Generosity and Unselfishness
When asked about generosity in terms of “would you like me to pay for whatever is the sense of owing something to someone is not really generosity in a transcendent practice. It is a quid pro quo…in other words, the lowest form of giving a “one hand washes the other.”
One hand washing the other is materialistic – you go to the store and pay for the goods. Buddhism, and I’d say all spiritual practices need to go beyond the mercantile exchange of goods and services. The mercantile exchange is not to be forgotten – but it is not generosity, and it is also not unselfishness.
Generosity is interior for the giver and arises without any selfish expectation or payback of ‘one hand washing the other.’ It is part of meeting the Buddha on the road and killing him. This teaching was given in the ninth century by Linji…and it comes in handy when giving comes up for any one of us. We first must kill the Buddha – meaning if we think we are doing good, if we believe we become more and more Buddha by giving then we are far away from the Truth. For thinking and believing something about our ego-selfish self is polishing the ego. And when the ego is involved, it measures the giving and concludes the debt is paid and we are now even. Again, a mercantile, materialist exchange.
Generosity, fearlessness, and the death of the ego selfish self-construction is a triad. We give without reward, without a quid pro quo – we remain fearless because we have no concern for ourselves and this generosity does not get tallied on and by the ego, e.g., I gave and now I owe no one. What a relief.
The ego must be without wanting anything in return. Christmas giving is in general a mercantile exchange of gifts.
We need to give without expectation of paying a debt or being a good person. No credit. Just giving. It is rare to find someone who gives without self-regard. Our tendency is to choose for self and not for the unborn, undying, immutable Self called by many names.
We do not ask for so and so or this or that. We, however, encourage each of us to contemplate ‘generosity, fearlessness, and selflessness. It is akin to: THOU will be done…not by me, not for me, not because of me…more along the lines of to open to generosity and see within what generosity, fearlessness and no-self responds to life. The work is within. The clarity is there.
Fashi Lao Yue
Singing and Building Our Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage PART FOUR
We will crave privacy, a space of our own around which we can create a ring of fire or a moat.
Ming Zhen Shakya
Thank you, Em for this reminder to focus on our spiritual practice and Newton’s understanding of actions!
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
These days and days, we hear more and more the song of the great barons of science rather than listening and singing our song of our own grass roof hermitage. This is when I say, “God help us, God help us all.”
Indeed! Perhaps it requires a scream!
As in all things, science has gone wild with power in thinking and believing like that old TV show “Father knows best!” But say, that was a TV show – a created fiction based on? I do not know. Male domination? A cultural rule. A good time? Putting everyone in their place – whatever that may be?
What jumps to mind is the incredulous goings on behind closed research doors. Here is just one headline – one link.
SO…the best we can do is as you wrote Em…
We will crave privacy, a space of our own around which we can create a ring of fire or a moat.
Here’s the “how” of fulfilling this craving for privacy. Follow carefully. Study it and sing the song of The Grass Roof Hermitage.
Don’t hang out where those saturated in ignorance live and love.
Remember, this song is about building something where there is “nothing of value.” It is a reminder of the reality of impermanence.
Live calmly wherever you are.
This requires constancy of letting go and remembering all this is a passing show.
All that is, is here!
It isn’t anywhere else.
When you let go of the ego, you gain the ability to illuminate forms and the nature of forms. Brighteyes!
No matter what you have or where you are, let go of the ego and see for yourself.
Firm steadiness is unsurpassable.
Get it. Nothing goes beyond ‘nothing in it for me.’
Cover your head. It is not a matter of conceiving anything.
Don’t go after intellectual understanding.
You are already free.
When you live where there is nothing of value you no longer work to get free.
Stop all enticements.
Study your self. Study the old teachings again and again.
Relax completely right where you are.
Get free of mental and physical obstructions.
You are the undying being when in the place of nothing of value.
Drop the cash value model of all things.
Be there, here and now.
Fashi Lao Yue
The Path of Suffering – Part Eleven
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A Single Thread Morning Sitting – Jan 8-12
Welcome to Morning Sitting 2024!!!! Please mute yourself when entering.
Topic: Morning Sitting
Time: Jan 8, 2024 06:30 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every day, until Jan 12, 2024, 5 occurrence(s)
Jan 8, 2024 06:30 AM
Jan 9, 2024 06:30 AM
Jan 10, 2024 06:30 AM
Jan 11, 2024 06:30 AM
Jan 12, 2024 06:30 AM
Meeting ID: 837 9360 8817
Passcode: 628823
Singing and Building Our Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage PART THREE
A Mahayana Bodhisattva trusts without doubt.
After building his new hut next to his temple, Shitou explains to himself and to us that trust is an essential aspect to his life. Sure, he has lived in the hut, relaxed and calm, has seen it begin to change, which is inevitable for all worldly things, and reaches a place of illuminating forms and their nature.
He sounds set, doesn’t he?
…trusts without doubt.
But he goes on to tell us he needs the vision of trust against any doubt that might be within him. A better word is confidence. He is confident in being a practitioner of light – a bright light without uncertainty or hesitation. Hurrah!
And still, he continues to give us more understanding…when he points out that those of us who are still playing around with the material things of worldly life question the validity and truth of this move Shitou has made.
Those who are …middling or lowly can’t help wondering…will the hut perish or not?
The depth of our wondering is an opportunity to those of us who follow this path. When we wonder, doubt, feel uncertain, hesitate, worry about whether our life as it is will perish or not, we are subject to the worldly ego-mind and have lost not only our confidence but our master. This brings to light the question, “who is our original master?”
And if we know who that is, do we have confidence that our original master is ever-present in our life right where we have built our life? A better definition will help us understand.
Our original master that is present in all aspects of existence is unborn, undying, immutable – which goes by many names. There is THAT which was never born, does not die and does not change. So, the things of the world, our worldly life, change and perish and change and change and change and in THAT the original beloved is present. Our problem is that we do not know who and what we are.
We are as Shitou exclaims he is…a being of light, the light that sees THAT. But our tendency is to see the change as frightening and uncontrollable – the ego-self sees THAT as frightening and uncontrollable because we are attached to the worldly things that delude us. We are attached to comfort. And we get frightened by change.
Not dwelling south or north, east, or west…is the line that gives a clue of our unborn, undying, immutable existence. The original master is everywhere, not dwelling in one specific place. But is One consciousness. When we know this…we begin to rest in the confidence of this truth.
Firmly based on steadiness…
Yes, this is what we need. A shift to resting on concentration & focus, a steady hand, a focused eye – a wise and unselfish mind.
Our conditioned mind does not trust without doubt because it has been trained to label and acquire forms which we think and believe will protect us from change. It is the standard fare of “…if only…or if when I do, get, have, keep…I will feel safe, happy, content, at ease, steady, relaxed…” and the list goes on. Unfortunately, this conditioning leads to a distorted view of the delusion we are in.
We have been trained to think and believe that the world is concrete – an actual, substantial thing that is eternal. Something we rely on. And yet, we know the world itself changes.
Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage Part Three
Happy New Year 2024
Singing and Building Our Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage PART TWO
It is hard for us in the 21st century to image building a grass hut up in a far-off mountain range. A place we would call home! It is unthinkable. We love all our conveniences – running water, heat when it is cold, air conditioning when it is hot and every imaginable device from stoves to air cookers to electric light. We want an endless array of amenities and deem them essential.
But less we forget – we are spiritual seekers, much like Shitou Xiqian an 8th century Zen Master. We are seeking realization. Maybe we are not ready to give up indoor plumbing, yet. But we who seek liberation from suffering surrender our passions and demands. At the very least, we practice with the hardships of this modern era in the same light as Shitou. The light of no value. That is the light that builds the grass hut.
“Nothing of value” is a universal knowledge of spiritual surrender. It is often said and perhaps over-used as “letting go.” We let go of any iota of self-attainment, self-achievement, or self-praise and gain. Another way to understand this universal knowledge is to see and know it as “emptied out.” It is what the Great Awakened Masters did. They were dispassionate and lived a renunciate life.
Shitou is an exemplar of dispassion and renunciation. He had built a temple. Disciples came. And, yet… legend says he built a grass hut right next door to his temple… then. moved into it, alone. Moved into a grass hut he built where there was nothing of value.
The GRASS ROOF HERMITAGE is both a place in the external world and a description of Shitou’s internal destination. It is a solitary place where he eats, relaxes, and enjoys a nap where there is nothing to measure or tote up or evaluate and appraise.
When the hut was completed, fresh weeds appeared.
Now it’s been lived in covered by weeds.
Once the hut is finished, fresh weeds appear. Once he lives in it, he sees that it is covered by weeds. We know that Shitou accepts the immediate change in the hut without complaint and with acceptance. As the Song goes on to explain.
The person in the hut lives here, calmly, not stuck inside, outside, or in-between.
NO regrets. NO worries about his new digs getting worn down by time and use. NO worries about the property value. Or the neighbors. Or how comfortable it will be or how long it will last. Or resale profits. Shitou is aware of the nature of the world as being of no value and impermanent.
He is not caught up in where he will live and how much it is worth. He does not get attached. He is not a worldly man. He does not love the things and places of the world.
Places worldly people live, he doesn’t live.
Realms worldly people love, she doesn’t love.
Neither the external desires for things nor internal desires of feelings plague him. Shitou knows all he needs to know about the world. He knows that the hut is small, and he knows all the vagaries of the mind including passions and attachments are in this hut. There is nothing special about the hut – in the sense it prevents all the suffering of desires, feelings, perceptions, impulses, and a self-centered consciousness. NO. Building the hut does not stop the world because Shitou he does not go there. Nor does he go towards the mental realms of his mind forms.
In ten feet square an old man illumines forms and their nature.
Whatever is in the world is in the small hut because Shitou is in the small hut. The light of Shitou is the same light we have. The difference is he used the light to illumine forms and their nature in a ten feet square grass hut. We are to sing the same song and illumine forms, so we know their nature.
PART THREE TO FOLLOW.
Holy Day Encouragement
