Last Few Posts:
Terms In The Audio:
Zero: The fundamental teaching of the late Zen master Joshu Sasaki: “As the Buddha taught, zero inevitably splits into mutually opposing activities which inevitably disappear into zero.”
Reconciling Zero: The investigation of Zero in the pursuit of Effective Zen.
Effective Zen: The one path on Zen Mountain that gives any one individual the best chance of reaching the peak (realizing non-duality).
Zen Mountain: The collection of all possible Zen paths.
Highest Good: That which exists for its own sake (there is nothing greater).
The Realization of Non-Duality: The complete understanding of a self inseparable from circumstance – where complete understanding implies manifestation.
Stillness: The primary characteristic of an unfettered activity.
Framework: The often unique instructional device used by Zen (and Buddhist) teachers.
Zero-Buddhism:
The necessary preconditions for a manifested Buddhism to arise, namely:
A clear picture of the highest good, namely the realization of non-duality.
A clear picture of the path to the realization of non-duality
Motivation and an understanding of the obstacles expected along this path.
Quote From the Buddha’s 1st Sutra:
I awakened to the middle way, which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to equanimity, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to unbinding.
Three Common Characteristics of an Effective Teaching Framework:
The framework must be inherently dualistic.
One of the states must be universally preferred.
This universally preferred state can be asserted (learned and chosen).
The Four Questions:
How is it that one arrives at any particular gate?
How does one pass through that gate?
What changes – from pregate to postgate?
As teachers, what is the Buddha doing at this time, and what is Sasaki doing to help their students progress along the path?
The Direct Knowledge Gate:
Before arriving at the Direct Knowledge gate, one must have passed through the Equanimity gate – namely, that one has experienced Stillness. And, having experienced Stillness, there is now the desire to persistently manifest that Stillness. The search becomes one of learning how to do just that.
One passes through the Direct Knowledge gate by fully grasping one’s teacher’s framework. Recall that we investigated frameworks in the past, where the Buddha’s framework was that of suffering, with two states – suffering and the end of suffering, and Joshu Sasaki’s framework was that of clarity – where one was either perfectly clear or not so clear.
After passing through the Direct Knowledge gate, one now recognizes the prevalence of one’s teacher’s framework in one’s life. In the case of the Buddha and Sasaki, one recognizes the presence or absence of suffering, or one recognizes when one is clear or not so clear. But more than just recognizing the manifestations of these frameworks, one now knows the details of these frameworks to where one can eventually choose to end suffering or can eventually choose clarity.
During this time, the Buddha is lecturing on the Four Noble Truths, and Sasaki is lecturing on clarity as a manifestation of zero. Note, that these are often remarkably detailed presentations, designed to provide a solid conceptual basis on which to build a complete understanding of each teacher’s framework.
Fully Grasp Your Teacher’s Framework.
The Question For Next Week: What do we make of Self-Awakening?
Share this post