Tag Archives: bodhi

Stopping, Surpassing Samsara Suffering

Good morning!   It is a beautiful autumn Sunday morning with sittings and service, the sounds of birds flapping and flying. It is the best season, just after equinox with equal day and night, a cool and clear atmosphere.   Yesterday I posted Dogen’s poem on one mind treading on the Six Paths or transmigrating through them –hell beings path/way/passage/destiny/career, etc. at our website:   1. Hell being path/destiny (niraya-gati) 2. Beastly being path/destiny (tiracchānayoni-gati) 3. Ghostly being path/destiny (pittivisaya-gati) 4. Devilish being path/destiny (asura-gati) 5. Human being path/destiny (manussa-gati) 6. Celestial being path/destiny (deva-gati)   Because of our karmas, we appropriate and identify the body as “I” and act as (if) “an independent, eternal being.” This is the common convention, to get into self- centeredness and self-assertion, creating the triple poisons.   This is the fundamental delusion or nescience (non-witness of nirvana/bodhi, unconditioned peace/unsurpassed awakening), evolved by karmas (actions, habits, heredity, etc., even called the selfish gene) for desire/divisiveness.   The triple poisons lead to the Six Paths with limitless varieties, which is called samsara, and involves suffering due to impermanence (no self-same) and dissatisfaction (no self-sovereign) of dependently originated phenomena.   This has been the case for all beings in all places and at all times, because they are karma heirs, karma relatives, karma machines, in short, karma slaves, not knowing how and thus not acting to put an end to such state.   The Buddha could know and act the right way to solve such a slave state in samsara suffering for the first time in the history of living beings. He sat, stopped karmas, saw the dharma of dependent origination and solved suchness.   He solved the problem of nature and nurture, which Dr. Suzuki called the law of heredity and the law of ability, from the very root of life with body, mind, and the world in the dharma of dependent origination. … Continue reading

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Awakened Action

Good evening!   As we sit in zazen, we know that the spring rain is drizzling and giving life to all plants, and that plants are giving life to all beings.   And we know that blood streams are flowing … Continue reading

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Cultivation=Verification

Good morning! After our sittings, we have a very peaceful world inside and out. We are very fortunate that we are walking in the Awakened Way and have the concrete practice to attain it. Zazen is the essential way and … Continue reading

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Mind Moon (心月)

Good morning! Sometimes we miss the full moon. But we always see the morning star in the morning. The morning star tells us it is the dawning of daytime. It becomes the evening star, telling us of the nightfall of … Continue reading

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Snow, Moon, Flower “雪月花” (Setsugekka)

As we had almost one foot snowfall, I got up early and shoveled the snow from the driveway. I noticed my shovel slanting, moving toward the side already cleared. “Ah, this is it!” So I experimented, first pushing my shovel harder, without … Continue reading

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