The Woman with a Pink looks as if she has received a message in the form of a pink flower. The flower looks roughed; a bit worn.

What is the meaning?

She gazes off to contemplate the meaning of the roughed-up, pink flower.

When we receive a message – what do we do? Do we contemplate it? Whatever the message is?

Here’s a little assistance on how to practice how to respond when a message comes. No matter what the message, practice:

Don’t Seek, Don’t Reject.

When you receive a message, follow those four words before you respond. Actually, so you are able to respond and NOT react. Contemplate your mind state before you say a word.

May we with all beings realize

the emptiness of the three wheels,

giver, receiver and gift.

Don’t give up. Keep going.

OM

Fashi Lao Yue

If you need assistance, please contact yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com

THE PAINTING

Monsieur and Madame Edouard Manet by Edgar Degas

CHARACTER BUILDING

Perhaps dear reader, you have an immediate response to the title. I hope so. Read it again. I say that you may have an immediate response because you may wonder about what does character building beyond time & space and making bread have to do with spiritual practice?  Yes. I understand. I wonder, too.

Spiritual practice is a method of character building. It requries a willingness to study what we call the self. But what exactly is the self we need to study? Although the self is a complex structure it is possible to study the self in such a way we discern our character and our traits of character.

We start with our human character traits. Those characteristics that are obvious such as generous, kind, stingy, hot tempered, cool as a cucumber, patient, jealous, envious and the list goes on. The work is to study our character and not the character of others. But to study ourselves is an arduous task and requires traits of perseverance, resilence, and a willing effort.

Furthermore, you may wonder, what does all of that have to do with character building? Sigh.

Perhaps oddly, let’s take a look the a painting.

The best I can do to begin is to ask you to consider the following question. How do you look at the above painting?

What I mean is – did you look at the painting as just a passing thing  on the screen? Without looking at the painting, can you remember any of it? Did you just breeze over it?  Did you look for a message from the artist?

Perhaps you don’t give a damn about paintings. And you may be getting frustrated that you are being asked to not only understand practice beyond time & space and making bread but are being asked to look at a painting!

                    How you respond matters. How you respond tells you something about yourself.

Looking, considering, thinking, seeing are tells. A tell is an action that reveals a character; in short it defines a quality or individual feature of the person doing the action. So, dear one, what did your actions regarding the painting tell you about yourself? Don’t skip this question.

That is an important question to contemplate. Without knowing our inner self we cannot manage our tendencies that we fabricate into habits. Specifically, without knowing our character, we will be burdened by one of several mental states and formations that lead us to suffer. Without a strong and concentrated mind, we become victims of our moods, attitudes and states of mind. Check it out for yourself.

When we skim over being alive, skim over what comes into our lives, we are unable to discern and discriminate what is actually going on.

The painting, for example, is damaged. The right side of the painting was sliced and cut by Manet who is the gentleman lounging on the couch. Did you notice it? His wife is sitting down at a piano but the piano is unseen in the painting. The missing piece cut off most of her face and the piano. What was going on? No one knows for certain but the speculation is that Degas knew some secret regarding Manet’s wife.

Did you see any of that? Or did you sum up the painting as some old classic painting of little interest?

                     Are you in a rush?

It is important for you to answer the question for yourself. To contemplate how you approach your life because your approach tells you about your character. The importance of this knowledge gives you a picture of what method you use to understand what comes before your eye and what is seen in the mind.

Is your mind restless? Confused? Stupefied? Ignorant? Arrogant? Bored? Distracted? OR…were you one-pointed?

First, you discern the state of your mind then, you decide what you want and how to live.

But another thing that happens is if you blew it off, blew off looking at the painting you may not be ready to study the teachings that are beyond time & space and making bread. Seriously. You may need to start by  contemplating what you want?

                     What do you want?

The practice that is beyond time & space and making bread requires strength, diligence, dedication and discipline. These traits of character are often rolled up into the characteristic of patience. AND…patience is connected to being one-pointed. 

Well, it requires patience to understand the connections. I don’t mean just a little patience, but patience that is heartfelt and disciplined. A patience that is determined and committed. It requires that we trudge through our indolence and keep at practice until we begin to see the connections.

In order to see the connections, we need to be willing to see how all of this is associated with each thing. Nothing is left out. Nothing is glossed over. Nothing is overlooked.

                    This requires attention.

There are two key points that we need to focus on: 1. want to realize and 2. method of practice. 

If you are set, thinking and believing you neither want to realize your true original nature nor practice a method, then this is not for you. Try something else.

We need all our energy to practice a method that goes beyond time & space and making dough into bread. As any baker knows, bread requires specific ingredients, careful assembly and patience as the yeast does its work. Bread, after all, is not just any old batch of ingredients. It requires a number of specific things.

If we realize that bread comes from a list of specific ingredients,  then, we realize the dough when done properly becomes bread. All we need is a good stable heat from an oven, an able and clear effort of putting the ingredients together in such a way we do not kill the yeast, and patience to allow the yeast to leaven the flour, sugar, salt and butter. The dough will rise and bake and actualize a loaf of bread.

Character building is a kindred spirit of baking bread. Zen Buddhism builds character to go beyond space  and time for those who practice.

May we with all beings

realize the empriness 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

Consider What You Are?

Consider Your Self Carefully with Honesty and Sincerity.

Are you the stories you tell yourself?

The fleeting memories in the mind?

The skin bag?

If you want to know the undying person…

Don’t separate from this skinbag, here and now.

Study yourself.

Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely.

Don;t Give Up. Keep Going.

The Mystery Made Plain:

Samadhi and the Aim of Samadhi

Drop all concern for your-self. Ignore the self-inquiry of the following worries:

• • • • • What will I do?
        • What will I say?
        • How do I look?
        • Where will I live?
        • What can I get?
        • Will I have fun?
        • Where will I sleep?
        • What will I eat?
        • How will I manage?

The endless list of concern for your-self are the multiple identities with the things of the world. The mystery of samadhi is to identify yourself with your true-original nature, not your worldly conditions of doing, getting, having, keeping and putting your name on all the things you have collected.

Taking credit and seeking the fruits of your labor inhibits realization.

Discarding more and more things is a practical approach to letting go of concern for yourself. You see, our incessant desire to become a somebody and find, get and have a something is a root to all the self-ego’s concern.

Read the list again. Add your own take on it. Tally up the concern in black and white. Then, strike each one out. Can you do that?   This is practical spiritual work. Practical Zen right there in the situation and circumstance of your life.

Here’s some of the more difficult concerns. These concerns are labeled under the opposites of good and bad. AND…these concerns are in general put together with stronger adhesives of attachment. Find out for yourself. Add what you need to add. See if you can cut loose those attachments that appear and feel gut-wrenching.  Before you read the list, remember everything, every person, every place, every role or position follows the law of impermanence. OK. So. with that truth under our belt let’s see what we are up against.

Oh, wait! Be astute. Be alert to notice how you tend to favor one identity over the other.

The list is called the GOOD & the BAD.

• • • • • Am I good mother?
        • Am I bad mother?
        • Am I good father?
        • Am I a bad father?

How you doing? Have picked one side over the other. Stop and consider what it feels like to pick one over the other. In essence, you have judged your ego-self. What is the root of your judgement? And did you learn to measure yourself? If yes, what standard of measure are you using? A ruler? Yardstick? The length of a mile? How do we measure any one of the four categories?

I know there’s lots of questions, but take some time and contemplate what you are measuring and where did this business of measurement come from? Is it helpful?

Let’s continue with a few more.

• • • • • Are you a good sister?
        • Are you a bad sister?
        • Are you a good brother?
        • Are you a bad brother?

Are you even interested in splitting up whatever and setting a mark on it? Sounds was off the mark. These categories of good and bad are the epitome of self-ego concern.

Let’s do one more set.

• • • • • Are you a good husband?
        • Are you a bad husband?
        • Are you a good wife?
        • Are you a bad wife?

Hmmm. Sounds very much like the same self-ego evaluation.

Now, a little further explanation of spiritual practical life. One of the things that most, if not all spiritual traditions touch upon is that a spiritual practical life is found in everyday realization of our true original nature (which is called by many names). So, if we look back at our tiny selection of categories of opposites, we can ask does this dichotomy of our ego-self and others help us realize out unborn, undying, immutable self? Or does it put us and others in a box that we incessantly divide into good and bad.

You see, dear ones, our spiritual practical life is to become one with our true, original nature. IT is to see the unborn, undying immutable everywhere. For all things come from the One and al things return to the One. And…to realize and know everything is embodied with Divinity; a wholeness that we tend to divide up again and again.

Much of the dividing is based on projection. Our projection of wanting something to get and something to be what we want. This tendency is not helpful. It keeps us ignorant of the reality of the wholeness (holy) existence of which we are part. We tend to project onto our self-ego, others and things which we fabricate into a habit. In a very real way, we sink our own boat by sending out the waves of picking and choosing.

Take your mind off of yourself, others and things and turn within to study the Buddha Way within. It requires that you forget yourself. Don’t give up. Keep going.

May we with all beings realize

the emptiness of the three wheels,

giver, receiver and gift.

Don’t give up. Keep going.

OM

Fashi Lao Yue

[1] Samadhi: Unity with your true, original nature.

A Tale for the Disenchanted

Getting Out of the Disenchantment of Entanglement

Here’s the ticket to get out of entanglements: be ready to participate fully devoted to what comes next with reverence. Let us call this holding Dharma.

reverence (n.)

Reverence is nearly equivalent to veneration, but expresses something less of the same emotion. It differs from awe in that it is not akin to the feeling of fear, dread, or terror, while also implying a certain amount of love or affection. We feel reverence for a parent and for an upright magistrate, but we stand in awe of a tyrant. [Century Dictionary]

awe (n.)

1. 1300, aue, “fear, terror, great reverence,” earlier aghe, c. 1200, from a Scandinavian source, such as Old Norse agi“fright;” from Proto-Germanic *agiz-(source also of Old English ege “fear,” Old High German agiso “fright, terror,” Gothic agis “fear, anguish”), from PIE *agh-es- (source also of Greek akhos “pain, grief”), from root *agh- (1) “to be depressed, be afraid” (see ail).

Holding Dharma

When we are able to hold Dharma no matter what arises we will not fall apart. Now, I realize that the sentence in itself is not enough explanation. You see, and of course I hope you do see, that there is work involved when the wind blows and we find ourselves entangled.

In order to hold onto Dharma, we need to develop the capacity to stand our ground in stillness and silence when desires arise. Let me repeat what we need to develop. We need to develop the capacity to stand our ground when desires arise. Desires refer to our reactive thoughts, feelings, impulses, and perceptions of the entangled mess we have made within ourselves. The key word is reactive.

These reactive mental formations arise to drive back something that our senses have experienced. Reactions, however, when acted out verbally or physically cannot be called back. It is very much like mixing two chemicals together; once they come together there is no separating them. An example from household cleaning is baking soda and vinegar; once the two substances come together, they form a new substance called carbon dioxide gas.

In order to practice the capacity to stand still we need to use our power to drive back the inner mental formations to prevent harm to others as well as diminish our mental selfishness that rises up. It is helpful to understand that we have the power to drive back our mental reactive patterns before they turn into something toxic. It is called, repercussive or repercussion. Most, if not all of us, have experienced the repercussions of our actions.

Our actions and the results of our actions are our closest companions. Check for yourself. What pops up in the mind? Mostly the repercussions of our actions. Repercussions echo and reflect our tendencies and attachments. The echoes remind us of our work to be done. When we react, we are no longer holding Dharma, we are reacting to our selfish ego that wants something.

repercussive (adj.)

late 14c., repercussif, “having the power to drive back” (originally in medicine, in reference to excessive concentrations of a humor), from Old French repercussif and directly from Medieval Latin repercussivus, from Latin repercuss-, past-participle stem of repercutere “to strike or beat back” (see repercussion). Related: Repercussively; repercussiveness.

repercussion (n.)

early 15c., repercussioun, “act of driving back,” from Old French répercussion (14c.) or directly from Latin repercusionem (nominative repercussio), noun of action from past-participle stem of repercutere “to strike or beat back; shine back, reflect; echo,” from re- “back” (see re-) + percutere “to strike or thrust through” (see percussion).

Even the strongest desires will not overtake us when we have developed our capacity to stand our ground in still silence. There we are holding Dharma; in stillness and silence.

*****

The Perfect Way is only difficult

for those who

pick and choose;

Do not like, do not dislike;

all will then be clear.[1]

There we have IT. We are not guided by dogma or doctrines, but by clear, straightforward truths about the Way. We are not to worry that at present we pick and choose and like and dislike. Not at all. In fact, we all find ourselves on the roulette wheel of for and against. Recognizing that we spin between striking-it-rich and striking-it-poor in terms of getting-what-we-want and not-getting-what-we-want. We begin to see the roots of our disenchantment. The roots being reactive tendencies and the repercussions thereof.

We react and experience the repercussions and then we experience disenchantment. Spiritually, disenchantment is a step on the path of the Way. An encounter of disenchantment gives us the possibility to let go of wanting it our way.  Letting go of our enchantment frees us from our compulsion to repeat the same mistake over and over again.

Let me clarify.  Each and everyone of us are conditioned to go after something or someone in life. At first, as children we go after all the things in our environment, but because we lack discernment we need to be watched as a baby. Otherwise, we may injure ourselves or even go after something fatal to our existence. As we grow-up, we expand our horizons from the playpen to the outdoors and school and other children. And, as we all know, we then seek self-sufficiency regarding the things that help us survive in our social environment. Each development comes with the paired condition of for and against. There are many paired-condition sets which all have the underlying truth of being seen as both separate and opposite, i.e., right and wrong, good and bad, mine and yours. We have many, many opposites because our human nature tends to divide the world into one of two categories: good or bad. Because we are so conditioned it is very difficult to contemplate giving-up like and dislike and picking and choosing.

Yet, the teaching tells us:

The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose;

Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear.

 Now many of us may feel that the Perfect Way teaching is impossible or harder than picking and choosing and liking and disliking. The reason it seems harder is we have fabricated our tendency to pick and choose, like and dislike. Every day we are asked to choose, to pick, to like or dislike. And since we may believe it is impossible, we give up our practice of this teaching. But we do not need to give it up because we already practice it even though we may not like it or in some cases, we do not recognize that we already practice letting go of these hindrances. Let me explain.

In life, we choose again and again to accept or reject what comes into our life as our life. It does not mean that we give up in despair or melancholy or run wild in an ecstatic stupor. No, we do our best with what shows up. We devote ourselves to excellent, thorough and complete effort with what shows up without measure.

The best way to define this is all acceptance or devotion to what shows up. We cannot offer devotion without giving up the opposites of selfish picking and choosing, or selfish liking and disliking. We cannot, in meeting what shows up, meet what shows up with selfish interest. When we have ideas in our mind such as what’s-in-it-for-me, we are caught by like and dislike.

The Perfect Way may seem harder than picking and choosing, but that is not true. It is far easier to love without judgement and measure and hard edges with all the things that come into our life. There is a line from a film that seems to point to out the Perfect Way in simple terms; one worth memorizing.

“It is so much easier to love what you have…” than to complain, judge and measure what you did and did not get, what you do and do not like.

 The Perfect Way is easier for those who do not pick and choose.

Find out for yourself.

May we with all beings realize

the emptiness of the three wheels,

giver, receiver and gift.

Don’t give up. Keep going.

OM

Fashi Lao Yue

[1] Hsin Hsin Ming: On Trust in the Heart Attributed to Seng-ts’an; The third Patriarch of the Dhyana Sect