” Confused by thoughts,
we experience duality in life.
Unencumbered by ideas,
the enlightened see the one Reality.”

- Hui  Neng 6th Zen patriarch



          Hi folks.  I have been playing with a thought I call Poetic Liberation.  Let me explain. The enlightenment experience has a deeply poetic quality in several ways.  The intensity, joy and beauty of the experience cannot be captured by intellectual dissertation.  Only poetry can somewhat successfully express this type of experience.  We can see the huge volume of poetry that has come from many of the great mystics in all the great mystic traditions.  I only need point to Rumi in the Sufi tradition,  Milarepa in the Tibetan  tradition,  Tagore in the Hindu tradition and St Francis in the Christian tradition.  There are whole web sites devoted to mystic poets if you want to read some of this wonderful poetry.  Poetry has this wonderful quality of being able to evoke the deep feelings and understanding of the mystic experience.  
          The relationship between poetry and the enlightenment experience is even deeper then the ability of poetry to express  feelings and thoughts.  The enlightenment experience causes this amazing transformation in the way the individual thinks about things.  This transformation is deeply poetic because it creates a deeply metaphorical way of thinking.  With the experience of the non-dual we all of a sudden realize that the essential duality of language is a problem.  We divide up our perception of the world with words.  As long as we hold to the fixed meaning of words not only can we not express non-duality but our attachment to fixed meanings prevents our experience of the non-dual.  Enlightenment liberates us from the fixed meanings of words. but in some way though, we must first liberate ourselves from the fixed meanings of words before we open ourselves to the enlightenment experience.  How do we do this?  Well just sitting for many many hours is a good way.  We sit until in some sense we forget the meaning of words but actually we sit until our mind becomes quiet and we just stop using words.  There is also another way which is used in Zen.  It is called Koan practice.  This is to confront the student with an enigmatic question which will only cause endless frustration if he sticks to the fixed meaning of words.  Combine this with meditation and now we have a powerful tool which can cut through the impediment of fixed meanings and liberate our use of language. With this liberation words can now express the metaphoric quality of enlightened understanding.
          What is the metaphoric quality of the enlightenment experience?  It is to see unity when most people see just duality.  It is to understand non-duality in the world of duality.  In this understanding each individual thing is just a temporary manifestation of the non-dual and thereby becomes a metaphor for the non-dual.  In this understanding as each individual thing becomes a metaphor for the non-dual it also becomes a metaphor for every other individual thing.  Now seeing everything as a metaphor for everything just about makes verbal thought impossible.  How can we verbally teach the non-dual Dharma?  Now comes the innovation in teaching method that has made Zen Buddhism unique, the enigmatic use of language,  the selective use of seemingly absurd metaphors.
          The Zen master says, "Become one with the sound of the wind."  How can I become one with the sound of the wind when we are two?  The wind is one thing and I am something else.  Some where there is an experience where the I and the wind become one.  The experience is in front of us all the time but as long as we hold to a fixed meaning for "I" and "wind" never the two shall meet.
          This web sight is named from a poetic couplet:

          Sitting in the Moonwater Dojo
          Tracing flowers in the sky

The Moon reflecting on still water is a common Zen metaphor.  Still water represents a clear mind without the commotion of many thoughts like a polished mirror reflecting the reality around us.  The Moon represents that reality around us but not as we normally see it with our active mind, but as a single whole the, undifferentiated oneness, the Absolute, Buddha.  The Moomwater Dojo is a place of practice where we can sit and clearly experience the Oneness of reality.  This  might be thought of as a physical place but it also is a mental place that is free of any specific physical place.  The Moonwater Dojo is our clear mind.  The Moonwater Dojo is also the Absolute perspective where everything is Empty Then taking this metaphor even further the Moonwater Dojo is also the absolute, non-dual, Oneness  The Moonwater Dojo is all of this and nothing, just a word, just a sound.
          "Tracing flowers in the sky" another poetic image which has multiple metaphoric meanings.  Flowers are sort of amazing.  They are absolutely beautiful and very temporary.  They open up, attract insects with their colors, and then in a day or a week or maybe a bit longer they  wither and are gone.  This is like our lives   This is like the lives of all living things.  And if we expand our time scale, all things are just temporary manifestations, mountains, rivers, civilizations.  Everything is both a beneficiary and victim to the constant change we call reality.  Everything is ephemeral.  Everything is a flower in the Sky.
          Sitting in the Moonwater Dojo, sitting with a clear mind, not attaching any  dualistic thinking to any sensation, sensations reflect upon the clear consciousness like passing flowers. And a deeper understanding is present,, that of the non-dual and the flowers  which cannot be separated from the non-dual.  Sitting in the Moonwater Dojo, tracing flowers in the sky is the Absolute sitting in its own presence
          The non-dual Absolute which contains everything, encompasses everything, is everything, including time and space, this Universe and all Universes, transcends everything, is beyond fixed definition, is beyond grasping, and yet, it's presence can be grasped with every flower in the sky.
 
          This is enough for one blog so you will just have to wait as I continue this theme  and write about the enigmatic and poetic use of language in Koans in the next blog

          This short essay called The Embrace was given as a talk at one of our Zen retreats here in Port Townsend a few years ago.  People liked it but it also created some controversy which made for a lively discussion.  I have thought of Zen practice as a type of embrace since passing a Koan with Sasaki Roshi many years ago.  You can read about this in my essay A Life of Practice found on this site.  Enjoy.


                       The Embrace


          The Heart of Buddhism is the embrace. At its Heart is the embrace, for in the embrace the individual disappears, merges with the embraced and the Heart is felt.   In the embrace we become one with everything from the smallest creatures to the whole Universe. In the embrace we become time and space, past and future, truth and illusion. Yet the embrace is truth not illusion. In the embrace everything is clear.   In the embrace we discover our true nature.

          The embrace is all inclusive, nothing is rejected.   In the embrace we become one with both the loved and the despised, the pure and the impure, and recognize ourselves as both the loved and the despised, the pure and the impure.

          The embrace is active not passive yet includes both activity and passivity. The embrace is the Buddha way but includes all forms of Religion. The embrace is joy but also include suffering. It is Nirvana but also includes Samsara. The embrace is life but also includes death.

          In the embrace we discover that the other is in embrace with us and that there never was a two only a one, and this one includes the whole Universe.

          In the embrace of one thing, the self is forgotten and we become all things.

          From where does the embrace arise?   The embrace is not an embrace of the intellect nor is it an embrace of the emotions and yet it does not necessarily exclude intellect and emotions.  It comes before intellect and emotions and yet it frees intellect and emotions from the bondage of a small self view.  The embrace is the primal embrace. It is the embrace of the eyes for what is to be seen, the ears for what is to be heard, the nose for what is to be smelled, the tongue for what is to be tasted, body for what is to be felt, and the mind for what is to be understood. The embrace naturally arises when head and heart join with clarity.

          The fullness of the embrace precludes all thoughts of the individual self.   The fullness of the embrace is the embrace of the universal self for the universal self. It is an expression of the Universe's self love.

          The other day at the the weekly meditation we read a short essay by Harada Roshi on Rinzai's teaching of the Host and Guest.  Both Harada and I teach within the Rinzai lineage.  Rinzai lived in  9th century China.  His name in Chinese is Linji.  There is no "L" sound in the Japanese language, and language changes a lot in 1000 years, so some how the names Linji and Rinzai represent the same person.
          Rinzai was noted for his many unusual teachings.  He would hit and shout at his students in an effort to break their conceptual thinking.  Amazingly it worked.  Sometimes I hear Harada use a shout while he is giving private interviews.  He doesn't shout anything at them, he just lets go with a bellow.  It just might be enough to shake the student from their last bit of thinking and thereby enter deep samadhi.  The same is true of being hit.  In a Zen meditation hall there is often a person walking the isles of meditators carrying a stick.  Most people think this stick is just to help them stay awake during the long hours of meditation but every once in a while I will ask to be hit ( You get hit on the shoulder muscles and it is more of a shock then painful.) when I want that last bit of thinking knocked out of my head.  Sometimes it works and some times it doesn't work.
          One of the more unusual teachings Rinzai came up with was that of the Guest and Host.  I had thought that this was an esoteric teaching about the relationship between the Absolute and the Individual, the Absolute being the Host and the Individual being the Guest, or maybe the other way around depending on the situation.  Take tennis for example,  when I gather all my concentration and then let go with a serve and rush the net for the next shot, all my years of practice take over and that internal I has no power over the unfolding event. In some sense we might say the Universe, the Absolute, is in charge and the "I" is along for the ride and is the Guest in this situation, and the Absolute is the Host.  On the other hand when "I" make decisions at work about how things may be done then we might say that "I" am the host and yet I understand that the Absolute is always present functioning through everything, it takes the role of guest in my inner world.  And yet, (there is always that yet because whenever we enter the realm of duality and language there is always another side to look at) the Absolute is always in charge, the individual is an illusion. Thus the Absolute is always the Host.  From the perspective of individual psychology in this practice, as realization deepens more and more the "I" becomes identified with the Absolute.  Even individual choice becomes the Absolute's choice.
          Harada's essay had a completely different interpretation in which the teaching of Guest and Host is about social interaction.  Rinzai in his teaching of Guest and Host asks us to recognize when we are the Host and when we are the Guest and to understand that this is constantly changing according to the situation.
          Here in the USA we want to see ourselves as equals in our social interactions, but in the class structured society of ancient China and Japan there was this understanding that none of us are quite equals in our social interactions.  In most interactions there is someone in charge and who we might call the Host and the other or others who are following who we might call the Guest or Guests.  Or if someone enters our house we are the Host and if we enter someone else's house we are the Guest.  Using the words Host and Guest tells us that these two roles are not about who is more important.  They are both are of equal importance but that the roles have behavioral expectations.  In Zen terms this is about acting appropriately.
          For most of us we are usually acting according to our concept of self identity our ego.  Some people are always trying to take power in all situations, others cede power because it makes them feel secure.  And then we have all sorts of ideas about how things are suppose to be.  I was at sesshin and we were all sitting waiting for the Harada Roshi to come and give a teshio (formal talk).  We sit in these nice neat rows and I was sitting next to an ordained nun.  It was a hot day and I chose to not ware my robes because they are hot being made from wool, instead I was neatly dressed in a black shirt and pants which I thought was appropriate,.  The nun did not think it was appropriate.  She told me I should put on my robes.  When I told her my robes were wool and that I would  be very hot and uncomfortable warring them  she told me "that is just the point" as though the practice of Zen was about learning to put up with being uncomfortable.  I didn't want to argue so I got up ran back to where my robes were hanging, put them on and ran back to my seat,  just before Harada arrived. I was dripping sweat by the time I arrived back in the zendo.
          I tell this story not only because I think the nun acted from an idea she had of what was appropriate and the idea that she understood Zen better then this layman who was sitting next to her, but also because I didn't know how to respond and sat for a while debating with myself over what should I do. I think both of us were caught by our egos in this exchange.   
          The teaching of Guest and Host is about how you act without ego no matter whether the situation seems to give you power or not give you power.  As a Host you should honor and respect your guests and the Guest should honor and respect the host.  These are different roles created by the situation. Society may place one above the other, knowledge, our jobs, personal power, may place one above the other but in essence we are all equal.  It is exactly this recognition which we Zen Buddhists like to believe Shakyamuni announced upon his enlightenment, "All Beings have this same wisdom which I have just been awakened to."  
          There is this image that is often used in Zen training.  As we proceed
 in life most of us humans have lots of sharp points which stick out, get caught on things, and painfully slash and poke others.  These sharp points are all those ideas we have of desires and attachments, anger and confusion.  Zen practice slowly grinds away at all these sharp points until we become like a smooth round ball which roles through life not getting caught or painfully impaling anyone.
           The ideal Zen practitioner proceeds through life without all those thoughts of desires, attachments, anger, and confusion.  Not that the ideal Zen practitioner is completely without thought but that he/she lives in the present and acts without the intermediary of a whole lot of thought.  This does not mean that he/she acts stupidly but rather lets their deeper intelligence and compassion, which we all have, react to the situation.  I go back to the tennis analogy.  You just can't hit a tennis ball very well if you are constantly thinking about how and where to hit the ball.  You play much better if you trust your skills honed through time and practice and drop all the extra thought and just concentrate on being completely present as you move and hit the ball.  Some people say that Zen practice hones our intuition and allows us to act spontaneously but I think it is better described as allowing us to see clearly and act through that clarity.