To
study the buddha way is to study the
self. To study the self is to forget
the self. To forget the self is to be
actualized by myriad things. When actualized
by myriad things, your body and mind
as well as the bodies and minds of others
drop away. No trace of realization remains,
and this no-trace continues endlessly.
To
forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.
Earlier in the Genjo Koan Dogen Zenji
writes:
To
carry yourself forward and experience
myriad things is delusion.
That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.
How do you carry yourself forward?
How do you all things to come forth with
you?
Forgetting the self frees you from your
self-obsession and opens you to something
wider.
When
actualized by myriad things, your body and mind
as well as the bodies
and minds of others drop away.
When you actually join with things, that separate
self and the separate selves that you see as others
aren’t as fixed. The hard distinction drops away.
Think of someone you think you know
really well—a spouse, a parent,
a child… . Do you think you know
them well? What does that mean? What
do you know beyond your history with
them? Reflect on how much what you “know” about
them comes from you — your interpretation,
your needs … .
How often we think we know someone very well. We think
we know them; they think they know us.
This presumed “knowledge” can, in reality,
become suffocating. We do know their histories (although
filtered through our own…). And what do we do
with this? We expect them to be the same way! In fact
they don’t even finish an act and we “know” what
they’re going to.
Now think of someone who thinks they
know you very well — a parent,
a spouse… Well, do they really?
And how does their “knowing” you
affect how you are with them? For example,
does their “knowing” you
change how you act?
And when others think they know us, being the “known” person
is not who we are on each occassion. For children,
being with their parents can be difficult. They “know” what
you’re going to do. In their eyes you can do
that or you can do the opposite; but there’s
very little else you can do. Those expectations really
shape how you behave.
Think of your parents in the rest of their lives when
they’re not being your parents — how different
they are from the people you know as your parents.
And your children are such different creatures when
you don’t know them as children. And you spouse
is a wondrous person… .Without the expectations
of our "knowing" there s some opening.
When someone you know is curious about you and who
you are, is surprised by you, doesn’t act as
if they know who you are…
Don't move away from your own experience.
Everything else is fantasy.
The
Buddha nature you which you think you already
have within yourself is not Buddha nature.
When you become you yourself or when you forget
all about yourself and say “Yes!” that
is Buddha nature. Suzuki Roshi
So …
And other people’s selves drop away too, because
they’re just as mysterious as you are. Anything
may happen!
Do you think that Dogen is suggesting
you forget your history with people—what
they’ve done or said?
You don’t forget what someone else has done
or said, but you don’t have to rely on it too
much. You don’t have to jump to it! You can say, “Well,
so-and-so was that way and I’m usually this way,
but what’s going to happen today?” It’s
not necessarily going to be a replay.
If you allow someone to be different than who you
think they are, they may be. Something new and
wonderous can occur.
We’ve been talking about knowing
others and others knowing us. But we
started with Dogen urging us to study
ourselves… to forget ourselves.
Contemplate the ways that your thinking
you know who you are affects how you
are – how you act, how you think.
