Being-Time Quotes

“We see an uncountable number of stars all projecting their own time continuum, which we experience as now. Although this is true, the time of the stars and the time of our being are part of the whole of that moment. We make the moment as the moment is making us. We with all of reality share the function of making the whole, and in that way each part is the same as the whole. Yet, each aspect — a person, a star — has its own past and future particularity. At the same time there is just this one moment being enacted as right now, an interconnected, totally functioning universal whole.”
― Shinshu Roberts, Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji

“Experiencing our interconnection and interpenetrating relationship with all beings is the genesis of our happiness. Even the most mundane task becomes meaningful and fulfilling when we feel a universal connection with the totality of being.”
― Shinshu Roberts, Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji

“To forget one’s self is to be confirmed by all dharmas. To be confirmed by all dharmas is to cast off one’s body and mind and the bodies and minds of others as well.5 First the self of no-self is affirmed or recognized as an independent dharma position (impeded), thereby learning the Buddha Way through the self. Then the self of no-self is viewed from the position of mutual identity and interpenetration with all being-time. Having learned the self, one “forgets” the self. At this juncture the self of no-self is both particular (an independent actualized dharma position) and universal (a mutual identity interpenetrating dharma position) and now can be confirmed or actualized as an expressed being-time. This impeded self is both manifesting and responding as independent and interpenetrating simultaneously, which Dōgen calls dropping off body-mind (shinjin-datsuraku).”
― Shinshu Roberts, Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji

“nothing “new” happening. The particular unique finite nondual moment reflects its particularity and in a sense changes the whole world. In this way the mountains, rivers, and earth are born with us. In this way, the very personal singular moment of the arising of the mind to practice is also the completed path of attainment with all beings. This finite moment of effort includes the infinity of all buddhas and ancestors. This is the intersection of all being-time as this being-time. It is mountains and seas arising within one blink of an eye, it is a flower being held up, it is a buddha awakening.”
― Shinshu Roberts, Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji

“Just one flower being held up for display is passage through all time and being, awakening each and every thing. This is what Mahākāśyapa realized. Essentially his realization was already present as his own being, yet it was the passage of all buddha-nature in and through him that revealed his true nature. This is our passage too.”
― Shinshu Roberts, Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji

“Dignified behavior as the whole cosmos and dignified behavior as the whole Earth, we should learn in practice, as the whole world, the state of never having been hidden. What has never been hidden is not only the whole world, but also that which perfectly hits the target of acting buddha: dignified behavior.7 This dignified behavior is setting the self out in array, which is not different from the world worlding the world. Although we may not be aware of this practice, it is not a hidden activity. Rather it is being present for what is all around us. Unfortunately we are often so caught up in our own agenda that we are unaware. Arraying oneself is to drop the self-absorbed self and to be unified with all that is presencing.”
― Shinshu Roberts, Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji

“Mutual identity is the observation that all things share the qualities or processes of (1) having no inherent existence separate from all being, (2) being subject to and the result of causal relationships, and (3) being impermanent. When seen from this perspective of nonduality, there is no difference between one thing and the next.”
― Shinshu Roberts, Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji

“Way-seeking mind arises simultaneously with way-seeking time. This is practice-realization. That time and being arise simultaneously is an important concept for understanding practice. We are not waiting for some future time to enact realization, as that time is our present moment. Everything we need is already present. This is a fundamentally different understanding than thinking we are now deficient and need to attain something outside of our current being-time in order to enact realization.”
― Shinshu Roberts, Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji

“Kim notes in his book Flowers of Emptiness that “self” is the translation of the Japanese word ware. He writes ware has two possible interpretations in this context: (1) self/being and (2) time/impermanence.3 Following Kim’s lead we can understand “to set the self in array” is to fully occupy the moment (time) of one’s existence (being). Setting time in array is to fully occupy the fluctuating impermanence of the present moment as embodied in one’s person. Since a being-time includes the individual’s unique being-time and simultaneously the arising of all being(s)-times(s), this becomes the totality of all being at that moment practicing together.”
― Shinshu Roberts, Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji