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 Koan of the Present Moment December 02, 2005 3:01 AM

Zen master Dogen wrote a well known text called Genjokoan, which I translate as Koan of the Present Moment.

In this text he kindly extends the notion of koan, or fundamental meditation
object, to our simply being within the present moment of our lives. A classical koan presents us with an insoluble problem. The only way to extend ourselves into that problem completely is to stop trying to solve it, in other words, to stop trying to make something of it,and simply to allow it fully to be what it is, which
would necessarily mean that we would take it so personally that it would be our life.

In Genjokoan Dogen points out that we do not need to take on some oldsaying of the masters in order to confront directly the issue at hand; in fact each moment of ourlives, if we would let go of our definitions and
protections and elisions, and lean fully into it, begs
the question. What is to be done? What is this moment after all?


Here is a passage from Genjokoan. “To study Buddhism is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be confirmed by all
things. This confirmation is thedropping off of body and mind of one’s self and
all others. It is enlightenment that dissolves all its traces, and the tracelessness goes on endlessly.”


“To study Buddhism is to study the self.” This means that one looks deeply and honestly at all points at the way in which one’s life actually unfolds - looks, enters, and allows. This is always interesting, always provides a path forward, no matter what it is that arises. That anything arises at all is always miracle enough, whether we like it or no, so there is no judgment or resistance
necessary, and even where there is judgment or resistance there is a settling into that with appreciation and awe.

“To study the self is to forget the self” means that once you practice in that way your definitions and hedges against yourself fall away, and you can be perfectly happy going on with life, simply life, without any need to make anything out of it.

“To forget the self is to be confirmed by all things.” Allowing things to be as they are without any protection is to appreciate the materials at hand. In everyday living there is a sense of form and presence in each and every thing that comes forward in the present moment.

“Dropping body and mind of self and others” is harder to see for it expresses the freedom that one would feel in the renunciation of everything, being willing to live as one is right now, without any need to hold onto life now or in the future,  and to see that everything shares in this already.

 
Finally (”enlightenment dissolves its traces, and the tracelessness goes on endlessly”) this sense of life as anything distinctive dissolves- it doesn’t look like anything. There is the sense that in the useless and unmade space and time of actual living there is a subtle endlessness and namelessness that is delightfully available to everyone at all times.  [ send green star]
 
 April 25, 2006 12:04 PM

Philip,

Thank you for your post and for the opportunity to forget the illusion and remember our essence.

Blessings and Peace!

Yanni

 [ send green star]  [ accepted]
 
:) May 22, 2006 12:34 AM

Nice one Phillip.

Would you care to discuss this one?

The humble man close to Tao
becomes less every day.
When he has lost himself completely,
only his true self remains.

from the Tao is Tao 55

The truly holy person will be completely unnoticed and the true self being essentially "selfless".

Cheers

Heidi

 [ send green star]  [ accepted]

 
oops May 22, 2006 12:45 AM

Philip... please excuse the double "L" previously. It was a slip of the finger.. a trick of the light.. a trick in the tail..a mistake

Heidi

 [ send green star]  [ accepted]
 
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