Falling into Suchness

[Bearded Dragon]

It is fundamental to Zen that the person who is committed to its process give up the strong belief that Suchness or tathata (i.e., spiritual substance) is perceivable as something determinate for sensory consciousness. It is not. The direct penetration into Suchness is a mystery; moreover, it shall ever remain a mystery even while we stand in its presence, awakened.

 

To reiterate, Suchness attained will always remain incapable of being adequately described or perceived by our senses, including consciousness. Put a different way, when we step off of our psychophysical scaffolding onto Suchness, Suchness will still be a complete mystery except that we are now this mystery. What we will see as a result of this stepping off is the psychophysical qua the psychophysical because we are no longer psychophysical scaffolding anymore. In the words of Zen master Goso:

 

“The sweet melon is sweet even through the stem;

The bitter gourd is bitter even to the roots.”

 

The world, including this psychophysical body of ours, is a much different world from the standpoint of the mystery of attained Suchness. A huge thing like a galaxy is now the huge body of mysterious Suchness—a photon is now a small body of mysterious Suchness.

 

With satori, the so-called abyss that we once feared, we have become. Looking now from the vantage point of the abyss or Suchness, we really come to see what ‘clinging’ means and what drives it. This reminds me of the fifth koan, Kyogen Mounts the Tree, in Paul Reps’ book, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones.

 

"KYOGEN SAID: “Zen is like a man hanging in a tree by his teeth over a precipice. His hands grasp no

branch, his feet rest on no limb, and under the tree another person asks him: ‘Why did Bodhidharma come

to China from India?'

If the man in the tree does not answer, he fails; and if he does answer, he falls and loses his life. Now what

shall he do?”

 

Of course the obvious answer is simply to let go. But now we come back to the beginning of this blog about the process of Zen. The average person, as they look into the terrifying abyss of Suchness, demand to know what this Suchness is before they commit themselves to letting go. But this can’t be done. For those who have let go; who have converged with the mysterious, undying ground of Suchness—being Suchness, itself—they can only laugh at such stupid demands as they pull out a saw, or grease the scaffolding so the adept will slip off of it and fall into the mysterious abyss of Suchness.

 

http://zennist.typepad.com/zenfiles/2011/05/letting-go-falling-into-suchness.html

Edited May 1, 2014 by Bearded Dragon

[soaring crane]

I have to admit that I have real problems with Zen. I tried for quite a while to follow along, and never really identified what it was that conflicted with me. But I enjoyed your quote.

 

small anecdote: A friend of mine used to tease her OCD husband whenever he'd start getting antsy about some trivial matter or other by telling him:

 

"Such is life, and it's getting sucher every day".

 

I believe it's an Irish saying.

[Bearded Dragon]

I'm not for all the formalities, but the key ideas are the same as everything else. The koans and sticks can be burnt as far as I'm concerned.

 

Having said that they can can set up an idea to fall into, like the one about the teeth. I like it because of the sense of falling. Falling into the unknown, and with vulnerability with respect to the non-real self. It's just that I think sometimes they can be overused.

 

In practice I have been using the idea to stay present. After a bit of time spent present you tend to grab on to something with your mind, but you let it go and start falling again. Rinse and repeat. This has been helpful for me while going about normal everyday things. I think it's a rather basic practice and a highly useful one.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Bearded Dragon

[soaring crane]

 

This has been helpful for me while going about normal everyday things.

 

 

The real mark of a system or approach that works for you

[LAOLONG]

in suchness there is no place for zen thoughts

[GrandmasterP]

On this wind-swept shore

waves batter ceaselessly-

but on the high rocks of the dharma

not even the clinging oysters

can leave a mark.

 

(Dogen).

Edited May 2, 2014 by GrandmasterP