“How I long to see among dawn flowers, the face of the One.” ― Matsuo Basho
Time
9 AM – 10:30 AM Pacific Time
11 AM – 12:30 AM Central Time
12 PM – 1:30 PM Eastern Time
Schedule
Feb The 25th Sunday
Awakening is not an extraordinary experience that happens to a few special people. It is not an experience at all; it is the recognition of the nature of our being. Once this recognition has taken place, it remains to align our thoughts and feelings on the inside, and our relationships, activities, and perceptions on the outside.
In this gathering, we will explore that, enlightenment is what might be termed the ‘way of recognition’. Recognition meaning ‘to know again something we have always known but overlooked, ignored or forgotten’.So, what is it we have overlooked as we’ve pursued our awakening? It is our essential self, the very core of who we are. The essential nature of anything is the aspect that cannot be removed or separated from it. When everything removable is stripped away, what remains is our essential self.
Our essential self, who we truly are, then, must be that which has always been, and forever remains when everything else comes and goes. What is it that comes and goes? All of our thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, activities, etc. – the entire ever-changing content of our experience.
All the components of the content are temporary appearances within that which forever remains – our essential being, who we truly are.
As our essential being becomes divested of the qualities acquired from the content of experience, our thoughts lose their agitation, and our emotions no longer create a sense of lack.
We come to know the innate peace and joy that pre-exist content. We discover that, rather than dependent on external circumstances, causeless peace and joy are the inherent nature of our being that we share with all sentient beings on this planet and beyond.
I will tell you one story – one Zen story. Bokuju was meditating – meditating very deeply, meditating with his whole heart. His master would come every day, and he would just laugh and go back. Bokuju became annoyed. The master would not say anything, he would just come and look at him, laugh and go away. And Bokuju was feeling very good in meditation. His meditation was deepening, and he needed someone to appreciate him. He was waiting for the master to pat him and say, “Good, Bokuju. You did well.” But the master just laughed. The laughter felt insulting – as if Bokuju was not progressing, and he was progressing. As he progressed more, the laughter grew more and more insulting. It was impossible to tolerate it now.
One day the master came, and Bokuju was feeling absolutely silent as far as mind can go; there was no noise within, no thought. The mind was absolutely transparent; no barrier was felt. He was filled with a subtle deep happiness, joy was bubbling all over, he was in ecstasy. Thus, he thought, “Now my master will not laugh. Now the moment has come, and he is going to tell me, ‘Now Bokuju, you have become enlightened.’”
That day the master came: the master came with a brick in his hand, and he started rubbing that brick on the rock on which Bokuju was sitting. He was so silent, and the rubbing of the brick created noise. He became annoyed. At last he couldn’t tolerate it, so he opened his eyes and asked his master, “What are you doing?”
The master said, “I am trying to make this brick a mirror, and by continuously rubbing it I hope that someday this brick will become a mirror.”
Bokuju said, “You are behaving stupidly. This stone, this brick, is not going to become a mirror. No matter how much you rub it, it is not going to become a mirror.”
The master laughed and said, “Then what are you doing? This mind can never become enlightened, and you go on rubbing and rubbing it. You are polishing it, and you are feeling so good that when I laugh you feel annoyed.” And suddenly, as the master threw his brick, Bokuju became aware. When the master threw his brick, suddenly he felt that the master was right, and the mind broke. Then from that day on there was no mind and no meditation. He became enlightened.
The master said to him, “Now you can move anywhere. Go, and teach others also. First teach them meditation; then teach them non-meditation. First teach them how to make the mind clear, because only a very clear mind can understand that now even this clear mind is a barrier. Only a deeply meditative mind can understand that now even meditation has to be thrown.
