neolithic you know they always think about dying easily but actually not so we need to be neither attached attack
esh neither birth or death
is
how we live our life not attached to birth not attached to do not wanting
too much
out of existence and not wanting not craving to end it but simply taking care of everything on each moment that while we come to just take care of this moment
for all involved with birth and death
the meaning is what's the meaning of life
i'll tell you
just take care this moment
the meaning of legends whatever you're doing at any moment
we keep looking for the meeting will never find it
people go crazy looking for the meaning of life it's right where you are doing what you're doing thoroughly you do it thoroughly without attachment
they do you live your life for the sake of living your life
and so whatever we encounter
helps us to live our lives
whenever we encounter makes us we make life and life makes it
so if if we want to live
a meaningful life then whatever we encounter we should say it it meaningful
that's why men to know of who we take care of everything very carefully take care of them the smallest thing with respect
then we find the meaning of life
huh i call it cooperation
is it that
we're being pushed around by big mind
yeah we say there's no self worth to didn't know no separate separator at the same time there is a separate though
people into one side of the other
he fall into birth and death
so we're free to come and go sometimes
we're in the dark side sometime during the lifetime this is what towards i'm talking about in the five rags
it's how you balance
the absolute and relative you can't say that there's no self because
when should you issue over the head and hurt
he can't say there is itself because
what was what heard yesterday doesn't hurt today well what happened to yesterday's self but longer here
he says we say everything comes out of emptiness
right to talk about it in this way is quite easy but to have the actual feeling is not so easy
but by your practice of i then you can cultivate this feeling
when you can sit with your whole body and mind and with the oneness of your mind and body under the control and the universal mind
you can easily attain this kind of right understanding your everyday life will be renewed without being attached to an old erroneous interpretation of life when you realize this fact you will discover how meaningless year old interpretation was and how much useless effort you have been making you will find the
true meaning of life and even though you have difficulty falling upright from the top of the waterfall to the bottom of the mountain you will enjoy your life so even though you have good understanding you still have difficulty but difficulty is very helpful for it
without difficulty
life doesn't have any stimulation
don't get called don't get all
huh it's really important to have difficulty in belgium
bearingpoint have difficulty had done it because
a pain and difficulty are part of our life and if we try to avoid them
where i'm avoiding
ah
that part of our life
and then we only have everything nice we just fall into fooling ourselves
so you know
to touch reality he touched it through pain and difficulty
not that we should try to force pain and difficulty on ourselves in order to
it did no problem there
look up
but you know we learned how to enjoy our pain and difficulty with in pain is pleasure and within pleasure is pain
we can't separate allah
so
this is the principal fishing
within pleasure when in pain and pleasure and within pleasure
your face and accept each one
can i find out how to deal with it
and even if you have
sail through the sheen with know
problem at all no pain no that can be a problem
that's a problem
for you can't escape having a problem
right