The 8 Mundane corrosives
Pleasure - Pain
Gain - Loss
Fame- Obscurity
Praise - Blame
These are twins that are never separated from one another. If you pursue one the other follows. If you use these as a measurement of how to live your life, life is suffering and miserable. I notice that although they look pretty obvious, they are quite subtle and pernicious. Each one has a tendency to destroy our ability to see clearly; each one is full of self-absorption. We chase these mundane concerns only to get ourselves lost.
Pleasure may come in the form of just wanting something to stop or change or be otherwise; the chasing after pleasure and the removal of pain lifts off the experience of right here; we pursue this over and over again. As I consider my life I see how I want certain things to go away; or certain situations, or certain people, or certain sounds, or smells, or time...I prevent the Way from coming forth when I chase after or run away from what is arising. Staying with what comes doesn't mean holding it, it means staying still in the illumination of what occurs...it doesn't mean resignation either. It is easy, it means not leaning one way or the other, simply staying still in what you are doing...I'd like to give an example.
Currently I am in the middle of a disagreement with someone. They think a whole bunch of stuff and I think a whole bunch of stuff; the content is not important. The experience of the difference is. I experience a certain ancient response to the whole bunch of stuff being said which leads me to want to push the experience away, push the person away. Now it doesn't mean that I will stay in the situation with the person as a vow to stick with it no matter what; the teachings do not ask us to harm anyone, including our self...what it is does mean is that I will stay with my experience without running to make it sweet or to make it go away...but to take a look, see what is there without refutation of the other, without discrediting the other, without dishonoring the other or myself...we include everything without dishonoring it...seeing it as clearly as we are able without going into right or wrong thinking, without going into good or bad labeling, without splitting....just seeing the differences in the middle of the sameness...noting our experience, noting that nothing is not included...what does that mean? Everything is included...we just see it there, feel it, smell it, taste it, touch it...just so. It's all just so and when we see that we don't get so riled up...so staked down into a position...we carry on, keep going...it's hard to do because we want to stake a place in the ground and be right about stuff...we want to be a me that knows what is right and to be a good person....rather than be awake, to know the true nature of this situation, the communion and intimacy of sticky, wet, dry, hard, soft, dark, light, when I am able to drop all the stuff of wanting to run or hide or the pull of any of the mundane concerns I see...just see. And then of course we have to say something...we have to respond...and we just never know what that might be or look like...if I think about it again I find myself quickly tangled in the whole bunch of stuff...this is where we need face to face, nose to nose communion with one another and all things...as Ed would say from Dogen's Cook...let the heart abide in things and things abide in the heart. again and again and again.
Gain - Loss
Fame- Obscurity
Praise - Blame
These are twins that are never separated from one another. If you pursue one the other follows. If you use these as a measurement of how to live your life, life is suffering and miserable. I notice that although they look pretty obvious, they are quite subtle and pernicious. Each one has a tendency to destroy our ability to see clearly; each one is full of self-absorption. We chase these mundane concerns only to get ourselves lost.
Pleasure may come in the form of just wanting something to stop or change or be otherwise; the chasing after pleasure and the removal of pain lifts off the experience of right here; we pursue this over and over again. As I consider my life I see how I want certain things to go away; or certain situations, or certain people, or certain sounds, or smells, or time...I prevent the Way from coming forth when I chase after or run away from what is arising. Staying with what comes doesn't mean holding it, it means staying still in the illumination of what occurs...it doesn't mean resignation either. It is easy, it means not leaning one way or the other, simply staying still in what you are doing...I'd like to give an example.
Currently I am in the middle of a disagreement with someone. They think a whole bunch of stuff and I think a whole bunch of stuff; the content is not important. The experience of the difference is. I experience a certain ancient response to the whole bunch of stuff being said which leads me to want to push the experience away, push the person away. Now it doesn't mean that I will stay in the situation with the person as a vow to stick with it no matter what; the teachings do not ask us to harm anyone, including our self...what it is does mean is that I will stay with my experience without running to make it sweet or to make it go away...but to take a look, see what is there without refutation of the other, without discrediting the other, without dishonoring the other or myself...we include everything without dishonoring it...seeing it as clearly as we are able without going into right or wrong thinking, without going into good or bad labeling, without splitting....just seeing the differences in the middle of the sameness...noting our experience, noting that nothing is not included...what does that mean? Everything is included...we just see it there, feel it, smell it, taste it, touch it...just so. It's all just so and when we see that we don't get so riled up...so staked down into a position...we carry on, keep going...it's hard to do because we want to stake a place in the ground and be right about stuff...we want to be a me that knows what is right and to be a good person....rather than be awake, to know the true nature of this situation, the communion and intimacy of sticky, wet, dry, hard, soft, dark, light, when I am able to drop all the stuff of wanting to run or hide or the pull of any of the mundane concerns I see...just see. And then of course we have to say something...we have to respond...and we just never know what that might be or look like...if I think about it again I find myself quickly tangled in the whole bunch of stuff...this is where we need face to face, nose to nose communion with one another and all things...as Ed would say from Dogen's Cook...let the heart abide in things and things abide in the heart. again and again and again.
posted by Dog Hair at 11:41 AM
1 Comments:
we have viewpoints...can we relinquish them in communion with another...staying open...not discrediting self or other...just letting others know what we are up to? And we see the viewpoints...can we let go of them, make space for more...not necessarily accomodating by losing your viewpoint or obliterating your viewpoint or discarding your viewpoint...just disarming it. Can you disarm your self and then show up?
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