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description= Zen Master Albert Low s articles, continued by Jean Low (after Jan 2016) from his recorded teishos.;
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Text of the page (random words):
relax into the comfort and security of the sense of self one needs to maintain an alert interest with the intention to understand rather than to judge posted in teisho 3 comments the silver mountain posted on october 31 2020 by albert low before jan 2016 jean low after jan 2016 teisho 1013 2006 when you have not penetrated the great way it is like silver mountains and iron cliffs one of the descriptions of working on oneself is that it is like climbing a silver mountain that has no handholds or footholds it is that sense of the impossible the impenetrable when you penetrate the great way you find you are the silver mountain and iron cliff this gives the feeling of it all dissolving one moment you are completely confined and the next one sees that what one had felt as confinement is vast limitless space it is as it is and this is why you are told to start from where you are this mind of ours is convinced it is in control there is a claim to omnipotence omniscience fundamentally the claim is justified but when it is expressed through form it is futile this claim is implicit in all that we do and when we come to practice we cannot understand being totally thwarted there is the belief that we have to change things improve things it isn t enough as it is we do not see that the greyness the dryness the monotony the uninspired quality come from this futile attempt to change things it is only when we see it as it is that the sun breaks through when we are working on ourselves we are opening up to a flexible fluid kind of mind a mind that can float freely a mind that is fixated with the absolutes of good and bad is a frozen mind all the opposites freeze the mind an unfrozen mind is capable of ethical appreciation one is not confined by rules by absolutes by right and wrong yes and no one is now confined by the needs of the situation if one is totally responsive to the situation one is totally determined by that situation and yet that being totally determined is complete freedom what is there outside you what is there you lack it keeps coming back to the same thing you are posted in teisho leave a comment coming home to what you are posted on october 9 2020 by albert low before jan 2016 jean low after jan 2016 teisho 1343 2014 nisargadatta the reward of self knowledge is freedom from the personal self there is general basic awareness which in its purity has no reflection and then there is self awareness it is a sort of tunnel vision limited by what is appropriate to maintain the sense of self there are many subtle ways by which this sense of self is established we feel that without it we are nothing that we must have this sense of self in order to exist we are afraid that if the sense of self should disappear everything would go with it one aspect of practice is to get to know thoroughly this sense of self when you work with who am i on one hand you are exploring the sense of self and on the other hand you are allowing knowing to shine through you are knowing there is no agent involved there is no one that knows the word bodhisatva expresses this it means knowing being there is no self involved everything fundamentally is knowing knowing and being are one i know myself by being myself this is the ground of our lives or what we call the world but on top of that is the search for something which reflects back on the search for the self we look for the self in the same way as we look for something but to be able to respond to the question who am i one must drop everything every something what does it mean to be yourself the only way you can answer that question is by being yourself practice is not about trying to understand words and ideas and it is not about trying to get a new kind of sensation a new kind of experience it is simply coming home to what you are and what you are is knowing when you see the room or smell the flowers this is how knowing manifests what is most fundamentally taken for granted is that you are it is a given the fact that you are never enters your mind throughout the day it is not questioned examined or considered there is nothing outside you you are a totality a whole a completeness there is nothing that stands against you you are not part of a causal chain you are not the effect of something you are original you are complete you are not part of the whole you are the whole all beings are buddha all the misery of life comes from our turning our backs on this truth and separating being from seeing so that now the world is over there and i am over here suffering comes when being and knowing are separated posted in teisho 1 comment we need to shift our attention posted on september 20 2020 by albert low before jan 2016 jean low after jan 2016 teisho 735 2000 we take so many things for granted we set up certain habits ways of reacting and repeat them over and over again gurdjief used to say that the curse of human nature was the mechanicalness of human nature it could be said that there are three things that go together taking things for granted mechanical life and seeking immediate gratification he used to introduce shocks into the running of his institute he would get people up in the middle of the night to do exercises he bought bikes on one occasion and everyone had to ride around the institute on one he was trying to shatter brake up the mechanicalness of human nature how can we do this for ourselves on beginners courses one of the things we do is ask people to wear an elastic band on their wrist or a finger for a week some people protest it is a foolish thing to do it is this very sense of foolishness that helps to derail their habitual ways of reacting by just being aware bringing deadening habits into the light of awareness one can melt away obstructions we do not have the choice as to whether we are going to suffer or not but we do have the choice of how we are going to suffer one of the problems with pain is that alongside it is another pain i hurt it is this i hurt that we can do something about our practice is to see into this i that is constantly seeking comfort instant gratification and ways to avoid issues nisargadatta says begin to question this will help to break up habitual reactions working on a koan gives you a pneumatic drill to break up the concrete of habit which deadens our life a question many people carry with them is what is the point does it matter what difference does it make a feeling of hopelessness and inability to do anything usually accompanies this questioning if instead of letting it sink into the background of one s life one gives it one s attention bathes it in awareness this is working on yourself all religions assure us that there is something beyond mere experience all express this differently zen simply says from the beginning all beings are buddha the experience that we call life is experienced there is knowing in which all experience comes to be there is a light in which every form takes its place this knowing is not experience it is not subject to the changes of experience it doesn t come into being experiences come into being within the light of knowing it doesn t die experiences come to an end within the light of knowing all joys satisfaction and beauty have their source in knowing we need to shift our attention from experience to experiencing from a wall to seeing the wall from the body to knowing the body from the world to knowing the world this subtle shift doesn t change anything everything is the same as it always has been but at the same time everything is different everything is now alive whereas before everything was dead everyone can make this subtle shift all beings are buddha nisargadatta says you have spent so much energy building a prison for yourself now spend as much energy on demolishing it all hangs on the idea i am something examine this very thoroughly it lies at the root of all trouble this is what zen is all about seeing into the root of the weed that we call myself i he says it is like a skin that separates you from reality everything has got the taint of i in it realize then that this is how you see the world and then realize that it is not the world it is an experience then realize that with every experience there is experiencing seeing knowing and it is this experiencing that will dissolve the experience which will take from it its absolute quality its sense of independence its sense of separation nisargadatta says you can live very well without the sense i am something are you prepared to put up with the pain the difficulties and discomfort necessary to work with it so that you can see it for what it is and allow it to dissolve posted in teisho leave a comment come home posted on august 28 2020 by albert low before jan 2016 jean low after jan 2016 teisho 707 2000 everything is an opportunity for practice everything is an expression of the dharma dogen you can find what you have lost but you cannot find what you have not lost nisargadatta the question who am i has an implication in its very structure that there is something to be known to be found this question is posed in order that eventually you will come to recognize that there is not something that has to be found to be known reached or grasped this is not an ordinary question an ordinary question comes from the feeling i don t know i need to find out the question who am i is put to you in order that you can see that from the beginning knowing is your true nature waking up is letting go of the belief that there is something to wake up to there is nothing to wake up to awakening is not a gain it is not an achievement it is not something you are adding it is something you are letting go of something you are releasing it is letting go of the belief that something more is necessary when buddha said life is suffering he could equally as well have said life is unsatisfactory it is this fundamental dissatisfaction that must be addressed it isn t a particular situation that is at issue it is the attitude towards situations which comes from this fundamental dissatisfaction when we say this attitude needs to be addressed we are not talking about positive thinking it is shifting the wavelength from the vehicle that carries the dissatisfaction to the dissatisfaction itself if one works with this the dissatisfaction turns into a longing a yearning which comes from an illusion of separation to search for oneness for unity simply holds this separation in suspension the problem is yearning for wholeness a wholeness that we believe we have lost when asking the question who am i one must come home to the immediacy of the moment of what you are right now see it in its confusion see its unsatisfactory nature see its pain see it for what it is and then see the underlying longing yearning and be one with that then when you are asking who am i you are asking what is the source of this yearning the source is not something separate the yearning is already the source it is letting go of what you are taking for granted that the source is something separate when you ask who am i what answer are you expecting to find true knowledge of the self is not knowledge it is not something you can find by searching true knowledge of the self can only come when we have extracted or withdrawn the self from all knowledge it is only possible when we are able to discern the seeing from what is being seen the hearing from what is being heard what is this discernment it is not separation it is not an analysis what is this discernment when you look at a picture you see the picture but you discern the canvas when you look at your reflection in a mirror you see the reflection but you discern the mirror the question who am i is a question designed to awaken discernment it is designed to awaken prajna prajna is an aroused mind a mind that is not resting on anything when the mind is not aroused you hear the rain and all there is for you is the sound of rain you are not aware of the hearing when the mind is aroused it is no longer just the sound of rain the self is not to be found in space or time knowledge is but a memory a pattern of thought a mental habit and these are motivated by pleasure and pain you are in search of knowledge because you are motivated by pleasure and pain one is looking for what is good what is right what is true what is real what is comfortable what is acceptable there is always a need for a certain kind of experience and a rejection of another kind of experience a rejection of the ugly of the false the dishonest the uncomfortable the rough the crude we are constantly trying to smooth out to justify to rationalize and when we cannot do this we imagine dream hope wish all ways by which we search for pleasure we want everything to be nice the weather the food people being oneself is completely beyond all motivation you cannot be yourself for a reason you are yourself no reason is needed throughout life we are trying to control the situation come home put it all down don t have a reason for being there is none then everything is light and peace joy and freedom our dancing and songs are the voice of the dharma posted in teisho 1 comment the great liberation posted on august 8 2020 by albert low before jan 2016 jean low after jan 2016 teisho 1303 2013 the basic question in our practice and really in our lives is what is death this question is the same as what am i people talk about the mystery of death but life is no less a mystery if we are going to plumb the depths of this mystery the only possible way we can do so is by putting aside all that we have taken for granted all that everyone knows to be the case everything that common sense tells us in other words we put away all our defenses we need courage to face the death of others no less than the death of ourselves the question what is my face before my parents were born requires that we face the issue that not only will i die but all my family my children grandchildren and great grandchildren my friends all will die the earth itself everything has an age nothing is permanent even though we love them beautiful flowers fall impermanence can you let that sink in nothing abides do you see that this is the great liberation the great freedom imagine an existence in which there is no death we need to see impermanence and death in another light when someone we love dies we learn nothing about death when millions of people die as in a war or pandemic we learn nothing about death the only way we can know about death is by dying when someone close to us dies we think that that darkness that absence that loss that negation is death because the loss is so unacceptable death itself must be unacceptable we mourn for the dead but the dead do not need our mourning it might be that death is not ultimate darkness but ultimate light nisargadatta said there is something beyond living beings much more wonderful it is neither being nor non being neither living nor not living it...
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