“Go to where you are now.”
This is the rehearsal koan. How do I get there? Sit. Breathe. How will I know I’m there? You will not realize anything else.
“Here is the place; here the way unfolds. Do not suppose that what you attain becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your intellect. Its emergence is beyond your knowledge.”
Here is the solitude of existence as a speck of the universe. Be the butterfly effect. How can you not? Since you cannot help but be thus, practice it carefully. There is lightness in this great effort of practice.
Dont just do something. Stand there. There.
There are some things Dogen writes about where I can feel him straining to inhabit with words a place beyond description. The trouble with words, you see, is they are not real. They are always a beat behind. They are a representation of something just past, a painting of an impression of a moment not present now. What a horrible tool to teach the way, eh? Words aren’t bad, dont get me wrong; they are great for conveying the approximate truth in everyday life, and most of the time the approximate truth is just fine. It allows you to cook and clean and get through the day. Nevertheless, words are imperfect instruments for conveying the dharma. Poetry comes close. I think poetry and koans work because they juxtapose words – items the brain ordinarily accepts as a real truth and exposes them for the liars they are, at the same time it is using them to point to the way. Koans, and poetry, are like tai chi used on language, where the meaning of the words is used against them to the writer’s advantage. When done right, it is a miracle to behold.
Go to where you are now. Once you get there, everything is obvious.
thespacebetweenbreaths 