EGADS, N90!
Sounds like a serious spill and that you are fortunate to be here! I'm glad to hear that you're reasonably OK and on the road to recovery. Bonten and Taishakuten, and the rest of the Shotenzenjin must have been looking out for you.
Community is a wonderful thing. Beyond the high fallutin ideas about the Buddhist spiritual community, its in these types of instances when the people around you come together to aid and comfort that some of its deepest purpose is apparent.
Bikes, man. I have three in my garage, and none of them run. My wife likes it that way.
narhwal90 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 10, 2018 3:35 am
I was at a study mtg on sunday, the leader touched on ichinen sanzen a bit, she proposed that making a determination, which I take to be volition, manifests it. That is oversimiplified of course OTOH I've not been considering that angle much, so it is an interesting detail to consider.
That's a remarkable point. Shikishinfuni (non-duality of mind and body) and eshofuni (non-duality of living beings and the environment) illustrate this idea. Positive, negative or neutral, our volition, a function of the mind, is non-dual with form (matter). This is probably difficult for us to grok since we naturally tend to dualistic thinking (starting with "I"/"Other"). At the present time in our world, the pervading resolution to the problem of dualism is materialism (contrast with the other end of the spectrum, the various "mind-only" propositions). I think Ichinen Sanzen suggests the tension of the extremes.
I got to spend some time at a beach recently, and because it was so stormy, I'd have the stretch of beach all to myself - all alone with sand, water, lots of wind, and cloudy sky. I'd wade out past the break and just experience the ebb and flow of the waves. I contemplated how the waves were just ripples of energy transmitting through the medium of the ocean - the water itself was not flowing per se, like it does in a river - the waves were just vibrations. I contemplated how the mind is a fundamentally inert medium that is still when at equilibrium, but like the water transmits waves. I reflected how the nexus point of the vibrations that I experience as myself could recast the incoming energy as volition that concatenates into activity - positive, negative, or neutral; that my thoughts that become words and acts are really not fundamentally different than the transmission of waves through the water. The differences being the various mediums the vibrations would pass through - mind/body complex with all of its intricacies, society of beings and all of its intricacies, the environment and all of its intricacies.
I was taught, in a sort of simplified linear cause-and-effect way, that I could use practice to focus my mind to whatever goals I wished, and it worked simply because it took advantage of basic dynamics of reality. Its explained in the Lotus traditions through ichinen sanzen, but the reality is indifferent to its explanation... The fact that its possible to exert influence over the environment does not in itself indicate merit... This was the problem that I had with the whole chanting for benefits thing. It was the lack of discernment between good and bad. Of course, good and bad have some relativity, but the idea that "benefit=good" never sat right.
I think I've drifted back into the reverie I had at the beach... pardon the half formed thoughts. Its hard to talk about this, but I feel compelled to, and hear others try to describe it, too.