Stand-upright, heart-mind!

Pay full attention. NOt too much, not to little. Upright, at ease in heart-mind.

WELCOME to the NEW CLASS

Please read below. Then, post your comments and questions here. Sorry for the inconvenience. The next time the comments and class information should be together. Thank you. Liz

NEW CLASS JUNE 27TH STARTS HERE

June 27th New Class on Faith in Mind

Opening the Dhamma Eye by Ajahn Chah

Some of us start to practice, and even after a year or two, (or 10 years or 20 ears) still don't know what's what. We are still unsure of the practice. When
we're still unsure, we don't see that everything around us is purely Dhamma, and so we turn to teachings from the Ajahns (Theravadin masters).
But actually,when we know our own mind, when there is //sati// to look closely at
the mind, there is wisdom. All times and all places become occasions
for us to hear the Dhamma.

This teaching Faith in Mind is a pointer into your own mind, to look closely at your own mind, to see the wisdom there, a pointer to know.


Faith in Mind or Hsin hsin ming is a Zen poem.

Please continue to read the chant every day.
Let the words just wash over your heart-mind.
Allow the words to arise in your heart-mind; use as little effort as possible.

Focus just on the title

Faith in Mind or sometimes translated Trust in Mind.

This faith or trust is not a belief in anything. It is a knowing and a certainty that is ineffable. One way to study is to consider for yourself what you already trust or bank on. What is it that you trust in? How’s it going?

The Diamond Sutra teaches to “develop a mind that depends on nothing whatsoever…”

Suggestion: Write your own title from your own heart-mind.

Here is mine and it will be the one I use throughout the course. It is based on the Chinese characters for Hsin Hsin Ming.

Liz’s title: Stand-upright, heart-mind! It is an admonition, a pointer, a direction. To stand upright takes time, encouragement, development, help from others and we are only given a certain amount of time until we lose this ability to stand-upright, or sit upright or lie upright. The direction is for heart-mind which is who we are, heart-mind; not a heart-mind, but heart-mind.

Please add your comments and questions to the post above. Thank you. Welcome to this class.

Class Starts on Tuesday June 27th

Details to follow

The way of words is cut off,

for how long?

Many teachers say you can not express the inexpressable, but other teachers feel if you perceive deeply enough, a clear and simple way to express it can be found.

So today, it's time for poetry.
It's also a day of gratitude to Liz and everyone who shared.
Jennifer

Last Day of the Practice June 15th

Thank you all for participating. For showing up. For coming together in this very modern way. Together we gathered, together we disperse.

This afternoon as I was in the zendito I looked out the glass pane in the door and watched a mother robin pick-up little stones and run back to her baby and generously offer this very needed treasure. What a life!


Blessings to you all. May we get together again in this and other ways.
Liz

stillness & nature

"In stillness, conditioned existence is forgotten, and the myriad things are seen equally, naturally returning to each one's own nature. When all dharmas are extinguished, it is immeasurable."

Coincidentally, today is the last day of the movement workshop I am taking. I have learned and practiced moving with gentleness and sensitivity to the body. This practice is very similar to sitting in stillness. It is returning to nature; listening and moving from what is. Moving slowly--from emptiness--accepting things as they are, unseparated in time or space. Being in movement, in stillness.

June 15th Please Add Your Experience

Thank you for your participation. Please continue to add a word or phrase followed by your own experience with the meaning and emotion.

Please add the emotion that arises

Post the word or words and the emotion that arises. Thank you.

Please add the emotion that arises

Post the word or words and the emotion that arises. Thank you.

Please add the meaning today

Add the word or words followed by the meaning. Thank you

and the myriad things are seen equally

A tip. This seems like a little tip...when things seem more or less important then it's a tip that I am caught in conditioned existence.

June 13th

Please continue to add a word or phrase followed by the meaning or meanings.
Thank you.

There's nothing not included

The wise ones of the ten directions have entered this great understanding, an understanding which neither hastens nor tames.

"When all dharmas are extinguished,

...it is immeasurable."

Reason and emotion

can't conceive it

"Finally, ultimately, ...

...principles do not exist."

Not two

"Just say, 'Not two,' for in 'not two' all things are united and there's nothing not included."

true thusness

In the Dharma realm of true thusness, there is neither one nor self.

June 10th, 11th & 12th

Please continue to read the chant. Participation is compassion in action. Help us stay upright in the practice. Help us practice together. Focus on the text in blue. Add the word or words that strike you from the blue section. Add just the word or words from that section. Just the word or words. Thank you.
Faith in Mind(attributed to the Third Ancestor, Kanchi Sosan)

Attaining the Way is not difficult, just avoid picking and choosing. If you have neither aversion nor desire, you'll thoroughly understand. A hair's breath difference is the gap between heaven and earth. If you want it to come forth, let there be no positive and negative, for such comparisons are a sickness of the mind. Without knowing the Great Mystery, quiet practice is useless. The great perfection is the same as vast space, lacking nothing, nothing extra. Due to picking up and discarding, you will not know it. Don't chase the conditioned nor abide in forbearing emptiness.

In singular equanimity the self is extinguished. Ceasing movement and returning to stillness, this is complete movement. But only suppress the two aspects, how can you realize unity? Not penetrating the one, the two lose their life. Reject existence and you fall into it, pursue emptiness and you move away from it. With many words and thoughts you miss what is right before you. Cutting off words and thought, nothing remains unpenetrated. Return to the root and attain the essence, for if you chase the light you'll lose the way. But if you reflect the light for only a moment, all previous shadows are dispelled. All previous shadows are transformed because they were all due to delusive views. It's no use to seek the truth; just let false views cease.

Don't abide in duality and take care not to seek, for as soon as there is yes and no the mind is lost in confusion. Two comes forth from one, but don't even hold the one, for when even the one mind is unborn, the myriad things are flawless, without flaws, without things. With no birth, no mind, function is lost to conditions, conditions persist in function, conditions arise from function, function is actualized from conditions. You should know that duality is originally one with emptiness, and one emptiness unifies duality, encompassing the myriad forms. Not perceiving refined or vulgar, is there any prejudice? The Great Way is vast, with neither ease nor difficulty. If you have biased views and doubts, and move too fast or slow, grasping the world without measure, then your mind has taken a wayward path. Let it all naturally drop away and embody no coming or going. In accord with your fundamental nature, unite with the Way and wander the world without cares.

Being tied by thought runs counter to Truth, but sinking into a daze is not good. Don't belabor the spirit. Why adhere to intimate or distant? If you want to experience the one vehicle, don't malign the senses, for when the senses are not maligned, that itself is perfect awakening. The wise do not move, but the ignorant bind themselves. Though one Dharma differs not from another, the deluded self desires each, objectifying the mind to realize mind. Is this not a great error? Delusion gives rise to quietness or chaos, but enlightenment has no positive and negative. The duality of existence is born from false discrimination, flourishing dreams, and empty illusions. Why try to grab them? Gain and loss, true and false: drop them all in one moment. If the eyes don't sleep, all dreams disappear. If the mind does not go astray, the myriad Dharmas are but One, and the One encompasses the Mystery.

In stillness, conditioned existence is forgotten, and the myriad things are seen equally, naturally returning to each one's own nature. When all dharmas are extinguished, it is immeasurable. Cease movement and no movement exists, when movement stops there is no cessation. Since two are not manifest, how is there even one? Finally, ultimately, principles do not exist. Bring forth the mind of equanimity and all activities will be put to rest, all doubts extinguished. True faith is upright and nothing then remains, nothing is remembered, and the empty brightness shines naturally, without effort of mind. There, not a thought can be measured. Reason and emotion can't conceive it. In the Dharma realm of true thusness, there is neither one nor self.

One should not hasten to behold it. Just say, "Not two," for in "not two" all things are united and there’s nothing not included. The wise ones of the ten directions have entered this great understanding, an understanding which neither hastens nor tames. In ten thousand years, a single thought, not to be found within "existence and nonexistence," but meeting the eye in the ten directions. The smallest is no different from the largest; eliminating boundaries, the largest is the same as the smallest. Not seeing divisions, existence is but emptiness; emptiness, existence.

That which is not of this principle must not be preserved. The one is everything; everything, the one. If your understanding is this, what is left to accomplish? Faith and mind are undivided, nonduality is both faith and mind. The way of words is cut off, leaving no past, no future, no present.

"If you want to...

...experience the the one vehicle, don't malign the senses, for when the senses are not maligned, that itself is perfect awakening."

I am taking a 2 week long dance workshop entitled "Delicious Movement" by Eiko & Koma. My senses are being reopened and realigned beyond my previous boundaries. I can sense much more this week than last, by this process of awakening. And, because I do want to, I am here participating, experiencing, and awakening. This is practice for me just as chanting Faith in Mind or doing what needs doing. Perfect awakening is choosing awakening, opening the senses, experiencing stillness, connecting with the self as not separate from anything, et cetera in myriad ways amid the vastness of existence.

June 9th Your Life

Please add the word or words that strike you followed by how it applies to your life right now.
Thank you.

The duality of existence is born

from false discrimination, flourishing dreams and empty illusions.

There is a feeling of confidence, trust, faith in this...a YES! I see. Gratitude. No more seeking in that heap. Drop it all at once.

June 8th

Please continue to add a word or phrase but today add the emotion that arises with the word or phrase. Thank you.

Though one Dharma differs not from another

Over and over I think there is a difference and that difference is weighed and measured, calculated and lots of seeking sustains the whole miserable chase...and then poof...I see the false discrimination, the flourishing dreams, the empty illusions...I see and ALL IN ONE MOMENT they are dropped like a child caught with an extra cookie...open hands, empty...and laughing.

take care not to seek

not to seek...ok...I want to remember not to add anything to what is arising...not to stick something on top of the movement, not to grasp it...this afternoon and eveing I was/am sick...feeling better...not to seek better or worse...I just laid down in the zendo...covered myself with a blanket and rested in the sick feelings and rising of it...kept my spine warm, my jacket zipped and was taking care...

June 5th, 6th & 7th

Please stay with the text and reading.

Then in the stillness and silence let the meaning of the word or phrase arise.

Please post the word, words or phrase followed by the meaning. Stay with the same 2 paragraphs.

Don't abide in duality and take care not to seek, for as soon as there is yes and no the mind is lost in confusion. Two comes forth from one, but don't even hold the one, for when even the one mind is unborn, the myriad things are flawless, without flaws, without things. With no birth, no mind, function is lost to conditions, conditions persist in function, conditions arise from function, function is actualized from conditions. You should know that duality is originally one with emptiness, and one emptiness unifies duality, encompassing the myriad forms. Not perceiving refined or vulgar, is there any prejudice? The Great Way is vast, with neither ease nor difficulty. If you have biased views and doubts, and move too fast or slow, grasping the world without measure, then your mind has taken a wayward path. Let it all naturally drop away and embody no coming or going. In accord with your fundamental nature, unite with the Way and wander the world without cares.

Being tied by thought runs counter to Truth, but sinking into a daze is not good. Don't belabor the spirit. Why adhere to intimate or distant? If you want to experience the one vehicle, don't malign the senses, for when the senses are not maligned, that itself is perfect awakening. The wise do not move, but the ignorant bind themselves. Though one Dharma differs not from another, the deluded self desires each, objectifying the mind to realize mind. Is this not a great error? Delusion gives rise to quietness or chaos, but enlightenment has no positive and negative. The duality of existence is born from false discrimination, flourishing dreams, and empty illusions. Why try to grab them? Gain and loss, true and false: drop them all in one moment. If the eyes don't sleep, all dreams disappear. If the mind does not go astray, the myriad Dharmas are but One, and the One encompasses the Mystery.

Faith in Mind

Faith in Mind: "the One encompasses the Mystery"

fundamental nature

In accord with your fundamental nature, unite with the Way...

Not perceiving refined or vulgar, is there any prejudice? The Great Way is vast, with neither ease nor difficulty.

If the mind does not go astray

If the mind does not go astray

duality is originally one with emptiness

Don't abide in duality and take care not to seek, for as soon as there is yes and no the mind is lost in confusion. ...sinking into a daze is not good. The duality of existence is born from false discrimination, flourishing dreams, and empty illusions. Why try to grab them? ...drop them all... ...one emptiness unifies duality... ...unite with the Way and wander the world without cares.

In accord with

your fundamental nature

function conditions

tied by thought

the deluded self desires each, objectifying the mind to realize mind

The duality of existence is born from false discrimination

The duaility of existence