Mu and Impermanence

Genjo Marinello Osho, provides teisho (trans. "Place pointing to where the truth is") on Joshu's Mu, tackling what can be a difficult aspect of not just Zen but any practice… backsliding after a period of what we feel as a transformative experience. He really does a masterful job of connecting the dots, leaving a breadcrumb trail, so that we can find our way home to ourselves.

Genjo Osho begins his teisho saying, "I'm going to direct this teisho to two people not in this room. On some level they'll hear me, because it's a delusion to think that we are separate. Of course, by this teisho being dedicated to them, is also a wakeup call to all of us in this room, including myself. What I am called to say is really quite important to hear. 

We have phrases like in our Purification or Confession that it's sometimes called, that say every morning, "That we have all caused much harm and this harm springs from our own body and mouth and that we hereby renounce and relinquish them all… All the harm we've caused." Does that me that the source of that harm has been extinguished? We also say that sometimes that we feel that we are going further and further in darkness. When will be able to be free from samsara and birth and death? Those who truly practice zazen even if just for one sitting will see all their evil karma… history… throughout time… erased… even if just for one sitting… That sounds pretty good.  And from that point forward, nowhere will you find evil paths, but the Pure land will be not just near at hand, but at hand.  Again, sounds pretty good. 

How do we understand this? Here also in the commentary to this koan it says, "When your efforts come to fruition, all the oppositions, contradictions, dualities, are seen through and we become like a person who can't speak but has had a wonderful dream. We know It personally within ourselves and as we break through This gateless barrier, although sometimes the barrier seems so strong… indestructible… impermeable… But when we break though this sometimes impermeable and seemingly indestructible barrier, it is though you have stolen the 'Great Sword," from General Kahn… and we dispatch Buddhism's ancestors, left and right…  we walk a knife edge of life and death and feel utterly free. And live a life of great joy, in genuine… complete… freedom… Gosh that sounds good.

The thing that we have to temper all this good news with is… Impermanence. There are times, when doing this practice that the wall really dissolves and it does feels as though all the gates swing open and all of our trials and tribulations and karmic history become like puffs of smoke that from the vastness are so easily dispatched.  Indeed in that moment we are living a life in complete freedom that transcends the ages and all the sages. Everything in that moment is put into prospective and in that one sit… We see all our evil karma erased… dwarfed… swallowed… And there are no evil paths, where ever we look and the world is so vast and wide that where ever we turn It's pure. 

Having transcended yes and no, right and wrong, and even life and death, for a moment our ego is gone, gone, completely gone… or dwarfed, dwarfed, completely dwarfed. And truly… genuinely… we are in complete freedom. But because of the law of impermanence, soon once again we'll be lost and limited… and trapped within so-called body and soul. And once again all our karmic history which seemed to be whiffs of smoke, is right in front of us once more. And many people get discouraged and turn away from Zen, after having had such an experience and they say, what good is It? This too is only temporary! And others learn the trick. 'Oh! being trapped inside of body, should, ego, identity, this too is temporary!' More zazen! More sesshin! And the barriers fall away again."

Deep… clear… quite… clean… This expression of Zen goes a long way to embracing our life fully. If you'd like to listen to it in its entirety, you can listen on Choboji Podcast. The talk is provided free with the only hope that it connects to your Heart-mind, that is always listening. I hope that it helps provide fuel to the practice of your life.

May We Practice Our Life Well,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Comments

[banzan]

seiho, can i get a print, 11x17 or so, of that MU graphic in this post?

(sent from my new macbook pro)

:) mu