HOLINESS IN THE PRESENT MOMENT

Buddha was once asked, “What makes a person holy?” He replied, “Every hour is divided into a certain number of seconds and every second into a certain number of fractions. Anyone who is able to be totally present in each fraction of a second is holy.”

The Japanese warrior was captured by his enemies and thrown into prison. At night he could not sleep for he was convinced that he would be tortured the next morning.

Then the words of his master came to his mind. “Tomorrow is not real. The only reality is now.”

So he came to the present—and fell asleep.

The person over whom the future has lost its grip. How like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. No anxieties for tomorrow. Total presence in the now. Holiness!

Constant Awareness 

No Zen student would presume to teach others until he had lived with his master for at least ten years.

Tenno, having completed his ten years of apprenticeship, acquired the rank of teacher. One day he went to visit the master Nan-in. It was a rainy day, so Tenno wore wooden clogs and carried an umbrella.

When he walked in, Nan-in greeted him with “You left your wooden clogs and umbrella on the porch, didn you? Tell me, did you place your umbrella on the right side of the clogs or on the left?”

Tenno was embarrassed, for he did not know the answer. He realized he lacked Awareness So he became Nan-in’s shudent and labored for another ten years to acquire constant awareness.

The person who is ceaselessly aware: the person who is totally present at each moment: behold the master! 

The Bamboos

Brownie, our dog, sat looking up the tree, ears cocked, tail tensely wagging. He was attending to a monkey. No thought disturbed his total concentration, no worry for tomorrow. Brownie was the nearest thing to pure contemplation that I have ever seen.

You may have experienced some of this yourself when you were totally absorbed watching a cat at play. Here is a formula for contemplation, as good as any I know: Be totally in the present.

Drop every thought of the future, drop every thought of the past, drop every image and abstraction, and come into the present. Contemplation will arise!

After years of training, the disciple begged his master to give him enlightenment. The master led him to a bamboo grove and said, “See that bamboo, how tall it is? See that other one there, how short it is?”

And the disciple was enlightened. 

They say Buddha practiced every form of asceticism known to the India of his times, in an effort to attain enlightenment. All in vain. One day he sat under a bodhi tree and enlightenment occurred. He passed on the secret of enlightenment to his disciples in words that must seem strange to the uninitiated: “When you draw in a deep breath, oh monks, be aware that you are drawing in a deep breath. And when you draw in a shallow breath, oh monks, be aware that you are drawing in a shallow breath. And when you draw in a medium-sized breath, oh monks, be aware that you are drawing in a medium-sized breath.” Awareness. Attention. Absorption.

This kind of absorption one observes in little children. They are close to the Kingdom.

I CHOP WOOD!

When the Zen master attained enlightenment he wrote the following lines to celebrate it:

“Oh wondrous marvel: I chop wood! I draw water from the well!”

After enlightenment nothing really changes. The tree is still a tree; people are just what they were before and so are you. You may continue to be as moody or even-tempered, as wise or foolish. The one difference is that you see things with a different eye. You are more detached from it all now. And your heart is full of wonder.

That is the essence of contemplation: the sense of wonder.

Contemplation is different from ecstasy in that ecstasy leads to withdrawal. The enlightened contemplative continues to chop wood and draw water from the well. Contemplation is different from the perception of beauty in that the perception of beauty (a painting or a sunset) produces aesthetic delight, whereas contemplation produces wonder—no matter what it observes, a sunset or a stone.

This is the prerogative of children. They are so often in a state of wonder. So they easily slip into the Kingdom. 

When my dad walked with me for the first week he brought along a book of spiritual lessons and read me one everyday to think about while I walked. He left me with the book when he left and I’ve been reading one everyday since. Having to post a daily update everyday I thought it would be fitting to share the lesson for the day on my where am I post so whoever may chose can ponder it as well.

Did You Hear That Bird Sing?

Hindu India developed a magnificent image to describe God’s relationship with creation. God “dances” creation. He is the dancer, creation is his dance. The dance is different from the dancer; yet it has no existence apart from him. You cannot take it home in a box if it pleases you. The moment the dancer stops, the dance ceases to be.

In our quest for God, we think too much, reflect too much talk too much. Even when we look at this dance that we call creation, we are the whole time thinking, talking (to ourselves and others), reflecting, analyzing, philosophizing. Words. Noise.

Be silent and contemplate the dance. Just look: a star, a flower, a fading leaf, a bird, a stone… any fragment of the dance will do. Look. Listen. Smell. Touch. Taste. And, hopefully, it won’t be long before you see him—the dancer himself!

The disciple was always complaining to his master, “You are hiding the final secret of Zen from me.” And he would not accept the master’s denials.

One day they were walking in the hills when they heard a bird sing.

“Did you hear that bird sing?” said the master.

“Yes,” said the disciple.

“Well, now you know that I have hidden nothing from you.”

“Yes.”

If you really heard a bird sing, if you really saw a tree… you would know. Beyond words and concepts.

What was that you said? You have heard dozens of birds sing and seen hundreds of trees? Ah, was it the tree you saw or the label? If you look at a tree and see a tree, you have really not seen the tree. When you look at the tree and see a miracle—then, at last, you have seen! Did your heart never fill with wordless wonder when you heard a bird in song? 

Day 8