{"id":431,"date":"2007-08-23T03:55:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-23T03:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/treeleafzen\/2007\/08\/sit-a-long-with-jundo-fukanzaz-34.html"},"modified":"2007-08-23T03:55:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-23T03:55:00","slug":"sit-a-long-with-jundo-fukanzaz-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/treeleafzen\/2007\/08\/sit-a-long-with-jundo-fukanzaz-34.html","title":{"rendered":"SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Fukanzazengi LXVIII"},"content":{"rendered":"

.<\/span>
<\/span>Yesterday, I described Buddhism as a positive, joyful, optimistic philosophy, with Zazen an experience<\/span><\/span> pleasant and peaceful, filled with feelings of deep contentment. I was kidding around with my little nieces and son, shooting the garden hose, celebrating a child’s birthday …<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then I looked at the news, and saw one of those stories … I woke up during the night brokenhearted, crying. I have a son that age … what in the world?<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span><\/p>\n
\n


<\/span><\/h1>\n

BOY, 5, DOUSED AND SET ON FIRE BY MASKED MEN:<\/span>
They grabbed him on a January day outside his central Baghdad home, <\/span> doused him with gas and set him ablaze.<\/span> It’s an act incomprehensibly savage, even by Iraq’s standards today …<\/span> the motive remains unknown.<\/span> “They dumped gasoline, burned me, and ran,” Youssif said, <\/span> pointing down the street with his scarred hands where his attackers fled.<\/span> As he sucked his thumb, he repeated, “I was burning.” <\/span> He tried to put the flames out himself.<\/span> It’s hard to see the energetic outgoing child his parents describe <\/span> beneath the sullen demeanor that defines Youssif today.<\/span> [more here]<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span>
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I have a son that age. I am brokenhearted at this world sometimes.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So am a kidding myself? Kidding you?<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What joy, peace, optimism or contentment in Zazen can possibly exist in the face of that?<\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/div>\n


<\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span>
What is called sitting-Zen is not learning Zen meditation.<\/span> It is just a peaceful and effortless gate to reality. <\/span><\/span>It is practice-and-experience <\/span>which perfectly realizes the Buddha’s enlightenment.<\/span> <\/span>The Universe is realized,<\/span> <\/span>untouched by restrictions or hindrances.<\/span> To grasp this meaning is to be like a dragon that has found water, or like a tiger before a mountain stronghold.<\/span> Remember, true reality is naturally manifesting itself before us, and <\/span>gloom and distraction vanish at a stroke<\/span><\/span>.<\/span> [NISHIJIMA]<\/p>\n

<\/span>The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice.<\/span> <\/span>It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease<\/span>, the practice-realization<\/span> <\/span>of totally culminated enlightenment.<\/span><\/span> <\/span>It is the koan realized;<\/span> <\/span>traps and snares can never reach it.<\/span> If you grasp the point, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountains<\/span>.<\/span> For you must know that the true dharma appears of itself, so that <\/span>from the start dullness and distraction are struck aside<\/span><\/span>.<\/span> [SZTP]<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
\n
.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/embed>
Burned and Vandalized Buddha Statue from S.Korea
Press on arrow for ‘play’<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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