tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-308545293311569644.post8452035114473162367..comments2010-03-26T09:14:05.724-07:00Comments on ERRATA: SUNAWACHI SHOSHIN TANZAMike Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-308545293311569644.post-55121182986336275432008-03-21T01:44:00.000-07:002008-03-21T01:44:00.000-07:00A view, Mike Doe, is a view.Learning is learning. ...A view, Mike Doe, is a view.<BR/><BR/>Learning is learning. <BR/><BR/>In the sphere of sitting upright in the full lotus posture, views and learning are of no use: they are a handicap.<BR/><BR/>Unlearning is unlearning -- views spontaneously dropping off, a backward step.Mike Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-308545293311569644.post-38184774292997338832008-03-21T01:41:00.000-07:002008-03-21T01:41:00.000-07:00Thank you, Harry.I have tried my utmost -- I still...Thank you, Harry.<BR/><BR/>I have tried my utmost -- I still tend to try my utmost -- to be wonderfully correct, but in the end Samsara is all I really know. <BR/><BR/>When I presume to know more, it is only me temporarily passing through the realm of celestial beings, on my way back to hell. <BR/><BR/>It seems to me that sitting up straight in the full lotus posture, without the fixing that generally characterizes religious (and indeed Alexandrian) observance, is not an alternative to Samsara. It is rather a happening that can arise, spontaneously, as if by magic, out of Samsara, and only out of Samsara -- hence Nagarjuna's teaching of pratitya-samutpada. <BR/><BR/>Yes, the Zen Buddhist world is rife with rigid trying to be right. "Keep the spine straight vertically." "Stretch your neck vigorously." "Tuck in the chin; neck bones straight." "Proper posture required." Et cetera. Et cetera. And I am part of that nonsense. That is the soil from which I have sprung. <BR/><BR/>Yesterday on "In Our Time" on Radio 4, I heard that Socrates saw that everybody with pretensions to know the truth, was a fool. He thought that he was the biggest fool of all. But he was the fool that knew he was a fool. <BR/><BR/>I see a parallel between that and Master Dogen's "Ordinary people are deluded about enlightenment. Buddhas are enlightened about delusion." <BR/><BR/>Gudo taught me to look for the basis of delusion not primarily in psychology, but in physiology. Everything that I have written here about the vestibular system is down to Gudo, really. I sought the truth in the field of "vestibular re-education," because that was the field in which Gudo's teaching pointed me. That was the irony: by steadfastly pursuing the truth in the way that my master demonstrated to me, I caused him to become suspicious of me, and those suspicions were exploited, with deadly accuracy and exquisite timing -- all a nice manifestation of the wheel of Samsara turning. <BR/><BR/>The Bodhirucci Sanzos of this world try to explain pratitya-samutpada as if it were some primitive theory of causation. Bull shit. Pratitya-samutpada is sitting up straight in the full lotus posture.Mike Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-308545293311569644.post-30296496427467623502008-03-20T13:27:00.000-07:002008-03-20T13:27:00.000-07:00As the months go by there seems to be less and les...As the months go by there seems to be less and less anger in what you write. It seems to be more and more dispassionate. <BR/><BR/>Where the truth lies I do not know. <BR/><BR/>To me it seems like you are learning to sit up straight and are less and less trying to sit up straight.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-308545293311569644.post-27058604549600603682008-03-20T09:31:00.000-07:002008-03-20T09:31:00.000-07:00Mike,That really is very interesting reading. Much...Mike,<BR/><BR/>That really is very interesting reading. Much more interesting, and insightful, than much of the wonderfully correct, or tantalizingly ambiguous, Buddhist fodder that I've come across. <BR/><BR/>Thank-you very much, Mr. Wrong.<BR/><BR/>Regards,<BR/><BR/>Harry.Harryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05168631752214481563noreply@blogger.com