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Main Index
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is understood.
When Dogen became a master in his own right, when Ju-ching declared to him, "Now, no more play the role of being a disciple," at that moment he hit Dogen and said, "You have come to understand; now be compassionate on the blind humanity. Now don't go on sitting by my side. You are a buddha. Just because you were wandering here and there, you could not understand. Then sitting by my side, silently ... I have not given you anything. You have simply become centered, and in this centering is the inner revolution."
DOGEN WROTE:
TO STUDY THE WAY IS TO STUDY THE SELF.
Now these are tremendously valuable statements. He is saying, "Don't ask about the way -- there is no way." TO STUDY THE WAY IS TO STUDY THE SELF. The way leads away, and the further you go in search, the more you are lost. Drop all going and remain at home, just doing nothing. As Basho has said:
ANCIENT POND.
A FROG JUMPS,
AND GREAT SILENCE.
And Basho was just sitting there, so he wrote a small poem, sitting silently, doing nothing:
A frog jumps in the ancient pond.
A little sound and then great silence.
We are little sounds in a great silence. Between us and the universe there is not much more difference than between a sound and silence.
In every temple in the East we have used different kinds of bells. Even today they are used without any understanding. The reason is to give you a message -- you ring the bell, a sound is created from nowhere. It echoes in the empty temple, it re-echoes, and every echo becomes more silent, more silent, and finally it disappears. Our existence is nothing but a sound in an immense ocean of silence.
TO STUDY THE WAY IS TO STUDY THE SELF.
Don't bother about the way, just study yourself.
TO STUDY THE SELF IS TO FORGET THE SELF.
Who is going to study the self? The one who is going to study the self has already dropped the self. The one who is studying the self is the witness -- your real self.
TO STUDY THE SELF IS TO FORGET THE SELF. TO FORGET THE SELF IS TO BE ENLIGHTENED BY ALL THINGS.
Then it does not matter in what situation you are
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