We are looking for texts to use at Young Urban Zen if we start talking about the precepts, and at Tim's suggestion, I picked up Katagiri Roshi's Returning to Silence. As he said, it is very dense, which also means it is very powerful, and I feel the effect more having not really been studying so much in recent weeks. It is hard even to extract one part of what he writes, but this paragraph ties in nicely with themes that have been floating around this past while:
"Put value on the Dharma, not on individual experience and feeling. This means to put value on the bigger scale of the world, and to open our hearts; even though you may feel pensive, open your heart. Then when you have to help, help; when you have to take care of your life, take care of your life. Whatever you feel, pensive or not pensive, like or dislike, open your heart, and then do what you have to do. From this way of life, you can really take care of individual feelings and experience; your life will bloom. It really helps".
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Thanks for the quote. I enjoyed having this in mind today as I went about doing what I had to do. The last sentence is especially comforting. It really helps.
Do you think that "individual experience and feeling" means my own personal viewpoint, or each unique fleeting experience and feeling? (actually, now that I write it out, I realize that maybe those things aren't so different from each other)
Also strikes me that the opening is "don't put value on individual experience" and the closing is "by doing this you can really take care of individual experience"... valuing vs. taking care of.....hmmmm....
I think it means that you cannot ignore your own feelings and experience, as that leaves you separate from your own life, but you should not have them in front of you to the extent that they are blocking out the possibility of being open to others'feelings and experience.
Post a Comment