Woetoe’s Reviews > The Way of Zen > Status Update

With the evening breeze,
The water laps against
The heron’s legs.

In the dark forest
A berry drops:
The sound of the water

“Much of Zen training consists in confronting the student with dillemas which he is expected to handle without stopping to deliberate and “choose”. The response to the situation must follow with the immediacy of sound issuing from the hands when they are clapped, or sparks from a flint when struck.“

“A master was having tea with two of his students when he suddenly tossed his fan to one of them, saying, “What’s this?” The student opened it and fanned himself. “Not bad,” was his comment. “Now you”, he went on, passing it to the other student, who at once closed the fan and scratched his neck with it. This done, he placed a piece of cake on it, and offered it to the master.” Even better.

Dogen: “The flowers depart when we hate to lose them;
The weeds arrive while we hate to watch them grow.”

“For when asked about seeking for the Buddha nature he answered, “It’s much like riding an ox in search of the ox”.

“I have no peace of mind (hsin),” said Hui-k’o. “Please pacify my mind” “Bring out your mind here before me”, replied Bodhidharma, “and I will pacify it” “But when I seek my own mind” said Hui-k’o, “I cannot find it. “There!” snapped Bhodhidharma, “I have pacified your mind”.

“With the eye of prajna the human situation is seen for what is is: a quenching of thirst with salt water, a persuit of goals which simply require the persuit of other goals, a clutching of objects which the swift course of time renders as insubstantial as mist. The very one who persues, who sees and knows and desires, the inner subject, has his existence only in relation to the ephemeral objects of his persuit.”

The book teaches Sanskrit:
Maya= To build, form, measure, laying out a plan
Ananda= Bliss
Anitya= Impermanence
Anatman= Absence of any self
Trishna= Clinging to life
Duhka= Suffering
Avidya= The formal opposite of awakening
Yathabutham= Just as it is
Smriti= Recollectedness
Samadhi= Contemplation

“Birth is duhkha (suffering), decay is duhkha, sickness is dhukha, death is dhukha, so also are sorrow and grief. To be bound with things we dislike, and to be parted from things which we like, these are also dhukha. Not to get what one desires, this is also dhukha. In a word, this body, this fivefold aggregation based on clutching (trishna), this is duhkha.”