Waterfall

This Teisho (expression of awakened mind)  was given at the Chobo-Ji, in November  at a half-day sit by Genjo Marinello Osho.  This talk investigates this matter of life and death, and our Buddha and "wolf" nature, and asks which is real? Genjo Osho’s talk can be extremely helpful in coming to understand the every day and not so every day aspects of who we are as Buddha’s and Human beings.

Ever the same,
The moon among the clouds.
Different from each other,
The Mountain and the valley.
How wonderful,
How blessed.
Is this one or two? ~Ummon

The point where I’d start is when Genjo Marinello Osho in the teisho where after sharing the story and background of “Senjo and her Separated Soul,” he says “Senjo and her soul are separated, which is the true one? Now the koan is really not at all about this story [Senjo and her Separated Soul]. It’s about life and death and this great matter, who are we really.

So which is the real one? For example, we say that your True nature is timeless. Our true nature is timeless… It is... Therefore, It is not born, neither does it die. Yet here we are, all sitting in corporeal bodies and physical form in the midst of the process of life and death. This body is quite temporary. This personality is quite temporary. We know this also to be true. So which one is the real you?

‘If you are enlightened, in the truth of this koan, you will then know that coming out of one husk and getting into another is like a traveler putting up in hotels.’ This is a really good image. I remember one of the very first books of Zen study I ever read was 'Zen Mind Beginners Mind,' by Shunryu Suzuki who is the founding abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center.  And there he explained it thusly. He said, to paraphrase that ‘Before life, is like being a part of a river, before it goes over a cliff and becomes a water fall. And that what we call life and our sense of a separate individuality is like the drops of water that separate from the river as it falls off the cliff.

Falling off the cliff would be like [the moment of] birth and coming into a separate sense of individuality, is like a drop of water in the waterfall. Eventually of course all the drops hit the bottom and rejoin the river. And according to this metaphor, death is like that. It seamlessly rejoins the river that we are never really separate from, but one might say have a false or at least a temporary sense of individuality. But it’s water before it goes over the waterfall. It’s water after it goes over the waterfall. It’s water after it returns to the river. But before birth and after birth is a clearer… you might say… sense of your true nature as inseparable from the river of Tao or Dharma or just reality. Always inseparable, though in this corporeal body, we have a sense of a separate individuality. That’s a beautiful metaphor and when I read that, many, many, many years ago, maybe thirty-five or forty years ago, I was very impressed."

I encourage you to listen to the complete talk, as he gives a extremely clear and lucid teaching on how, on one hand we are people with fully awakened hearts and minds and if you turn the coin, we can express our “Wolf,” nature that is so deeply embedded in our DNA. The talk is free, on both iTunes and the Choboji Podcast site.

May We Practice Our Life Well,

Jaye Seiho Morris 淸峰, Curator
digitalZENDO

Comments

[luke]

The waterfall example was quite beautiful. Thank you.

[@100PercentProle]

Thank you Seiho!

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