Old pond . . .
a frog leaps in
water's sound
Basso (1644-1694)
When does a retreat begin and when does it finish?
Already several weeks, even months ago, I was thinking about Tenshin Reb Anderson’s retreat in Sweden this summer and was sorting out in my head the practical matters; finances, flights, arrangements to be made whilst I was away etc. But apart from this rationale I noticed that this anticipatory mood was working on me at a different, deeper level. I was musing on the topic of Friendship and Perfect Wisdom and also remembering ‘deep sangha moments’ from other of Reb’s retreats at Gaia House Devon and last year at Hebden Bridge as well as brief moments of recollection from my stay at Green Gulch in 2001.
‘All beings walk to and fro at the threshold between two worlds. The gate is open and wide. Are you awake?’
‘By learning to welcome everything we accept the emptiness of all things.’
The Lotus Sutra Aug 2009 Gaia House Devon
‘Enlightened zen conversations take place in unconstructed stillness and silence.’
Zen Koans and Bodhisattva Precepts Sep 2010 Gaia House Devon
‘Zen is the practice of tuning into the phenomenal present. We need enough faith to tune in exactly all the way not a little less or a little more.’
Wind Bell Winter 1995
And, of course, not just Reb’s teaching but all the great teachers, nuns, monks and Zen masters of the past and also those in other traditions.
Master Dogen was asked on his return from China ‘What did you find there?’
Dogen replied, ‘a flexible mind’.
‘To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.’ Genjo Koan
A monk asked Yun men ‘What are the teachings of a whole lifetime?’
Yun Men said, ‘An appropriate statement.’
The ascetic Bahiya asked the Buddha the way to happiness. ‘When seeing,’ the Buddha said ‘just see, when hearing just hear, when knowing just know and when thinking just think’.
So now embraced and supported by these teachings old and new I move with faith and gentle anticipation towards the southlands of Sweden, to Good Friendship and Perfect Wisdom.
All these ripples of memory and reflection are like a pebble dropped into the ocean of dharma, gentle, circular waves that move outwards, outwards into the cosmos of Indra’s Net, permeating our lives, spiralling in the depths of our conscious and unconscious lives.
It seems to me that retreats, koans, dharma stories, have no beginning, no end, are universal, beyond duality, more like that hiatus, the subtle pause in the middle of a haiku that gives such poems their feelings of transcendence and going beyond.
Old pond . . .
a frog leaps in
water's sound
Basso (1644-1694)
Dharma Ripples?
Old pond . . .
a frog leaps in
water's sound
Basso (1644-1694)
When does a retreat begin and when does it finish?
Already several weeks, even months ago, I was thinking about Tenshin Reb Anderson’s retreat in Sweden this summer and was sorting out in my head the practical matters; finances, flights, arrangements to be made whilst I was away etc. But apart from this rationale I noticed that this anticipatory mood was working on me at a different, deeper level. I was musing on the topic of Friendship and Perfect Wisdom and also remembering ‘deep sangha moments’ from other of Reb’s retreats at Gaia House Devon and last year at Hebden Bridge as well as brief moments of recollection from my stay at Green Gulch in 2001.
‘All beings walk to and fro at the threshold between two worlds. The gate is open and wide. Are you awake?’
‘By learning to welcome everything we accept the emptiness of all things.’
The Lotus Sutra Aug 2009 Gaia House Devon
‘Enlightened zen conversations take place in unconstructed stillness and silence.’
Zen Koans and Bodhisattva Precepts Sep 2010 Gaia House Devon
‘Zen is the practice of tuning into the phenomenal present. We need enough faith to tune in exactly all the way not a little less or a little more.’
Wind Bell Winter 1995
And, of course, not just Reb’s teaching but all the great teachers, nuns, monks and Zen masters of the past and also those in other traditions.
Master Dogen was asked on his return from China ‘What did you find there?’
Dogen replied, ‘a flexible mind’.
‘To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.’ Genjo Koan
A monk asked Yun men ‘What are the teachings of a whole lifetime?’
Yun Men said, ‘An appropriate statement.’
The ascetic Bahiya asked the Buddha the way to happiness. ‘When seeing,’ the Buddha said ‘just see, when hearing just hear, when knowing just know and when thinking just think’.
So now embraced and supported by these teachings old and new I move with faith and gentle anticipation towards the southlands of Sweden, to Good Friendship and Perfect Wisdom.
All these ripples of memory and reflection are like a pebble dropped into the ocean of dharma, gentle, circular waves that move outwards, outwards into the cosmos of Indra’s Net, permeating our lives, spiralling in the depths of our conscious and unconscious lives.
It seems to me that retreats, koans, dharma stories, have no beginning, no end, are universal, beyond duality, more like that hiatus, the subtle pause in the middle of a haiku that gives such poems their feelings of transcendence and going beyond.
Old pond . . .
a frog leaps in
water's sound
Basso (1644-1694)
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