No Thing

No Thing I gained not one thing from Absolute Awakening and that is why it is called Absolute Awakening (Buddha Gautama)

MU The Japanese and Korean term mu (Japanese: 無; Korean: 무) or Chinese wú (traditional Chinese: 無; simplified Chinese: 无) meaning "not have; without" is a key word in Buddhism, especially the Chan and Zen traditions. The Gateless Gate, which is a 13th-century collection of Chan or Zen kōans, uses the word wu or mu in its title (Wumenguan or Mumonkan 無門關) and first kōan case ("Joshu's Dog" 趙州狗子). Chinese Chan calls the word mu 無 "the gate to enlightenment". The Japanese Rinzai school classifies the Mu Kōan as hosshin 発心 "resolve to attain enlightenment", that is, appropriate for beginners seeking kenshō "to see the Buddha-nature"'. (Wikipedia - Mu (negative)

"A special transmission outside the teachings; not depending on words or letters; directly pointing to Mind; realizing one's True Nature and becoming Buddha." Bodhidharma First Patriarch of Ch'an or Zen Buddhism

Follow your nature and accord with the Tao; Saunter along and stop worrying. If your thoughts are tied you spoil what is genuine... Don't be antagonistic to the world of the senses, For when you are not antagonistic to it, It turns out to be the same as complete Awakening. The wise person does not strive; The ignorant man ties himself up... If you work on your mind with your mind, How can you avoid an immense confusion?  (Seng-ts'an)

do nothing

be nothing

think nothing

In some Eastern philosophies, the concept of "nothingness" is characterized by an egoless state of being in which one fully realizes one's own small part in the cosmos. The understanding of 'nothing' varies widely between cultures, especially between Western and Eastern cultures and philosophical traditions. For instance, Śūnyatā (emptiness), unlike "nothingness", is considered to be a state of mind in some forms of Buddhism (see Nirvana, mu, and Bodhi). Achieving 'nothing' as a state of mind in this tradition allows one to be totally focused on a thought or activity at a level of intensity that they would not be able to achieve if they were consciously thinking. A classic example of this is an archer attempting to erase the mind and clear the thoughts to better focus on the shot. Some authors have pointed to similarities between the Buddhist conception of nothingness and the ideas of Martin Heidegger and existentialists like Sartre, although this connection has not been explicitly made by the philosophers themselves. (Wikipedia - Nothing )

From the first, no thing is 从最初的没有什么 最初は何もありませんから Hui-neng Chinese: 惠能; pinyin:  Huìnéng,(638–713) Sixth and Last Patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism

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© 2016 MU-Peter Shimon

Areté

Areté Excellence

The Truth Exposed - The Meaning Of Areté?

The Greek word areté refers to “excellence” or “virtue” of any kind. The Greeks used this word to denote courage, strength, and the need to live up to one’s full potential. In its time areté was what all people aspired to.

“What moves the Greek warrior to deeds of heroism,” Kitto comments, “is not a sense of duty as we understand it  — duty towards others: it is rather duty towards himself. He strives after that which we translate ‘virtue’ but is in Greek arête, ‘excellence’ … we shall have much to say about arête. It runs through Greek life.” Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Arête implies a respect of the wholeness or oneness of life,  and a consequent dislike of specialization.  it implies a contempt for efficiency  or rather a much higher idea of efficiency, an efficiency which exists not  in one department of life but in life itself.” Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The Choice of Heracles (Cacia and Arete), by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609),  Italian Baroque painter In a fable related by Xenophon, Arete (Virtue) and Cacia (Vice) offered Heracles the choice between a life of valour and one of luxury.

:"There is a tale that Arete (Virtue) dwells on un-climbable rocks and close to the gods tends a holy place; she may not be seen by the eyes of all mortals, but only by him on whom distressing sweat comes from within, the one who reaches the peak of manliness." Simonides, Fragment 579 (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric III) (Greek lyric C6th to 5th B.C.) “

“Then Phaedrus feels a tugging to read the passage again, and he does so and then… what’s this?!… ’That which we translate ‘virtue’ but is in Greek ‘excellence.’ Kitto had more to say about this  arête of the ancient Greeks.  ‘When we meet arête in Plato,’ he said, we translate it ‘virtue’ and consequently miss all the flavor of it. ‘Virtue,’ at least in modern English, is almost entirely a moral word; arête on the other hand, is used indifferently in all the categories, and simply means excellence” Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

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© 2016 MU-Peter Shimon

Not Zen

Talk of Zen is Not Zen

Not Zen Talk of Zen is Not Zen

The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.

Lao T'zu

I gained not one thing from Absolute Awakening  and that is why it is called Absolute Awakening Gautama Buddha

You cannot take hold of it, but you cannot lose it, In not being able to get, you get it.

When you are silent, it speaks; When you speak, it is silent. 

 Cheng-tao Ke

A special transmission outside the teachings; not depending on words or letters;
directly pointing to Mind; realizing one's True Nature and becoming Buddha.

Bodhidharma

Buddhas don't save Buddhas. If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won't see the Buddha.
As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the Buddha.
Don't use a Buddha to worship a Buddha. And don't use the mind to invoke a Buddha.
Buddhas don't recite sutras. Buddhas don't keep precepts. And Buddhas don't break precepts.
Buddhas don't keep or break anything. Buddhas don't do good or evil.
To find a Buddha, you have to see your nature.
Bodhidharma

The Tao has nothing to do with discipline. If you say that it is attained by discipline,
when the discipline is perfected it can again be lost
(or finishing the discipline turns out to be losing the Tao).
... If you say that there is no discipline, this is to be the same as ordinary people.
Ma-tsu

This very earth is the lotus land of purity, And this very body is the body of Buddha.
Hakuin Ekaku

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© 2014 MU-Peter Shimon

Stimulus & An Unexpected Response

Stimulus & An Unexpected Response

The Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty was a national hero for his success as both a statesman and military leader. But despite his fame, power, and wealth, he considered himself a humble and devout Buddhist. Often he visited his favorite Zen master to study under him, and they seemed to get along very well. The fact that he was prime minister apparently had no effect on their relationship, which seemed to be simply one of a revered master and respectful student.

One day, during his usual visit, the Prime Minister asked the master, "Your Reverence, what is egotism according to Buddhism?" The master's face turned red, and in a very condescending and insulting tone of voice, he shot back, "What kind of stupid question is that!?"

This unexpected response so shocked the Prime Minister that he became sullen and angry.

The Zen master then smiled and said,  "THIS, Your Excellency, is egotism."

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© 2014 MU-Peter Shimon

The Grasshopper

The Grasshopper or Full Awareness

The Grasshopper

After ten years of apprenticeship, Tenno achieved the rank of Zen teacher. One rainy day, he went to visit the famous master Nan-in. When he walked in, the master greeted him with a question, "Did you leave your wooden clogs and umbrella on the porch?"

"Yes," Tenno replied.

"Tell me," the master continued, "did you place your umbrella to the left of your shoes, or to the right?"

Tenno did not know the answer, and realized that he had not yet attained full awareness. So he became Nan-in's apprentice and studied under him for ten more years.

Wide Awake

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© 2013 MU-Peter Shimon

A Bull's Eye

or The Point of the Arrow

A Bull's Eye The Point of the Arrow "The man, the art, the work --it is all one.” Eugen Herrigel (Zen in the Art of Archery)

“The right art," cried the Master, "is purposeless, aimless!

The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal,

the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede.

What stands in your way is that you have a much too willful will.

You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen.”

 Eugen Herrigel,  Zen in the Art of Archery

After winning several archery contests, the young and rather boastful champion challenged a Zen master who was renowned for his skill as an archer. The young man demonstrated remarkable technical proficiency when he hit a distant bull's eye on his first try, and then split that arrow with his second shot.

"There," he said to the old man, "see if you can match that!"

Undisturbed, the master did not draw his bow, but rather motioned for the young archer to follow him up the mountain. Curious about the old fellow's intentions, the champion followed him high into the mountain until they reached a deep chasm spanned by a rather flimsy and shaky log. Calmly stepping out onto the middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master picked a far away tree as a target, drew his bow, and fired a clean, direct hit.

“You have described only too well," replied the Master, "where the difficulty lies...The right shot at the right moment does not come because you do not let go of yourself. You...brace yourself for failure. So long as that is so, you have no choice but to call forth something yourself that ought to happen independently of you, and so long as you call it forth your hand will not open in the right way--like the hand of a child.”

Eugen Herrigel,  Zen in the Art of Archery

"Now it is your turn," he said as he gracefully stepped back onto the safe ground.

“This, then, is what counts: a lightning reaction which has no further need of conscious observation.

In this respect at least the pupil makes himself independent of all conscious purpose.”

Eugen Herrigel,  Zen in the Art of Archery

Staring with terror into the seemingly bottomless and beckoning abyss, the young man could not force himself to step out onto the log, no less shoot at a target.

"Don't think of what you have to do, don't consider how to carry it out!" he exclaimed.
"The shot will only go smoothly when it takes the archer himself by surprise."
Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery

"You have much skill with your bow," the master said, sensing his challenger's predicament,

"but you have little skill with the mind that lets loose the shot."

“And what impels him to repeat this process at every single lesson, and, with the same remorseless insistence, to make his pupils copy it without the least alteration? He sticks to this traditional custom because he knows from experience that the preparations for working put him simultaneously in the right frame of mind for creating. The meditative repose in which he performs them gives him that vital loosening and equability of all his powers, that collectedness and presence of mind, without which no right work can be done.”
Eugen Herrigel,  Zen in the Art of Archery

Kyudo According to the Nippon Kyudo Federation the supreme goal of kyudo is the state of shin-zen-bi, roughly "truth-goodness-beauty",which can be approximated as: when archers shoot correctly (i.e. truthfully) with virtuous spirit and attitude toward all persons and all things which relate to kyudo (i.e. with goodness), beautiful shooting is realised naturally. (Wikipedia)

Zen Archery  Sensei Suzuki "In the case of archery, the hitter and the hit are no longer two opposing objects, but are one reality."  Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery

You might also like: Liberation is not Revolution / My Hut in Spring / Sitting Quietly, Doing Nothing
/ The Fall of Nature / The Science of One / 
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© 2013 MU-Peter Shimon