"Bursting the Bubble Between Good & Bad"

When we come into a new situation, in most cases we have some preconceptions and expectations about it. We imagine what the new experience will be, maybe even rehearse what we’ll say and project what someone else might say in return. Whether it’s going to work or meeting a Zen Master, we have expectations, some more grandiose than others.

When we encounter reality, the bubble of expectations is burst. We’re left standing on the ledge, maybe a tiger below and a killer behind, or something more benign than that, but still on the precipice of a new experience. It’s so new an experience that never in the history of the universe has this experience ever been experienced. 

With a mirror, white comes, white is reflected. Red comes, red is reflected. We can embrace this, rejecting nothing, or struggle against it because  reality doesn’t match the story we’ve invented, and we want that story to be true. Reality includes the suffering of others, which our story may not have recognized. Our own suffering exists, but maybe not in our story, and it’s something we try to hide from the mirror.

But reality has this nasty habit of coming out on top when pitted against a story, and this is something to reflect upon. We can observe our creation of a story, and not make good and bad out of having created it. We can embrace reality, reject noting, reflect everything, and do this not only for ourselves, but for the benefit of all beings. The direct experience of reality and helping others is our practice.

Cheolmin Prajna gave the Dharma talk October 23. 2024.

"Xinxin Ming & Me"

~The Great Way is not difficult for those not attached to preferences~

Xinxin Ming, 3rd Zen Patriarch Sengcan

One of the great opening sentences of all time, better than “Call me Ahab,” better than “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Certainly that one. 

For the last six weeks, the One Mind Zen Sangha have been sharing our favorite/go-to Sutras and other teachings. This one ranks among the best for me. 

We tell a story about something to ourselves, and we believe them. Likes & dislikes are mental formations  determining goodness or badness. They’re the manifestation of ignoring impermanence and non-self. Its denying emptiness. Attachment to them is the trigger that leads to our dis-ease, our dukkha, our suffering. 

We’ve seen the statues our the Buddha looking peaceful, even having the hint of a smile. We’ve seen the equanimity. That equanimity is the lack of attachment to preferences. 

~When not attached to love or hate, all is clear and undisguised.~

When we go to the extremes of love and hate, we’re also missing the Middle Path. When our “love” is clingy, needy, and possessive, it is not the love of the buddhas. Hate is just another emotional form of anger. It’s an oversimplified “I’m right, you’re wrong!” It’s the expression of the separation of self/other, denying the buddhas teaching of non-self and emptiness, where the story is that the separation is real and permanent. 

~As long as you remain attached to one extreme or another you will never know oneness.~

Tenaciously grasping for what we determine to be the self or the other gives rise to the environment that creates our sense of separation. The duality of our preferences separates of from reality. And what is our practice if not the direct experience of reality? 

For me, Sengcan could have ended the Xinxin Ming with the first sentence. It is only his compassion to go further for the benefit of all beings who need more meat to chew on.

~Words! Words!
The Way is beyond language, for in it there is no yesterday,

no tomorrow

no today.~

Myeong Jin Eunsahn gave the Dharma talk October 9, 2024.