Double Back Again

How wonderful! I received three questions and thought I would respond to them in PART III of III.

Questions

• • • …is there higher and lower? Or could we just say different.
    • Or is the material realm and transcendence also one?
    • One growing out of the other like a flower growing from a seed?

Responses

• • • The simple answer is yes there is higher and lower, and we usually add different. We, however, focus on the lower, worldly realm. Clay pots are clay, but we focus on the function, look, size, color, utility, and workmanship rather than realize clay pots all come from the same source, called clay. A spoon is a spoon, but we want to have a certain spoon shaped in a certain way. All this desire keeps us focused on the material realm.
    • Yes, the material realm and the transcendent are one, however, we focus on the material realm. Very few want to transcend the material realm of wanting, having, getting, keeping, owning, knowing and so forth.
    • And finally, yes, a flower growing from a seed is one as is everything else. We do not, however, focus on the oneness. We tend to focus on the conditioned material realm of difference, likes, dislikes, picking, choosing and much more.

The questions are useful and offer us an opportunity to clarify and make another effort to understand how to practice. In this case, the stories ask us to understand admonishment and realization of our true-original nature. To follow this thread, please read the first two parts.

The essential distinguishing part is that the two girls in the stories offered an admonishment to those doing harm. The boys in the first story were drowning and killing ladybugs and the father in the second story was using language that upset his daughter to an intolerable degree. Both girls warned the offenders that doing what they were doing would result in their going to hell.

The first question is: “…is there higher and lower?” I take this to refer to the comment of higher knowledge in part II. The first response is a simple “yes.” Let us look at the action of the girls.

Both girls responded on a mundane or material level with admonishment that infers a higher ground of existence. Inference is a part of logic and is a reasonable truth as in where there is smoke there is fire. Both girls had an internal understanding that there is something truer than a tendency to ‘swear and curse’ or a tendency to ‘kill for fun.’ “Higher” is a teaching instruction of going beyond the material realm; to leap clear of the conditions of the ego-self altogether. A more precise word would be valid. Valid knowledge as opposed to invalid or delusional (not true).

The word higher refers to going beyond the material realm; to look beyond this delusion of existence. Delusion refers to the qualities of impermanence; not lasting. The practice is to study the conditions of the ego-self which are all impermanent. Delusion refers to a misconception of reality. The boys did not know their true nature and saw what they were doing as “killing for fun.” The father did not know his true nature and was stuck in a “habit of cursing.” Both admonishments were a reference towards these activities as unruly behavior which is the material way of conditioning behavior. This conditioning refers to behavior in the realm of birth, aging, sickness, and death without any assistance in discovering our true nature. The higher realm is a reference to that which does not change: the unborn, undying, and immutable. It is a referential teaching device. As in, put your mind above, not on earthly things.”  The youngest child heard the true knowledge when he heard that he and the ladybug are ONE.

The next question asks, “…is the material realm and transcendence realm also one? Like a flower growing out of a seed.”  The simple answer is there is ONE existence, not two. Everything continues from the One. But we tend to divide things up again and again. As the girls corrected the other with a fear and trembling intimidation. They offered a do this or else which is dualistic. There is heaven and there is hell, there is good and there is bad. Dividing things leads to judgment, discrimination, and splitting. The girls condemned the boys along the lines of ‘good and bad.’ Saying to the boys that you and ladybug are one is an offering of going beyond the material realm of this and that and seeing the ONE existence. Not easy to see, but possible. It is possible to go beyond the delusion of the material realm of things.

Again, the youngest child heard the true nature of things when he stopped hurting the ladybugs and covered his face in dismay. He on one level, saw himself and the ladybug as One existence. He cried out, “It’s true!”

There is no condemnation for the girls’ admonishments. They were offering what they knew to offer. They offered a material world response of “good and bad.” And it is here where I repeat, “there is a higher knowledge that goes beyond the “good and bad” construction of the world.”

It requires effort, determination, discipline, and teachings. We must be willing to let go of the worldly habits and go beyond to our true nature. This practice requires leaping clear of the world which attracts and tricks us into thinking the world provides lasting satisfaction. We all know this truth, but we ignore it.

May we with all beings realize the emptiness of the three worlds, giver, receiver, and gift.

OM

Double Back 

I received a story from soneone kind enough to send it on as a response to PART I.

Here is the response. It offers us an opportunity to clarify the teaching in PART I.

Yellow Flag with Black Dot: Alter Course to Port

PART II.

The Last Resort: Alter Course or Suffer the Consequence

Once upon a time, over half a century ago a young girl rode to school with her father. He was a man who had a habit of cussing and swearing. The young girl could take no more of his cussing and swearing and felt she needed to correct him. Guess what she said? You would be spot on if you said, “If you keep swearing, you are going to go to hell!”

That is an interesting story. Interesting because both girls warned those who were doing harm. The warning came in the form of a threat: “You are going to hell.” A fear and trembling intimidation.

In both instances the girls in the stories focused on the material realm of behavior. They threatened those who were acting out “habits” that came from underlying “tendencies.”

Rather than seeing the boundless field, each girl went to a level of black and white and a dualistic view of existence. It was a caution to those counseled to stop the tendency and end the habit of doing harm. The girls admonished which is an offering to purify the mind-state of those doing harm.

If we go with the child that covered his face with both hands when he heard that the ladybug was him, we have an altogether different approach to knowing the Oneness of existence.

In both situations the girls were doing their best to stop a behavior that was harmful although their admonishment was severe and misses a higher knowledge.

In Zen Buddhism, as in most traditions of transcendence, the higher knowledge is “Everything returns to the One, and the One returns to everything.”

There is ONE source…and we proceed and are that ONE existence with body and mind.

Sending someone to hell is not the literal truth but an admonishment of the material realm…i.e., stop harming that which is you. It is true that the conditioned world divides the world into good and bad, but that division comes from an ignorance of not ‘knowing’ what we are. In ignorance we tend to divide and measure the world according to social conditioning.

So, these girls responded from what they knew, but those of us practicing a higher knowledge need to be more like the little boy who responded with dropping his squirt gun and covering his face. He knew something in that moment that went beyond good and bad; he knew for a moment his true nature. A realization that he and the ladybug were one true reality underneath the camouflage of the body and mind.

The Last Resort: Hell 

Number 1.

One evening after work, I was going to my car when I saw three kids playing in the alley.  This alley isn’t much of a playground, there’s a dumpster, a fire escape, a small gravel parking lot and a graded dirt road that runs between several buildings including an apartment building, where these kids lived.

In between all these structures and pathways are small patches of plants that found their way through the tar and gravel.

The oldest girl was standing along these plants searching for ladybugs and caterpillars.  When she spotted one, would shriek and call out for one of the boys to come and see.  It seemed harmless enough until I saw what the boys did.  The boys pointed squirt guns at the unsuspecting ladybug or caterpillar in an attempt to harm the bug.

I watched and listened to the glee and pleasure that all three seemed to derive from their sport.  I watched and thought about how I could help the ladybugs and caterpillars.  I figured if I told them to stop, they’d wait until I drove off and continue their hunt.  It brought them so much pleasure I knew my admonition to stop hurting the bugs would be of little help to them or the bugs.

Finally, I walked over to them and saw a small black-dotted red ladybug resting on a single leaf.  The leaf was soaked with water.  The boys, crouching to continue their kill, looked up at me.  The girl turned to see what I was going to do.

“You are the ladybug” I said.  “You and the ladybug are the same.”  The youngest of the three dropped his squirt gun and held his face in his hands.  The older boy asked me why he shouldn’t keep shooting the bugs.  He wanted to have fun and this game was fun.

I looked at the youngest child again and said, “You are all living beings.”  He squinted his eyes and said out loud, “That’s true.”  The older boy continued his clamor to continue this fun.

Then I walked away.  As I was getting into my car, I heard the girl, who was the oldest, go over to the two boys and say to them harshly, “Now, you are going to go to Hell!”

Om Namo Guru Dev Namo

The Sacred Lotus

This flower, this small and beautiful part of nature shows us our condition. It lives in the water, muddy water and manages to rise above not only the water but the mud. Neither the mud nor the water stick to the leaves or the petals of this magnificent plant.

It thrives in muddy, still water and roots itself into the muck below. The long stems rise through the water and the leaves sit directly on or above the water.

With its roots latched in mud, it submerges every night into river water and miraculously re-blooms the next morning, sparklingly clean.

How DO Lotus Flowers grow.

May we with all beings realize the emptiness of the three wheels,

giver, receiver and gift.

Author: Fashi Lao Yue

A SINGLE THREAD is not a blog.

 If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,

please contact editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com

Summer

Agnes Martin’s Work And more

Who are You? What are YOU?

                                  THE BROAD

teeter (v.) teetering

What are you teetering on?

surrender sitting still