Hide and seek;

Hide and seek;

Every now and again there is no message
no inspiration
no dharma !
It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

The Buddha does not give us inspiration.
It is some sort of game I believe our Buddha nature plays with us and unfortunately we have forgotten how to play the game.

Because we don't listen to Buddha Dharma we don't even know there is a game being played.

A Monk was walking down the street behind his Wat when he saw a little boy, head in hands, crying.
"Why are you crying,"
he asked and the boy replied that he and a friend had been playing 'hide and seek', when the friend suddenly went home, leaving him alone, waiting to be found.

The Monk cried out
"You too have hidden your face from us,
only because you want us to seek you."
"your children have tired of the game and have run off."

The Monk now realized that the Buddha had sent him a clear message for his Dharma and that he had not been forgotten.

He told the Sangha that night;

"How can we expect the Buddha to answer our prayers when we don't even seek Him in the right place and in the right way.

We expect the Buddha to be here in the Wat waiting for us every week,
when and if we come.

We expect the Buddha to be in our homes and at work.

The Buddha was clever and that's why He is Buddha and we are not.

Until we look in the right place we won't find our Buddha nature and we will be like the little boy holding our head in our hands crying;
"Why have you forgotten me ?
Why can't I find you?
Why Lord Buddha don't you help me?"
The answer is simple;

When we learn to still our mind and stop the constant chatter, then we can invite the Buddha into our lives.

Not only will Buddha talk to us through the Dharma,
but we will find love, joy, and peace.

Nathan



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To a friend;

To a friend;
I have a friend who is not well.
My friend is dying.
I offer this Dharma;

I know that this Dharma is not from the Buddha.
It is from
Roshi Bassui Tokusho who was a true follower who understood the Dharma.

"... so you should realize that all the names of the bodhisattvas are just different names for the nature of mind.

As an expedient in the World-Honored-One's sermons, I defined things using certain names, and with these names I point to the truth.

Ordinary people, unaware of this truth, become attached to the names and, in the hope of attaining Buddhahood, seek the Buddha and Dharma outside their minds.

It's like cooking sand in the hopes of producing rice."

Roshi Bassui
wrote the following letter to one of his disciples who was about to die:

"The essence of your mind is not born,
so it will never die.
It is not an existence, which is perishable.
It is not an emptiness, which is a mere void.
It has neither colour nor form.
It enjoys no pleasures and suffers no pain."

"I know you are very ill. Like a good student,
you are facing that sickness squarely.

You may not know exactly who is suffering, but question yourself:

What is the essence of this mind?
Think only of this.
You will need no more. Covet nothing.
Your end which is endless is as a snowflake dissolving in pure air."

In 1387 (at the age of 61), as Roshi Bassui was sitting in meditation with his followers, he turned to them and shouted twice:

"Look straight ahead. What's there?
If you see it as it is
You will never err."

He then died.

I wish for my friend,
and you all, to be guarded and guided.
With Metta
Nathan


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"Eihei Dogen Dharma;"

"Eihei Dogen Dharma;"

It may seem strange that whilst on Holiday,
a time of celebration and relaxation, I reproduce a Dharma about death.

I wrote this Dharma Xmas time 2012.
We were on holiday in Japan.
A most Joyous and Enlightening time.

Actually, this Dharma is about life and death and the delusion that surrounds both life and death.

We celebrated New Year's Eve, in Japan, at Jodi's dads ski lodge in Ishiuchi just north of the birthplace of Eihei Dogen, the founder of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism.

I had just finished writing a story about Eihei Dogen and that inspired me to go to a Temple for Zazen.

We decided to visit a very old temple, that was a school for the children of the Samurai.

We took a wrong turn and found Kikoji Temple.

We were made most welcome by Hidenobu Noguchi the Soto Priest in charge.

The first thing I discussed with this loverly man was
Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) the founder of his order, who lived some eight hundred years ago.

He then told me the great man travelled in this area to teach, actually stayed here and that Kikoji Temple is over eight hundred years old and is dedicated to Dogen.

The Priest then offered the following;

"Dogen argued that we possess everything we need in life when we are born, including being enlightened."

Dogen said;
"As I study both the exoteric and the esoteric schools of Buddhism, they maintain that human beings are endowed with Dharma-nature by birth.

If this is the case, why did the Buddhas of all ages — undoubtedly in possession of enlightenment — find it necessary to seek enlightenment and engage in spiritual practice?"

When Dogen studied in China under Tiantong Rujing,(1162-1228)
Dōgen realized liberation of body and mind upon hearing the master say,
"Cast off body and mind."

This phrase would continue to have great importance to Dōgen throughout his life, and can be found scattered throughout his writings, as—for example—in this famous section of his "GenjoKoan"

"To study the Way is to study the self.
To study the self is to forget the self.
To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe.
To be enlightened by all things of the universe is to cast off the body and mind of the self, as well as those of others.
Even the traces of enlightenment are wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever."

The following section of his GenjoKoen shows us Dogen's profound thinking regarding life and death;

"Firewood turns into ash and does not turn into firewood again.
Do not suppose that ash is after and firewood before.
We must realize that firewood is in a state of being firewood and it has its before and its after...
Just as firewood does not become firewood again after it is ash, so after one's death one does not become alive again.
So life does not become death in an unqualified fact of the Buddha dharma....
Life is a period of itself.
Death is a period of itself.
They are like winter and spring.
We do not think winter becomes spring or that spring becomes winter. Nor do we say that spring becomes summer."
"The Genjo Koan"

This Dogen Koan is most profound as it deals with one of the most emotional sufferings of humanity.

What happens after death?
How is life formed, and is it reincarnated life?
In other words;
Do we come back!

Please comment......

May you all be guarded and guided by following the Dharma and may the Buddha bless you.

With Metta
Nathan


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My trip;

My trip;

Don't we all love going on holiday? Do we need a reason to go?
I go for a number of reasons.
In fact I really don't need a reason, as I will go at the drop of a hat.

This trip I am going to
re-do my vows and put my monks robes back on.
That's a really good reason.
In total I will be away for eight weeks and when I get back I will have a revived out look on life.

My friends Carlo and Salmiah are also in Thailand and we are staying at the same place for the first three weeks of of my holiday.

There is a chance my friend Bhante Nanadhaja Bhikkhu may also come to Ban Krut.
Bhante is presently in Kuala Lumpur attending private matters on a quick trip from Sri Lanka. I hope he does come to the beach as I would be honored to have him be my preceptor.

Last year in Wat SriBoonRuang in Fang,
in Northern Thailand,
Bhante helped me with my meditations and in this area he is an expert.

This morning I made enquiries at Wat Tang Sai if they would allow Bhante to stay awhile.

The Wat is nestled at the base of a small mountain on a bay, overlooking the ocean. It is paradise.
There is a major Temple of the same name, at the top of Mt Thongchai, overlooking the South China Sea looking towards Cambodia and Vietnam.

The head Monk, who speaks a little English, said Bhante would be welcome.


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My trip

My dear friend Han-Shan,

My dear friend Han-Shan,
or in English "cold mountain," lived during the Tang Dynasty. He lived around 720 to 830AD or so.
He lived a simple life,
in the mountains,
by a stream, eating wild fruits and vegetables.
Every now and again he would go to a local temple to make fun of the monks and write his poetry on the walls.
Some thirty years after his death his poetry was collected from various places and written down.
His poetry was found on walls in temples, houses, toilets, rocks, trees, in fact all manner of places where one could write.
We are blessed now to have many poems from this great man and even a film about his life.
As I am about to leave for my personal retreat into the hills, I share my favorite poem of
Han-Shan;

"Cold cliffs,
more beautiful the deeper you enter--
Yet no one travels this road.
White clouds idle about tall crags;
On the green peak a single monkey wails.
What other companions do I need?
I grow old doing as I please.
Though face and form alter with years,
I hold fast to the pearl of the mind."

When I am sitting in the forest, alone with my thoughts, I will remember that my mind is a pearl.
My breath, the string that ties the pearls together.
This body is the clasp that makes sure the string of pearls stays firm and even.
The earth, trees, shrubs and stream enable this body to function.
Ah, happiness you are the feeling of contentment, the joy I am sure Han-Shan felt when he sat,
as I do on this very same spot.

Thank you to the universe for providing such enlightenment.
Nathan


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My New Year Advice,

My New Year Advice,

With help from the Buddha and Osho;

A man went to the Dharma Master to ask advise.

"My life is miserable I have a very small house , one room and it's too crowded.
There's my wife ,
our eight children,
her old parents ,
my sick dad,
our deaf uncle
and our much loved crippled sister.
I cannot pay for a bigger house, what shall I do?"

The Master asked ,
Do you have any animals?

"Yes we have five goats , three cows , ten chickens, two cats, one horse and a dog."

The Master said,
"let them all into the house for two days."

The man was puzzled but he respected the Master, and did what he said.

Life became a nightmare, he had to sleep standing up and the room stank.

He ran to the Master after two days nearly crazy.

The Master was pleased with the mans progress and said,
"now go home and take the animals out, you will be suprised how much space there is now."

Deep inside every situation and every person, there is an empty space and that emptiness is divine.
That emptiness is reality.

The Buddha called it "Shunyata."

Sooner or later, we have to come to terms with our inner emptiness and reality.

The idea of emptiness,
as a lack, has little to do with what the Buddha said about emptiness.
His teachings on emptiness dealt directly with actions and their results, with issues of pleasure and pain and suffering.
To understand and experience emptiness in line with these teachings does not require philosophical sophistication,
but a personal willingness to admit the motivation behind our actions and the benefits and harm they cause.

So, once we find our emptiness, we become aware of all our actions that cause ourselves and others to suffer.

This year, let's make a resolution, to sit, at least once a week, and silently find our emptiness.

The place where the Divine lives.

With Metta
Nathan


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