Ken Wilber: And it is all undone

Searching for the ox

The last delivery of Ken Wilber’s writing form his “Eye of Spirit” series.

In this excerpt from The Eye of Spirit, Ken Wilber offers one of the most powerful (and beautiful) pieces of spiritual writing he has ever produced.  This is the very first time these words have been reproduced on the web, and we invite you to share this chapter however you like.

Finding the ox

In the first delivery of this beautiful piece of writing, we dealt with “The Great Search” in which Ken described the why and how of man’s search for spiritual fulfillment.

In the second blog post “Meet the Cosmos”, Ken introduced us to ourselves and who we in reality are, according to the nondual tradition.

In the next post “Ever-present Awareness” we were reminded of the fact that you and the Kosmos are One Spirit, One Taste, One Gesture. We begin with the realization that the pure Self or transpersonal Witness is an ever-present consciousness, even when we doubt its existence.

In “The eye of Spirit” Wilber tells us “I see the world as Spirit sees it: every object an object of Beauty, every thing and event a gesture of the Great Perfection, every process a ripple in the pond of my own eternal Being, so much so that I do not stand apart as a separate witness, but find the witness is one taste with all that arises within it.”

Taming the ox

In this last delivery “And it is all undone”, Ken gives you an idea of what happens to you once you see the Light; once the separate self dies – you awake to the possibilities of your own ever-present state which is “primordial Emptiness” which is “the Divine, which only alone is, and only alone ever was, and only alone will ever be”, and you are that.

And It Is All Undone

Riding the ox home

Perhaps you will arise as any or all of those forms of ever-present awareness. But then, it doesn’t really matter. When you rest in the brilliant clarity of ever-present awareness, you are not Buddha or Bodhisattva, you are not this or that, you are not here or there. When you rest in simple, ever-present awareness, you are the great Unborn, free, of all qualities whatsoever. Aware of color, you are colorless. Aware of time, you are timeless. Aware of form, you are formless. In the vast expanse of primordial Emptiness, you are forever invisible to this world.

Invisible to the world, but paradoxically, you are the world, you are embodied Sprit, “you are the Divine, which only alone is, and only alone ever was, and only alone will ever be.”

 It is simply that, as embodied being, you also arise in the world of form that is your own manifestation. And the intrinsic potentials of the enlightened mind (the intrinsic potentials of your ever-present awareness)—such as equanimity, discriminating wisdom, mirrorlike wisdom, ground consciousness, and all-accomplishing awareness—various of these potentials combine with the native dispositions and particular talents of your own individual bodymind. And thus, when the separate self dies into the vast expanse of its own ever-present awareness, you will arise animated by any or all of those various enlightened potentials. You are then motivated, not by the Great Search, but by the Great Compassion of these potentials, some of which are gentle, some of which are truly wrathful, but all of which are simply the possibilities of your own ever-present state.

Ox transcended

And thus, resting in simple, clear, ever-present awareness, you will arise with the qualities and’ virtues of your own highest potentials—perhaps compassion, perhaps discriminating wisdom, perhaps cognitive insight, perhaps healing presence, perhaps wrathful reminder, perhaps artistic accomplishment, perhaps athletic skill, perhaps great educator, or perhaps something utterly simple, maybe being the best flower gardener on the block. (In other words, any of the developmental lines released into their own primordial state.) When the bodymind is released from the brutalities inflicted by the self-contraction, it naturally gravitates to its own highest estate, manifested in the great potentials of the enlightened mind, the great potentials of simple, ever-present awareness.

Thus, as you rest in simple, ever-present awareness, you are the great Unborn; but as you are born—as you arise from ever-present awareness—you will manifest certain qualities, qualities inherent in intrinsic Spirit, and qualities colored by the dispositions of your own bodymind and its particular talents.

Ox and self transcended

Maria Popova puts it beautifully: “Every rock we touch is the emissary of timescales we cannot begin to comprehend without confronting our own transience, and yet radiating from it is also the quiet assurance that the world goes on and on, that we are part of something vast and magnificent, that beneath all the tumult and turmoil of our human lives there is a steadfast continuity that anchors life to eternity.”

And whatever the form of your own resurrection, you will arise driven not by the Great Search, but by your own Great Duty, your limitless Dharma, the manifestation of your own highest potentials, and the world will begin to change, because of you. And you will never flinch, and you will never fail in that great Duty, and you will never turn away, because simple, ever-present awareness will be with you now and forever, even unto the ends of the worlds, because now and forever and endlessly forever, there is only Spirit, only intrinsic awareness, only the simple awareness of just this, and nothing more.

Return to the source

But that entire journey to what is begins at the beginningless beginning: we begin by simply recognizing that which is always already the case. (“If you understand this, then rest in that which understands, and just that is exactly Spirit. If you do not understand this, then rest in that which does not understand, and just that is exactly Spirit.”) We allow this recognition of ever-present awareness to arise—gently, randomly, spontaneously, through the day and into the night. This simple, ever-present awareness is not hard to attain but impossible to avoid, and we simply notice that.

We do this gently, randomly, and spontaneously, through the day and into the night. Soon enough, through all three states of waking, dreaming, and sleeping, this recognition will grow of its own accord and by its own intrinsic power, outshining the obstacles that pretend to hide its nature, until this simple, ever-present awareness announces itself in an unbroken continuity through all changes of state, through all changes of space and time, whereupon space and time lose all meaning whatsoever, exposed for what they are, the shining veils of the radiant Emptiness that you alone now are—and you will swoon into that Beauty, and die into that Truth, and dissolve into that Goodness, and there will be no one left to testify to terror, no one left to take tears seriously, no one left to engineer unease, no one left to deny the Divine, which only alone is, and only alone ever was, and only alone will ever be.

And somewhere on a cold crystal night the moon will shine on a silently waiting Earth, just to remind those left behind that it is all a game. The lunar light will set dreams afire in their sleeping hearts, and a yearning to awaken will stir in the depths of that restless night, and you will be pulled, yet again, to respond to those most plaintive prayers, and you will find yourself right here, right now, wondering what it all really means—until that flash of recognition runs across your face and it is all undone. You then will arise as the moon itself, and sing those dreams in your very own heart; and you will arise as the Earth itself, and glorify all of its blessed inhabitants; and you will arise as the Sun itself, radiant to infinity and much too obvious to see; and in that One Taste of primordial purity, with no beginning and no end, with no entrance and no exit, with no birth and no death, it all comes radically to be; and the sound of a singing waterfall, somewhere in the distance, is all that is left to tell this tale, late on that crystal cold night, bathed so beautifully in that lunar light, just so, and again, just so.

Returning to the marketplace with bliss-bestowing hands

When the great Zen master Fa-ch’ang was dying, a squirrel screeched out on the roof. “It’s just this,” he said, “and nothing more.”

“And somewhere on a cold crystal night the moon will shine on a silently waiting Earth, just to remind those left behind that it is all a game.” All the gold and all the silver, all the power and all the glory means nothing, it is all a dream, it is “Just this, and nothing more.”

Mary Oliver

Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me

Last night

the rain

spoke to me

slowly, saying,

what joy

to come falling

out of the brisk cloud,

to be happy again

in a new way

on the earth!

That’s what it said

as it dropped,

smelling of iron,

and vanished

like a dream of the ocean

into the branches

and the grass below.

Then it was over.

The sky cleared.

I was standing

under a tree.

The tree was a tree

with happy leaves,

and I was myself,

and there were stars in the sky

that were also themselves

at the moment

at which moment

my right hand

was holding my left hand

which was holding the tree

which was filled with stars

and the soft rain –

imagine! imagine!

the long and wondrous journeys

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Ken Willber “Eye of Spirit” deel 2

In this excerpt from The Eye of Spirit, Ken Wilber offers one of the most powerful (and beautiful) pieces of spiritual writing he has ever produced.  This is the very first time these words have been reproduced on the web, and we invite you to share this chapter however you like.

Ek het belowe om hierdie uittreksel uit Wilber se Eye of Spirit stuk vir stuk hier te publiseer. Dit is ‘n baie beknopte, vereenvoudigde verduideliking van sy “nondual” benadering van die werklikheid. Dit is inderdaad ‘n uitmuntende spirituele tesis oor wie en wat jy uiteindelik is, en dit is uiters fassinerend en bevrydend.

Ek het die eerste gedeelte op 23 Augustus 2023 op my blog geplaas en sluit dit nou weer hier onder by om die geheue te verfris.

Wilber verdeel die proses van groei en ontwaking in 5 fases:

1. The great Search (die eerste gedeelte wat in die vorige blog inskrywing geplaas is)
2. Meet the Cosmos (deel 2 wat ek hier onder pos)
3. Ever-present Awareness
4. The eye of Spirit
5. And is all Undone

To Meet the Kosmos

Many people have stern objections to “mysticism” or “transcendentalism” of any sort, because they think it somehow denies this world, or hates this earth, or despises the body and the senses and its vital life, and so on. While that may be true of certain dissociated (or merely Ascending) approaches, it is certainly not the core understanding of the great Nondual mystics, from Plotinus and Eckhart in the West to Nagarjuna and Lady Tsogyal in the East.

Rather, these sages universally maintain that absolute reality and the relative world are “not-two” (which is the meaning of “nondual”), much as a mirror and its reflections are not separate, or an ocean is one with its many waves. So the “other world” of Spirit and “this world” of separate phenomena are deeply and profoundly “not-two,” and this nonduality is a direct and immediate realization which occurs in certain meditative states—in other words, seen with the eye of contemplation—although it then becomes a very simple, very ordinary perception, whether you are meditating or not. Every single thing you perceive is the radiance of Spirit itself, so much so that Spirit is not seen apart from that thing: the robin sings, and just that is it, nothing else. This becomes your constant realization, through all changes of state, very naturally, just so. And this releases you from the basic insanity of hiding from the Real.

Die beskrywing van daardie belewenis van “constant realization” word uitstekend beskryf deur Douglas Harding in sy boek “On Having no Head”. Adyashanti beskryf die oomblik toe hy die voëltjie hoor sing het en hy die eerste keer die Lig gesien het en hy alles as een beleef het in sy boek “Emptiness Dancing).

Jy verloor jou kop (jou “self”) en word een met alles, of jy hoor die voëltjie sing, maar jy is die voëltjie.

But why is it, then, that we ordinarily don’t have that perception?

All the great Nondual wisdom traditions have given a fairly similar answer to that question. We don’t see that Spirit is fully and completely present right here, right now, because our awareness is clouded with some form of avoidance. We do not want to be choicelessly aware of the present; rather, we want to run away from it, or run after it, or we want to change it, alter it; hate it, love it, loathe it, or in some way agitate to get ourselves into, or out of, it. We will do anything except come to rest in the pure Presence of the present. We will not rest with pure Presence; we want to be elsewhere, quickly. The Great Search is the game, in its endless forms.

In nondual meditation or contemplation, the agitation of the separate-self sense profoundly relaxes, and the self uncoils in the vast expanse of all space. At that point, it becomes obvious that you are not “in here” looking at the world “out there,” because that duality has simply collapsed into pure Presence and spontaneous luminosity.

Douglas Harding beskryf dit as; jy verloor jou kop en waar jou kop was is die wêreld. Jy kyk nie van binne na buite nie – wat buite was is nou waar kop was, en dit is wat jy is. Daar is nie meer ‘n jy-en-die-wêreld nie, jy is die wêreld en die wêreld is jy.

This realization may take many forms. A simple one is something like this: You might be looking at a mountain, and you have relaxed into the effortlessness of your own present awareness, and then suddenly the mountain is all, you are nothing. Your separate-self sense is suddenly and totally gone, and there is simply everything that is arising moment to moment. You are perfectly aware, perfectly conscious, everything seems completely normal, except you are nowhere to be found. You are not on this side of your face looking at the mountain out there; you simply are the mountain, you are the sky, you are the clouds, you are everything that is arising moment to moment, very simply, very clearly, just so.

We know all the fancy names for this state, from unity consciousness to sahaj samadhi. But it really is the simplest and most obvious state you will ever realize. Moreover, once you glimpse that state—what the Buddhists call One Taste (because you and the entire universe are one taste or one experience)—it becomes obvious that you are not entering this state, but rather, it is a state that, in some profound and mysterious way, has been your primordial condition from time immemorial. You have, in fact, never left this state for a second.

This is why Zen calls it the Gateless Gate: on this side of that realization, it looks like you have to do something to enter that state—it looks like you need to pass through a gate. But when you do so, and you turn around and look back, there is no gate whatsoever, and never has been. You have never left this state in the first place, so obviously you can’t enter it. The gateless gate! “Every form is Emptiness just as it is,” means that all things, including you and me, are always already on the other side of the gateless gate.

Eenvoudig gestel: jy is nie ‘n liggaam met ‘n siel nie, jy is Gees gemanifesteer as mens in ‘n fisiese heelal.

But if that is so, then why even do spiritual practice? Isn’t that just another form of the Great Search? Yes, actually, spiritual practice is a form of the Great Search, and as such, it is destined to fail. But that is exactly the point. You and I are already convinced that there are things that we need to do in order to realize Spirit. We feel that there are places that Spirit is not (namely, in me), and we are going to correct this state of affairs. Thus, we are already committed to the Great Search, and so nondual meditation makes use of that fact and engages us in the Great Search in a particular and somewhat sneaky fashion (which Zen calls “selling water by the river”).

Maar die belewenis of gewaarwording van die “eenheid-van-alles” gebeur nie sommer per toeval nie. Dit is ‘n lang proses met baie insense werk wat gedoen moet word, baie dinge wat ont-leer moet word en ‘n nuwe manier van kyk na die werklikheid. Meditasie help, kontemplasie help, bid help, (maar nie die opsê van versies soos ons in die kerk geleer word nie, en ook nie die knaende smeek/aandrang om hulp en verlossing nie), ernstige gebed en totale oorgawe en eenwording is wat gevra word.

William Blake said that “a fool who persists in his folly will become wise.” So nondual meditation simply speeds up the folly. If you really think you lack Spirit, then try this folly: try to become Spirit, try to discover Spirit, try to contact Spirit, try to reach Spirit: meditate and meditate and meditate in order to get Spirit!

But of course, you see, you cannot really do this. You cannot reach Spirit any more than you can reach your feet. You always already are Spirit, you are not going to reach it in any sort of temporal thrashing around. But if this is not obvious, then try it. Nondual meditation is a serious effort to do the impossible, until you become utterly exhausted of the Great Search, sit down completely worn out, and notice your feet.

It’s not that these nondual traditions deny higher states; they don’t. They have many, many practices that help individuals reach specific states of postformal consciousness. These include states of transcendental bliss, love, and compassion; of heightened cognition and extrasensory perception; of Deity consciousness and contemplative prayer. But they maintain that those altered states—which have a beginning and an end in time—ultimately have nothing to do with the timeless. The real aim is the stateless, not a perpetual fascination with changes of state. And that stateless condition is the true nature of this and every conceivable state of consciousness, so any state you have will do just fine. Change of state is not the ultimate point; recognizing the Changeless is the point, recognizing primordial Emptiness is the point, recognizing unqualifiable Godhead is the point, recognizing pure Spirit is the point, and if you are breathing and vaguely awake, that state of consciousness will do just fine.

Nonetheless, traditionally, in order to demonstrate your sincerity, you must complete a good number of preliminary practices, including a mastery of various states of meditative consciousness, summating in a stable post-postconventional adaptation, all of which is well and good. But none of those states of consciousness are held to be final or ultimate or privileged. And changing states is not the goal at all. Rather, it is precisely by entering and leaving these various meditative states that you begin to understand that none of them constitute enlightenment. All of them have a beginning in time, and thus none of them are the timeless. The point is to realize that change of state is not the point, and that realization can occur in any state of consciousness whatsoever.

Wat Wilber hier beskryf is presies wat Maurice Bucke bekryf wat met hom gebeur het (en wat duisende ander mense ook al beskryf het wat almal presies dieselfde belewenis gehad het.)

“It was in the early spring, at the beginning of his thirty-sixth year. He and two friends had spent the evening reading Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Browning, and especially Whitman. They parted at midnight, and he had a long drive in a hansom (it was in an English city). His mind, deeply under the influence of the ideas, images and emotions called up by the reading and talk of the evening, was calm and peaceful. He was in a state of quiet, almost passive enjoyment. All at once, without warning of any kind, he found himself wrapped around as it were by a flame-colored cloud. For an instant he thought of fire, some sudden conflagration in the great city; the next, he knew that the light was within himself. Directly afterwards came upon him a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination quite impossible to describe. Into his brain streamed one momentary lightning-flash of the Brahmic Splendor which has ever since lightened his life; upon his heart fell one drop of Brahmic Bliss, leaving thenceforward for always an aftertaste of heaven. Among other things he did not come to believe, he saw and knew that the Cosmos is not dead matter but a living Presence, that the soul of man is immortal, that the universe is so built and ordered that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all, that the foundation principle of the world is what we call love and that the happiness of every one is in the long run absolutely certain.”

Soos Bilber hier bo sê; “recognizing the Changeless is the point, recognizing primordial Emptiness is the point, recognizing unqualifiable Godhead is the point, recognizing pure Spirit is the point,” En dan om te weet jy is “Dit”, is om wakker te word, om die Lig te sien, om soos die Buddha en baie ander Meesters “enlightened” te wees, dit is die punt.

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In diep gesprek.

Bodhidharma’s Transmission

 Bodhidharma once said to his students, “The time has come. Can you express your understanding?”

Then one of the students, Daofu, said, “My present view is that we should neither be attached to letters nor be apart from letters, and allow the way to function freely.”

Bodhidharma said, “You have attained my skin.”

The nun Zongchi said, “My view is that it is like the joy of seeing Akshobhya Buddha’s land just once and not again.”

Bodhidharma said, “You have attained my flesh.”

Daoyu said, “The four great elements are originally empty, and the five skandhas do not exist. Therefore, I see nothing to be attained.”

Bodhidharma said, “You have attained my bones.”

Finally, Huike bowed three times, stood up, and returned to where he was.

Bodhidharma said, “You have attained my marrow.” Thus, he confirmed Huike as the Second Ancestor and transmitted dharma and the robe to him.

Excerpted from:

Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen,

page 479

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Drie Pasifiste

Sit so en gesels met Louwie die anner dag. Met dat dit so rof in die wêreld gaan – geweld en doodslag net waar jy kyk. Maar soos James Clarke my eendag verduidelik het: wat anners verwag jy van die Heelal as die oorsprong van alles innerdaad die grootste gewelddadige gebeurtenis ooit was?

Maar trug na die gesprek. Geweld is so ‘n  aansteeklike ding, of miskien eerder so ‘n ingebore ding. Die kruitvat in ons binneste, soos gekondisioneer deur ons wese en omstandighede, vat net die kleinste vonkie om the ontplof. Dan bal ons vuiste, gryp na swaarde en gewere. En dit gaan altyd oor Ek is Reg en jy is verkeerd – die goeie ou ego. ‘n Natuurlike strategie om myself gestand te hou, fisies en geestelik. Die hele werking van ewolusie is hierop gebaseer.

Die probleem hiermee is dat as ons net hierdie strategie gebruik, ons net gewoon menslik is, niks anners as net nog ’n natuurlike dier nie. Tog blyk dit dat die mens wel ’n anner faset ook behels, ’n anner roeping, wat reg teen die natuurlike  strategie indruis en die geweld teëstaan. Hierdie faset laat ons minner aan onsself en ons eie persoonlike oorlewing dink, en meer aandag gee aan die groter prênkie, die Kosmos van bestaan. Dit is die pasifisme. En dit is nie naastenby dieselle as ongeërgdheid nie, en die teenoorgestelde van selfsug.

Vertel Louwie toe van rolmodelle vir die pasifis. Drie van hulle so deur die loop van tyd:

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Zen Quote

Rivers Are Rivers

There is a wonderful Zen saying: “Before I began Zen practice, mountains were mountains, rivers were rivers. When I had some experience, some more intimate understanding, I saw that mountains were not mountains; rivers were not rivers. Now that I have come to the very substance and am at rest, I see that mountains are mountains; rivers are rivers.”

In our neurotic compulsion to think, think, think, we interfere with our true seeing. For example, when we are going to meet someone, our minds are full of all kinds of unnecessary questions: Will this person like me? Will he not like me? Will it be a good thing for me to meet her? Will she like the way I dress? Will he approve of what I say? With such preoccupations, we completely miss the reality of the person we meet. The face, the name, the interests of that person may be entirely lost because we are so full of ourselves. Once a friend of mine was about to go to Italy. I asked her if she had been there before. “Yes,” she said, “but I didn’t see it. I was too full of myself. So I’m going back, and this time, I hope to see it.”

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The Famous Red Cap

The Red Cap and the Seeker After Eternal Truth Descends into the Low Country

We leave the wilderness behind and travel west down the coast towards the Cape of Storms, not our final destination, but perhaps an apt description of things to come in our quest after truth.

We travel fast on the highway winding downwards towards a place called Little Brakriver, a lesser destination on our arduous, questing way to transcendence. It seems that we must first descend into the low country of sensual existence, before we can move into the high country, there perhaps first to meet Jung’s “burning one and growing one” before entering the void.

“Most of spirituality is a construction project. But enlightenment,” says Adyashanti, “is a demolition project.” This deconstruction project is nothing like Dirida’s deconstruction philosophy where he took things apart piece by piece to examine them and then tried to put them together again (He did it with Philosophy and couldn’t put it together again. He did it with religion and the church embraced him with vigour, and now, after the devastation, they are still trying to put it all together again). No, Adyashanti’s demolition is a deliberate breaking down of structures of knowledge and thinking, to rebuild it from scratch into something completely new, something that has always been there, even before time began.

Little Brakriver is not much of a town, but it is quiet and right next to the sea with a beautiful, unspoiled beach and not many people around. Being a town consisting mainly of holiday homes of rich upper-middleclass people, most of the houses stand empty for most of the year, which is of course a terrible waste, but regarded as normal in our abnormal society. The result is you have to drive to the next town (Great Brakriver) to get supplies, which is a bit of a bother. Our accommodation is a small flat called “The Beach Cottage”, which is quite a misnomer; it should have been called “The Cottage far from the beach”, because it is situated next to the railway line more than halve a mile from the beach. But we are not complaining, it is nice and clean and the owner is a friendly, helpful old lady, quiet and graceful in a country sort of way.

We unpack and then we walk down to the beach for a refreshing swim (says my moron); for our seeker after wisdom’s first serious session of meditation while the sun is setting in the west (says TZ).

We get to the beach and sit down on the sand, catching our breath after the brisk walk. After a moment my moron jumps up excitedly, pointing to a young girl coming out of the sea. “Just look at that,” he says. “Have you ever seen such beauty, such gracefulness in a girl in such a small bikini in your whole life? I think I will walk down there and talk to her, maybe I’ll get lucky,” he says smiling from ear to ear and start walking in her direction. “You stay here, I’ll be back shortly,” he says to me and chucks me down in the sand with his other belongings. Me, the famous Red Cap in the sand, on the beach! What utter disgrace!

“Don’t be stupid,” I shout after him. “She is young, she could have been your daughter. Come back here you moron and start acting your age!” I shout furiously after him, but he walks on, ignoring me. The desires of the flesh are a burning fire, and it drives the fool to his final humiliation, and onwards toward the inevitable dark night of his soul.

The fool struts down to the beach, tucking in his protruding middle age belly in a futile effort to look young again. He walks up to the young lady and start talking to her, no doubt flattering her and making a fool of himself. She smiles shyly, laugh at his stupid witticisms and then they start walking off down the beach and disappear behind some big rocks, still chatting and laughing.

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Zen Wisdom

A little bit of Zen wisdom

(From “Zen, a way of life” by Christmas Humphreys)

Some advise: Do not try to use reason to understand, but listen with your heart.

 

“Life is a bridge; walk over it, but build no house upon it.”

“When self is purged from the mind of the observer, the trinity of seer, seen and seeing is dissolved, and the seer sees by becoming the essence of the thing observed.”

“The opposite of one is many; Truth has no opposite. The Many and the One are but poles in a bi-polar field. Beyond both is Non-duality, which is not One, not Two, nor both nor neither.”

“Even God is a thought, a concept in the mind. God is real, by this name or that, but is only real as He or It is the Essence of Mind in your mind and mine, being All-Mind, which is Suchness, Void and absolute.”

“When we can really see the flower, hear the rain, touch the velvet of the rose, and do so merging in their Suchness, we are knowing Truth directly.”

“Satori is a flash of intuition deep enough and wide enough to break the barriers of thought in the individual mind, and to let the Whole flood into the part, the relative fragment ‘see’, for a moment of no-time, the Absolute.”

“In the beginning, mountains are seen as mountains and trees as trees.

With a little progress mountains are no longer mountains and trees no longer trees.

But with enlightenment, mountains are once more seen as mountains and trees as trees.”

  

“The ‘usual life’ in Zen is a very different life, old circumstance perceived with utterly new eyes, the trivial seen as an aspect of the eternal, God in the filling of a pen.”

”Our aim is to raise the quality of living, but not necessarily the standard of living. The saint and sage are content with a hut and the simplest living, but their minds are content with nothing less than universal consciousness.”

“The not-Self is negated more and more; the Self expands to that moment when, ‘foregoing self the universe grows I’. The Absolute Affirmation, when the heart cries Yes to all that is, is also the final Negation, ‘Neti, neti’, ‘not this, not this’; nothing, no thing at all, is.”

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Om te Boom of om nie te Boom nie

Dis amper alweer Kersfees. In opvolging van die geveg rondom die Kersboom dalk ´n finale woord of tien.

Lees ek toevallig hierdie stukkie wysheid raak in Robert E Kennedy se boek: “Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit.”

Vra ´n monik op ´n kol vir Meester Nansen: “Is there any Dharma that has not yet been taught to the people?” sê Nansen; “Yes, there is.”

Vra die monik: “What is the Dharma that has not been taught to the people?” sê Nansen: “It is neither mind, nor Buddha, nor beings.”

Kennedy was ´n Katolieke priester wat in Japan gaan sendingwerk doen het, vir jare. Toe besluit hy om Zen Buddhisme te bestudeer onder Yamada Roshi. Later het hy vir 20 jaar sy studies van Zen Buddhisme in Amerika voortgesit.

Toe eendag, kry hy hierdie Groot Insig. Hy spring in sy kar en jaag na sy leermeester Glassman Sensei toe en uitasem deel hy sy Groot Insig met die Sensei: “Sensei,” sê hy. “Sensei, everything is mind!”

En rustig antwoord Glassman Sensei: “Wonderful. Everything is mind.”

´n Paar maande later herhaal die storie homself. Kennedy kry ´n nuwe insig, spring in sy kar en jaag na Glassman Sensei toe en vertel hom uitasem van sy nuwe Insig: “Sensei, everything is not mind,” sê hy.

“Yes,” sê Sensei, “yes, you see it.”

“Wonderful. Everything is not mind.”

Kennedy moet nog een besoek aan Glassman Sensei bring, iewers in die toekoms vir die aankondiging van ´n finale Insig. Dalk het hy al, ek weet nie.

En dit bring ons terug by die Kersboom.

Van kleintyd af leer ons; die Kersboom is Kersfees. Die een kan nie sonder die ander nie. Die Kersboom is Kersfees, is geskenke, is kersliedere en kerkdienste en sneeu. Dit is in ons Europese gene geskryf. Dit is soos dit is, al bly ons in dorre Afrika.

“Everything is mind!” Die Kersboom, die geskenke, die Christus is Kersfees, so sê ons tradisies vir ons.

Dan word ons groot en ons begin vir ons self te dink, en ons sien dat die boom en die fees nie dieselfde ding is nie. Daar is nie ´n Kersvader nie. Die boom is net ´n boom met blinkers aan. As ons volwasse genoeg is aanvaar ons dit so in die gees van Kersfees en ons gun die wat nog in die boom glo hulle opwinding en verwondering.

“Everything is not mind.” En die boom is nie Kersfees nie.

As ons nie volwasse genoeg is nie, en ons Insig is ego gedrewe, dan pluk ons ons eie Kersboom, met groot geraas en vertoon, met wortel en tak uit en gaan skop ander mense se bome met die liggies in letterlik en figuurlik onderstebo. Want ons WEET die Boom is nie Kersfees nie. Die Zen os is nog nie getem nie, inderdaad nog nie gesien nie. Die boom staan nog in die pad, versper die uitsig op die werklikheid.

Taming the ox:   

As dié wat wyser is as ons dan die Boom verder bedink en die dualistiese beeld van subjek en objek wat ons van die lewe het ophef, behoort hulle tot die volgende Insig te kan kom: Daar is nie ´n boom nie, daar is nie ´n Kersfees nie, daar is nie ´n Ek nie, en helaas, daar is ook nie ´n Christus nie. Die Islamitiese Soefiste sê “There is no God …. There is only God”. (en Abel Pienaar sê “God se oë is blou”, maar dit is `n storie vir later.)

  

Uiteindelik is die Os sowel as die temmer van die Os weg. Die temmer van die Os, wat ook die siener van die Kersboom was, betree die Lig, “enters the void, but not the void of nothingness” en weet dat alles net ´n illusie is. En dan kom hy/sy terug en hou Kersfees en plant sy boom met baie liggies in en gee geskenke met liefde. “He returns to the marketplace with bless bestowing hands”. Hy is bevry van die ego en al die obsessies van hierdie bestaan. Hy is ´n Buddha. Hy is ´n Christus, ´n verligte een. Hy gun dié wat ´n kersboom nodig het, sy boom met liefde, en sing Kersliedere uit volle bors saam met die wat wil sing. En so word dit ´n werklik geseënde, heilige en vredevolle Kersfees soos dit hoort.

(Zen prentjies uit Joh se pos hier bo iewers “Riding the Ox home””

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Zen vir Afrika

Joh sê die vorige inskrywing oor Zen is `n tawwe een. Ons kan nie eers begin dink hoe taf dit werklik is nie.

Statistiek: 34 per 100,000. Dit is hoeveel mense hier by ons per jaar vermoor word.

7.6 mense per 100,000. Dit is die internasionale gemiddelde.

Die gesig van Afrika. Die apie op die foto het dit gewaag om in kagiso te gaan kuier. Die inwoners het hom gevang, petrol oor hom uitgegooi en aan die brand gesteek!!!!

Barbaars. Ek voel lus en huil. Is dit moontlik dat so iets nog kan gebeur in hierdie jaar van onse liewe Heer 2011?

In Lichtenburg word `n perd gepynig deur `n tou styf tussen sy bene vas te trek sodat hy kan bokspring vir mense se plesier. Hulle noem dit sport, Rodeo. In die proses breek een perd sy been omdat die dom donners nie die tou losmaak na die aap wat hom ry afgedonder het nie. Die SPCA moes die dier van kant gaan maak. Die Manne van die Sport was skynbaar nie gepla oor die dier se lot nie.

In Bloemfontein flits `n motoris vir `n ander motoris ligte omdat hy onverskillig ry. Uit wraak gooi hulle die ou wat kla se kar met drankbottels, sit hom agterna tot by sy huis en skop en slaan hom amper dood.

 En nog is dit die einde nie.

In Klerksdorp slaan `n man sy vrou en sy swanger stiefdogter dood met `n hamer. In Mondeor word `n prokureur in haar woonstel oorval, veskeie keer met `n mes gesteek en toe keelaf gesny.

In Afrika sal ons moet begin Zen oefeninge doen sodatons kan glimlag terwyl die mes deur jou keel sny.

En dan lees jy Andile Mngxitama se toespraak by die Ahmed Kathrada-stgting. As jy gedink het jy met jou ou wit velletjie het `n toekoms in hierdie land, moet jy weer dink. Wees bang, wees baie bang vir wat voor lê. Die volgende rewolusie is, volgens Andile om die draai en raai wie se kele gaan afgesny word, wie gaan soos die blouaapie met petrol verbrand word.

Kan Zen in hierdie omstandighede beoefen word? Dit kan en dit moet,ter wille van jou eie, uiteindlike vryheid.

   1994     2000     2011

Metamorfose

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Daily Zen

ZEN

a way of life

(Christmas Humpreys)

 

A Zen student walks in Zen and sits in Zen.

Whether in speech and action, or silence and inaction, his body dwells in peace.

He smiles, facing the sword that takes his life.

He keeps his poise even at the moment of death.

In the light of the Unborn, which is No-mind, which is without purpose or the desire for self, what do I care for the One or the Two, for duality or Non-duality?

Asked, “What is Zen?” a master replied, “Walk on!”

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