Moon Water Dojo
  • Home
  • Essays By Ed Shozen Haber
    • Birth and Death
    • Emptiness
    • Practice
    • Port Townsend Sutra
    • Response to a Conversation
    • A Life of Practice I
    • A Life of Practice II
    • A Life of Practice III
    • A Life of Practice IV
    • A Life of Practice V
  • Schedule
  • contact
  • Blog

Mumonkan Case 19

5/17/2017

0 Comments

 

Case 19 Nansen's "Ordinary Mind Is the Way"                          
 
Jõshû asked Nansen, "What is the Way?"
"Ordinary mind is the Way," Nansen replied
"Shall I try to seek after it?" Jõshû asked.
"If you try for it, you will become separated from it," responded Nansen.
"How can I know the Way unless I try for it?" persisted Jõshû.
Nansen said, "The Way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing.
Knowing is delusion; not knowing is confusion.
When you have really reached the true Way beyond doubt, you will find it as vast and boundless as outer space.
How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong?"
With these words, Jõshû came to a sudden realization.

Mumon's Comment
Nansen dissolved and melted away before Jõshû's question, and could not offer a plausible explanation.
Even though Jõshû comes to a realization, he must delve into it for another thirty years before he can fully understand it.
 
Mumon's Verse
    The spring flowers, the autumn moon;
    Summer breezes, winter snow.
    If useless things do not clutter your mind,
   You have the best days of your life.


          Do not use "Ordinary Mind Is the Way" as an excuse for not disciplining your mind and practicing lazy zazen.  And yes I have heard this expression as just such an excuse.  If "ordinary mind" referred to the ordinary day to day mind of most of us then what need would we have for zazen?  Why would we work so hard to solve koans?  The whole edifice of practice comes crashing down.
          Mumon obviously didn't believe Ordinary Mind to be so simple because ha our minds are not simple and that is the problem.  The great way is not difficult for  those who have no prejudices, who do not think constantly of likes and dislikes, whose mind is not cluttered.  But for most of us our ordinary mind is cluttered with prejudices of right and wrong, likes and dislikes, and other useless things, and we are not happy.  Instead can we find happiness simply in what the world presents to us, in what is ordinary but is also magical, " The spring flowers, the autumn moon; Summer breezes, winter snow."  It took the great Joshu 30 years to cultivate this sort ordinary of mind.
          Bodhidharma defined zazen as not to be attached to the external and not to be moved by the internal.  This is a recommendation not just for zazen but our daily life as well. This is the way of ordinary mind.  Not to be attached to the external means: Greet the world with a certain easiness of mind which appreciates being alive and the beauty and joy of life but also is well aware that things are always changing. Don't be attached to things being any certain way or not being any certain way.  Don't try to possess and accumulate things.  Be straight froward and honest.  To not be moved by the internal means: Don't get carried away by your own thoughts and emotions.  Drop habitual thought and emotional patterns.  Be unattached to any thoughts and emotions that appear and not to add further unnecessary thoughts and emotions. Remain mindful, clear and focussed.  Make this your Ordinary Mind.  It is not so ordinary.
           

  

























0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Hi I am Ed Shozen Haber an authorized teacher of Zen in the lineage of Shodo Harada Roshi of the One Drop Sangha.  By the way I look a bit older now.

    Categories

    All
    Bodhisattva
    Bodhisattva Vows
    Buddhism
    Dogen Zenji
    Genjo-koan
    Heart-sutra
    Heart Sutra Commentary
    Hinayana
    Hsin Hisn Ming Commentary
    Hsin Hsin Ming
    Koans
    Mahayana
    Meditation
    Sesshin
    Song Of Zazen
    Song Of Zazen Commentary
    Tanden
    Zazen
    Zen

    Archives

    February 2024
    December 2023
    December 2019
    November 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos from Mot the barber, BurnAway