“How are you indulging your bulls@$t? How are you indulging your mistaken understandings?” – Koshin Paley Ellison
The awakening Way is not an idea. How can we free ourselves from the ideas of practice in order to practice?
In this recent dharma talk, Koshin Sensei continues to engage with Dogen Zenji’s “Deportment of the Practicing Buddha” by paying close attention to the following lines: “Those who are not practicing buddhas are not yet liberated from the bonds of the buddha…’Bonds of the buddha,’ means precisely to be bound by the very knowledge, the very understanding that knows and understands bodhi as bodhi. We pass through each moment of thought without expectation of a time of liberation, vainly given over to our mistaken understandings. To understand bodhi as bodhi must be the knowledge that accords with bodhi.” Koshin encourages us to see how we can get caught up in our concepts and assumptions about what a practicing Buddha is. How do you not get bound up by an idea and just show up to do what is loving and kind? When we practice fully engaging with what each moment has to offer, we see the destruction and pain and separation all around us. We confront the sorrows of this world. But there is always more. When we are open, Koshin teaches, “joy is also possible where we think it isn’t. Sorrow and joy are side by side.” When we live our lives in service to others, we will receive feedback and notice opportunities to learn to flow with praise and correction. “Everything can be used to see the quality of your mind,” Koshin reminds us in this talk. How are you vainly given over to your mistaken understandings? How can you completely show up for others with love and compassion?
ZENTALK NOTES
Koshin Paley Ellison Sensei is a Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, leader in contemplative care, and co-founder of an educational non-profit called the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. His books, grounded in Buddhist wisdom and practice, have gained national attention. Through its numerous educational programs, contemplative retreats, and Soto Zen Buddhist practices, the New York Zen Center touches thousands of lives every year.
MUSIC
Heart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji – Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto.
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- Untangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-book
- Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1t
- Awake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL
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