Excerpt: The “Autobiography Chapter” of The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing
By Ted Biringer | January 3, 2009
Excerpt from the “Autobiography Chapter” of The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing: The Second Ancestor of Zen in the West
Learned Audience, our own true nature is the nature of the universe, and awakening to this fundamental truth is called enlightenment. When you realize this directly, you achieve Buddhahood. You may ask me how I can make this assertion. I can only tell you about my own life, and how I came to the realization that this is the truth of all the Buddhas and sages.
My father was the son of an Italian farmer. He fled his country after being accused of murder. He came to America where he met, and married my mother. They combined what little they had and managed to buy a small chicken farm in Pennsylvania. I was born a year later, and raised with love, though we suffered from poverty.
My father died when I was eight years old, leaving only me to look after my ailing mother. We lost the farm after two difficult years, then moved to the West Coast where my mother’s sister and her husband owned a berry farm. We moved into a little shack on the farm. I did not go to school, but worked the farm and cared for my mother, who was not strong enough to work. When I was thirteen, my mother died. I continued to work on the farm for three more years.
One day I made a delivery of berries to the farmers market in Anacortes. After unloading the berries, I was preparing to get in the truck when I heard woman reading aloud.
When she read the words, “That people drive the self to actualize awareness of the many things is delusion,” I suddenly realized my own identity with the many things.
I asked the woman what book she was reciting, and she said that it was the Shobogenzo, the Treasury of the True Dharma-Eye by the thirteenth century Zen Master, Eihei Dogen. I asked her where she got it and why she was reciting it. She said that she was from Waldron Island, where she worked at an orchard that was owned by a sage. The sage was a living Buddha, the First Ancestor of Zen in the West. He taught people to master the teaching of this book in practice, proclaiming that Buddhahood was achievable by anyone; they need only awaken to the truth of their own true nature.
When I returned to the farm, my friend Antelmo, a kind farmhand, said my appearance had changed, and asked me what happened, and I told him.
Antelmo said, “She was surely a messenger from the unseen world. You must go and meet this Buddhist sage.”
I told my aunt of my intentions and stayed long enough to help her and her husband through the harvest season. Then I set out for Waldron Island to meet the First Ancestor.
When I arrived, I went to the orchard where the First Ancestor made his home…
Topics: Flatbed Sutra Zen Blog | 4 Comments »
Zen, Knowledge, Understanding, and Personal Experience
By Ted Biringer | December 31, 2008
Good friends, simply reading or hearing about the inherent nature of prajna without actually awakening to it cannot bring you liberation. Even if your understanding and knowledge is wide and profound, without actual experience, you cannot be free. It is like someone learning to play an instrument; music theory and knowledge about the instrument may be helpful, but without actual practice, there can be no music.
You have to put your learning about prajna into practice with your whole body and mind. Knowledge and understanding alone cannot awaken you to the truth of prajna. At the same time, spiritual practice without knowledge and understanding will not do either. If you have aroused genuine aspiration, however, and you put the knowledge that has been transmitted by the sages into actual practice, you will not fail to awaken to your own inherent prajna.
Buddha is nothing other than the true nature of each one of you; there is no buddha outside of your own body and mind. This is the essence of all time and space. It is all-inclusive with nothing outside of it. It is ultimately beyond all limitations and beyond definition and description. It is the vast unnamable fathomless void. That is your own true nature and it must be personally experienced to be realized.
From The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing
by Ted Biringer
Topics: Flatbed Sutra Zen Blog | 5 Comments »
Zen expressions, distinguishing skills
By Ted Biringer | December 25, 2008
A student asked, “Sometimes you say that we should remember that there is nothing to attain, and other times you tell us that we must strive diligently. You also say other things that seem contradictory, what is going on?”
Louie Wing said, “Thank you for asking. This is a very important question, and it indicates one of the reasons why it is necessary to develop your skills to distinguish partial expressions referring to the universal, partial expressions referring to the particular, and complete expressions that contain and transcend both.
From The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing
by Ted Biringer
Topics: Flatbed Sutra Zen Blog, The Classic Zen Teachings | 6 Comments »
Zen, True Nature, the Void, and Realization
By Ted Biringer | December 21, 2008
The vast and fathomless void manifests and absorbs, contains and penetrates all the myriad things: the sun, moon, and stars, the mountains, rivers, and fields, houses, streets, and cities, animals, plants, and people, heavens, hells, gods, and demons, oceans, galaxies, and universes. The void includes all of this and much, much more. Your true nature is identical with the void. Therefore, your mind contains and embraces all things. If you truly realized the vast and fathomless nature of your own mind, how could at-tachment or aversion persist?
From The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing
by Ted Biringer
Topics: Flatbed Sutra Zen Blog | 6 Comments »
The Keystone of Zen
By Ted Biringer | December 17, 2008
“Buddha” describes a person in the activity or condition of authentic practice and enlightenment, the deeper meaning of zazen. The keystone of Zen practice is not “sitting meditation” (though that is where it is often first discovered), it is “mustering the whole body-and-mind” and perceiving the world directly.
Seeing and hearing (as well as smelling, tasting, feeling, and thinking) sights and sounds (smells, tastes, sensations, and thoughts) with the ‘whole body-and-mind’ means truly being one with them. When we are truly one with them, there is no sense of I see that or I hear that. Hence, Dogen tells us that “buddhas do not know they are buddhas.” In Shobogenzo, Genjokoan, Master Dogen says, “It is not like an image reflected in a mirror, and not like the reflection of the moon on water” because there are not two things (e.g. moon and water).
When we are authentically engaged in practice and enlightenment we do not hear a bell, there is simply, booooonngg–boooooongg. The classic Zen koan about escaping heat and cold illustrates this point wonderfully:
A monk asked Tozan, “When cold and heat come, how can we avoid them?”
Tozan said, “Why don’t you go to the place where there is no cold or heat?”
The monk said, “What is the place where there is no cold or heat?”
Tozan said, “When it’s cold, the cold kills you; when it’s hot, the heat kills you.”
This is not advice to “accept” your situation, as some commentators have suggested, but a direct expression of authentic practice and enlightenment. Master Tozan is not saying, “When cold, shiver; when hot, sweat,” nor is he saying, “When cold, put on a sweater; when hot, use a fan.” In the state of authentic practice and enlightenment, the cold kills you, and there is only cold in the whole universe. The heat kills you, and there is only heat in the whole universe. The fragrance of incense kills you, and there is only the fragrance of incense in the whole universe. The sound of the bell kills you, and there is only “booonngg…” in the whole universe!
Peace!
Ted Biringer
Topics: Flatbed Sutra Zen Blog, The Classic Zen Teachings, Zen Buddhism Q & A | 1 Comment »
Reality, Religions, and Spiritual Traditions
By Ted Biringer | December 12, 2008
The truth of reality existed long before the establishment of any religion or spiritual tradition. It is simply the truth of the oneness of the essence of the vast, unnamable, fathomless void and your own mind… Awakening to this reality is the function and reason of all true religious practice… When you awaken to your own source, wrong notions cease to exist, ideas and concepts can no longer bind you, the tangles and snares of the various religions are transcended.
~From The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing: The Second Ancestor of Zen in the West
by Ted Biringer
Topics: Flatbed Sutra Zen Blog | No Comments »
Discriminating between worldly and spiritual
By Ted Biringer | December 10, 2008
The Third Ancestor of Zen in China said, “Your effort to suppress activity is just more activity.” It is delusory to discriminate between worldly and spiritual, secular and religious, lay and monastic, the marketplace and a retreat center. Trying to suppress the flow of thought by changing your environment is like trying to make something disappear by closing your eyes.
From The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing
by Ted Biringer
Topics: Flatbed Sutra Zen Blog, The Classic Zen Teachings, Zen Buddhism Q & A, Zen/Buddhist Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »
On the verse to Case 1 of the Blue Cliff Record
By Ted Biringer | November 29, 2008
Looking at the verse of Case 1 of the Blue Cliff Record (Bodhidharma’s Vast Emptiness), it seems that echo’s of the Heart Sutra resound…
The Verse
The ultimate meaning of the holy truths; vast emptiness.
What then, is discerned with a single glance?
“Who is facing me?”
Like an echo, “I don’t know.”
Continuously unfolding, in darkness, he silently crossed the river;
Inevitably, entangling vines cover the ground.
Even if everyone in China went after him, he would not return.
Emperor Wu habitually rehashes the past.
Cease uselessly conceptualizing over former times.
The essential nature of reality is pure, clear, and luminous.
Setcho looked around and said, “Is the Zen Ancestor here!”
He answered himself, saying, “He is!”
Setcho said, “Bring him here to wash my feet.”
“The ultimate meaning of the holy truths; vast emptiness.”
There is no anguish, cause of anguish, cessation or path.
“What then, is discerned with a single glance?”
Practicing prajna paramita clearly discerned the five skandhas are empty transforming anguish and distress.
“‘Who is facing me?’”
Form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form.
“Like an echo, ‘I don’t know.’”
In emptiness, there is no form, no sensation, no perception, no formulation, and no consciousness.
“Continuously unfolding, in darkness he silently crossed the river.”
Far beyond delusive thinking.
“Inevitably, entangling vines cover the ground.”
Right here is Nirvana.
“Even if everyone in China went after him, he would not return.”
Neither appearing nor disappearing, not stained, not pure, without gain, without loss.
“Emperor Wu habitually rehashes the past.”
There is no ignorance, and no ending of ignorance.
“Cease uselessly conceptualizing over former times!”
There is no wisdom and no attainment, with nothing to attain, the bodhisattva lives by prajna paramita, with no hindrance in the mind, no hindrance, and therefore no fear.
“The essential nature of reality is clear, pure and luminous!”
There is no old age and death, and no ending of old age and death.
“Setcho looked around and said, ‘Is the Zen Ancestor here!’”
All buddhas of past, present, and future depend on prajna paramita attaining anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
“He answered himself, saying, ‘He is!’”
This is truth, not mere formality.
“Setcho said, ‘Bring him here to wash my feet.’”
Gate, gate, paragate, parasangate. Bodhi, svaha!
Peace,
Ted Biringer
Topics: Flatbed Sutra Zen Blog | 5 Comments »
It is functioning perfectly
By Ted Biringer | November 24, 2008
The path to authentic liberation is not complicated, mystical, esoteric, or difficult to understand. You do not require supernatural power or some special ability to access it. It is functioning perfectly within each one of you at this very moment. It is the infinite and un-namable, fathomless void, sometimes called buddha-nature; it is the true nature of your own mind. It includes the whole of time and space; it is nothing less than the homeland of the self.
From The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing
by Ted Biringer
Topics: Flatbed Sutra Zen Blog | 4 Comments »
Excerpt from The Flatbed Sutra on Shobogenzo, Genjokoan
By Ted Biringer | November 22, 2008
…the Genjokoan goes on to say:
When the dharma has not yet filled the whole body-and-mind people feel already replete with dharma.
When you are, in Dogen’s earlier words, “ordinary beings” in “delusion” you feel replete with the dharma. In other words, when you are still deluded you do not feel as if you are in “delusion.” In fact, if you realized your delusion you would be buddhas, enlightened beings. One sure sign of delusion is thinking that you know who and what you are. Remember, buddhas do not know they are buddhas. So, the Genjokoan says:
When the dharma fills the body-and-mind people feel something is lacking.
When you realize your identity with the universe, you naturally sense a lack. There is nothing lacking in all of space and time (being time), yet Dogen says you feel something to be lacking. If you realize your oneness with all of space and time, how can this be? He gave you a clue when he explained that “whatever the length or shortness of its duration the whole sky and the whole moon are discerned in each body of water.” In the following paragraphs of Genjokoan, Dogen explains his reasoning in detail:
For example, when a person sails out beyond the mountains into the ocean, and looks around in the four directions, the ocean appears only to be round; it does not appear to have any other characteristics at all.
Clear enough; if you sail out beyond the sight of land, no matter how keen your eyesight is, the ocean appears to be round.
The Genjokoan continues:
Nevertheless, this great ocean is not round, and it is not square.
Though the ocean appears round to you, and there is nothing wrong with your vision, the ocean is not round. Obviously, if you adjust your position (your perspective) so that you can see the shoreline, you will realize that it is not round. As you sail along the shoreline, the shape of the ocean will appear to change with your perspective. In the words of the Genjokoan:
There are an infinite number or qualities to the ocean: to fish it is like a palace; to gods it is like a string of pearls.
Indeed, the qualities of the ocean are inexhaustibly many. To fish, the ocean is like a palace: to gods it is like a string of pearls. To a jet skier, it is like a playground. From the perspective of a diver, the very same ocean you see as round, is quite different. From the perspective of a person on the shore, other qualities are seen, from the perspective of a bird flying overhead other qualities are apparent. Yet, as the Genjokoan says:
Nevertheless, as far as someone’s eyes can see, it just appears to be round.
Though all of these qualities exist at the same time, for the time and place where you are (here and now) it just seems round.
The Genjokoan continues:
As it is for the ocean, so it is for the many things.
As the ocean has a multitude of qualities beyond what you can see at any particular place and time, so it is with all things and times (being time).
The Genjokoan explains:
There are a multitude of qualities in the world of form and the world of the void, but you see and understand only as far as your eyes of practice and realization are able to reach.
Both the individual (relative, particular, etc.) perspective of the world (of form) and the universal (empty, equal, etc.) perspective of the world (of the void) encompass numerous qualities. However, you only see and understand what your “eyes of practice and realization are able to reach.” In other words, when you glimpse—even for the fraction of a second—the true nature of reality, you are seeing all of reality from one perspective; therefore you do not see all the multitudinous qualities and details of that reality. When you look at a mountain from an airplane, you may see the whole mountain in a single glance; however, you could spend lifetimes exploring its many dimensions.
This is why you “feel that something is lacking”; the universe is full of an infinite variety of qualities and possibilities. It is also in a constant condition of flux and unfolding so that even if you were able to take it all in at once, the next moment it would be entirely new. The Zen path of practice and enlightenment is the ongoing exploration, discovery, and embodiment of the universe, which is your own true self. As Dogen indicated earlier, enlightenment about delusion is not the eradication of delusion but the realization of it.
The Genjokoan goes on:
If someone wants to know how the many things really are, they should remember that besides appearing square or round, the qualities of the oceans and qualities of the mountains are infinitely numerous; there are worlds in the four directions. Not only the periphery is like this: remember, the immediate present, and a single drop of water are also like this.
This then, is the reason why throughout the Shobogenzo, Dogen is so vehement about continuous, ongoing practice and enlightenment. The buddha-dharma that is the universe is full of numerous qualities and wonders without end. There are “worlds in the four directions,” even in this present moment, and in a single drop of water. Your enlightenment is the enlightenment of the universe. Your awareness is the awareness of the universe. The Zen path of practice and enlightenment is the universe aware of itself, exploring itself, and experiencing itself.
..Peace.
Ted Biringer
Topics: Flatbed Sutra Zen Blog, The Classic Zen Teachings, Zen Buddhism Q & A, Zen/Buddhist Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »