The Eight Gates of Zen

Introduction

• Everything gets turned over, spilled out… It can hurt as its happening; the poetic images often don’t communicate that well.
• There is a revolutionary feel to this focus on the mundane as the transcendent.
• Instead of gimmicks, there is our immediate presence; instead of quick-fix mentality, there is thoroughness of commitment; instead of external buffers, there is uncompromising honesty.

The Teachings of Mountains and Rivers

• The interpenetration and mutual non-hindrance of all dualities.
• Practice and enlightenment are one.
• “The liturgy of everyday life: of washing the face, using the lavatory, cooking a meal, brushing the teeth.”

Shakyamuni’s Flower

• What we all search for, is really right here all the time. It just needs to be realized.
• The consequences of the illusion of self are desire, thirst, craving, need—which in turn form the roots of suffering.
• To study the Buddha Way is to study the self, and to study the self, ultimately, is to forget the self.
• As barriers arise, one learns to acknowledge them, to understand them intimately, to let them go.
• “When there is no separation, there is no knowing. You need to have two things in order to know: a knower and what the knower knows.”
• What remains when there is no longer a self? The whole phenomenal universe. The only difference is that there is no longer a separation between you and it.
• The everyday mind constantly reaffirms the idea of the self; when the mind stops moving, the self is forgotten.
• Oneness and differentiation, exist simultaneously and interpenetrate perfectly.
• That sense of unity is the basis of compassion. You take care of everything like you take care of yourself.
• Simple and direct and very difficult.

The Seal of Enlightenment

• We tend to see body, breath, and mind separately, but in zazen they come together as one reality.
• Although zazen looks very disciplined, the muscles should be soft. There should be no tension in the body.
• Each time you return to the breath you are empowering yourself with the ability to put your mind where you want it, when you want it there, for as long as you want it there.
• Get very clear about what it is that one wants to accomplish, and make a personal vow to accomplish just that.

Ten Stages

• Great faith, great doubt, and great determination, the three pillars of sound practice.
• Thoughts tend to slowly disintegrate when your awareness really shines on them.

The Eight Gates of Zen

• Koans are a good way to cool the assertiveness, to undermine and dismantle the whole intellectual matrix, while harnessing the energy of inquisitiveness and activating intuition.
• When the ego gets out of the way and the self is thoroughly forgotten, compassion manifests itself easily and readily.
• We construct the reality that we call self by the way we combine and use the organs of perception, the objects of perception, and consciousness.
• Unless you’re approaching this practice for the simple delight in the practice, you’re missing what it’s all about.
• In Zen liturgy we manifest that which is known to us intuitively and subconsciously in the form of a visible, tangible reality.
• Whether we realize it or not, we are immersed in secular ritual all the time.
• Liturgy can be considered an affirmation or restatement of the common experience of a community.
• It is not a matter of knowing. It has to be realized as the functioning of our lives.
• Koans remain dark to the mind but radiant to the heart.
• ‘“Making visible” means that we are able to perceive that something is there, though invisible.’
• Use the everyday, mundane, activities of life as sacred liturgy.
• Practice doesn’t bind us, it makes us free. Greed, anger, and ignorance bind us.
• The Precepts are not meant to bind but to liberate.
• When we don’t hold on to some idea of ourselves and a particular way we have to react, then we are free to respond openly, with reverence and consideration for all the life involved.
• For the teachings to come alive, they have to be lived with the whole body and mind.
• “Not knowing is most intimate”
• A sacred activity, as a manifestation of the miracle of being alive.
• Each step, each action that brings us closer to the goal, is the goal itself.
• ‘To really complete work practice requires cleaning up, putting the tools away, picking up the loose ends, “leaving no trace.”’
• The things that are most difficult for us almost always have the most to teach us.
• Make sitting zazen a very conscious thing that you are doing.
• A routine that alternates between art practice and body practice every other day, with one day off during the week, is often both feasible and reasonable.
• In the midst of the fire of greed, anger, and ignorance of the world, the lotus blooms. That is your practice.
• When the body moves, the mind moves. The point of zazen is to experience the stillness of the mind.

The Ten Grave Precepts

• Affirm life; Do not kill.
• Be giving; Do not steal.
• Honor the body; Do not misuse sexuality.
• Manifest truth; Do not lie.
• Proceed clearly; Do not cloud the mind.
• See the perfection; Do not speak of others error and faults.
• Realize self and other as one; Do not elevate the self and blame others.
• Give generously; Do not be withholding.
• Actualize harmony; Do not be angry.
• Experience the intimacy of thing; Do not defile the Three Treasures.

The Four Great Vows

• Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to save them.
• Desires are inexhaustible; I vow to put an end to them.
• The Dharmas are boundless; I vow to master them.
• The Buddha Way is unattainable; I vow to attain it.

Added 2024-01-20.