07-25-2013, 07:53 AM
the realization that one knows nothing is the start of wisdom.
once you can accept this, the learning can truly begin. ie you have to be totally open to restructuring and re-examining every belief pattern, every thought that you have every had in this incarnation. If you still have some beliefs you wish to 'defend', you will be stuck in the past, instead of living in the spontaneous moment.
holding (clutching/approving) is truly what ties us to the past.
- -
the question of identity ties back to the 'original face' of zen:
![[Image: 100px-%E7%A6%AA-ouyang.svg.png]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/%E7%A6%AA-ouyang.svg/100px-%E7%A6%AA-ouyang.svg.png)
"When you're not thinking of anything good and anything bad, at that moment, what is your original face?"
"Cease practice based
On intellectual understanding,
Pursuing words and
Following after speech.
Learn the backward
Step that turns
Your light inward
To illuminate within.
Body and mind of themselves
Will drop away
And your original face will be manifest.
— Dogen"
once you can accept this, the learning can truly begin. ie you have to be totally open to restructuring and re-examining every belief pattern, every thought that you have every had in this incarnation. If you still have some beliefs you wish to 'defend', you will be stuck in the past, instead of living in the spontaneous moment.
holding (clutching/approving) is truly what ties us to the past.
- -
the question of identity ties back to the 'original face' of zen:
"When you're not thinking of anything good and anything bad, at that moment, what is your original face?"
"Cease practice based
On intellectual understanding,
Pursuing words and
Following after speech.
Learn the backward
Step that turns
Your light inward
To illuminate within.
Body and mind of themselves
Will drop away
And your original face will be manifest.
— Dogen"
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