Elihu Genmyo Smith
Much ado about nothing – isn’t that a wonderful description of
our life? Do you believe that?
Much a do is the wonderful, the fascinating, the manifesting this moment. A do
is the difficult, the entangling of self-holding and believing this moment. A do
is what seems natural to us this moment, a do is the things we make of no-thing,
the no-thing we miss about this thing.
Much ado is myriad forms, and myriad forms include entangling self-forms.
Entangling includes pain, includes the difficult to bear and embody, entangling
is like-dislikes reactions, entangling is fighting and angering, even grasping
and seeking.
Embodying form is who we are, is zazen. And yet sometimes intimacy this moment,
embodying particular forms, is what and who we resist and resent, causing
difficulties. So we do much, and may discover all sorts of troubles in the
doing, in the much.
Simple zazen, simple being-time, is just that - simple - the now, myriad
form-no-form, the no-self-self now. Being this is our life joy. Being this is
our Bodhisattva life opportunity, our zazen life, our Dharma life.
What does your zazen offer? It offers your life. What does your daily life
offer? Though zazen clarifies this, you must clarify this.
This opportunity and this difficulty, this joyous now, this entangling of self -
of comfortable, of uncomfortable, of doing with consequences that we want and
for-see, of doing with consequences we do not want, with those we do not for-see
or cannot for-see, of resist and resent.
Life here now is myriad realms, your life right now is myriad realms. We love to
explore some of these - and at times attempt to direct so-called others,
so-called self, to what we or they should and should not explore, what we or
they should or should-not have to face in arising conditions. The result can be
satisfaction, dissatisfactions, suffering, thankfulness or harming, to name just
a few.
Much ado about no-thing. Because we believe stories about what this is and is
not, we may miss this no-thing thing. We may find it difficult to do no-thing,
to be no-thing – despite zazen being doing no-thing, being done by non-doing.
Here is our practice opportunity.
What do you discover about your life “things”, about your life “no-thing”?
Our zazen exposes life, exposes habits, tendencies, likes and dislikes. This is
the realm of Dharma practice, of Dharma clarifying of the Three Marks of
Existence (of life), the trilakṣaṇa - anicca, anatta, dukkha - impermanence,
non-self, unsatisfactoriness.
This life is zazen in myriad forms, of myriad no-forms - doing no-thing, the
much ado no-thing. This doing offers joy as its very nature, though at times joy
is clouded for us in “holding to” when we rage or lust in the face of changing
circumstance. Do you notice this clouding, this missing?
Things are no-things, therefore they are this moment – yet sometimes “much ado
about” misses this no-thing, this emptiness, interbeing, impermanence not
separate not fixed.
Being as is, simple. Being as is, difficult.
Being practice, being zazen, we might find actions of
self-privileging-circumstances, even finding we privilege raging or lusting,
which makes this interbeing moment, this ongoing change, troubling for us -
especially if we seek to satisfy desires and attachments in things which are
no-thing, which are impermanent, if we seek desires and attachment in this not
separate, not fixed, not permanent self.
The joy, simplicity, complicating and comedic tragedy of our life is this
ongoing zazen in myriad forms; ongoing zazen is the difficulty of life and
opportunity of life; this is ordinary practice, being this right now.
Zazen is simple, zazen is straight forward, upright still sitting Zen - though
because this is straightforward, for many of us zazen is easy to miss,
manifesting zazen is easy to miss, even though we can not miss.
When we do not see this daily life clearly we may create and entangle in all
sorts of ideas of “ours –not-ours,” with all sorts of difficulties, including
suffering harmful functioning. What is ours? What is not ours? Please reflect on
this.
This is not a matter of conceptually understanding something but is being; both
ours and not-ours are fictions that we sometimes forget are fictions, that we
assume are not fictions.
No problems with fictions, we are good at fictions, can make good use of
fictions; we enjoy this. If we only believe the fictions without seeing the
fictionalizing and the not-fictions, then we have suffering and cause harm.
Zazen is this non-excluding moment, being nonfiction fiction this very moment.
Unfortunately, much of the time we prefer “either/or fictions” to this universe
myriad forms. This is why sesshin, prolonged periods of practice, are so
important and valuable.
Being the Buddha we are enables us to manifest the Bodhisattva functioning we
are. So be the Buddha you are.
Zazen is fresh mind, mind beginning right now. This is Zen mind, thusness mind,
universe nurturing mind - intimacy of not-knowing. Being just this moment is
experiencing, is this moment experiencing.
A helpful analogy for zazen, for practice, for life, may be a simplified quantum
science perspective which proposes that “things” seemingly jump from one state
of being to another, appearing, disappearing - without any intervening states or
continuity; popping, so to speak, in and out of space-time-existence, especially
as a result of “observing.” This is a non- intervening continuing. In a way,
this makes no sense to us (the us of fixed, solid, continuous beings and
self-other thing universe) and yet this is what some scientific evidence shows.
Joko suggested that practice can be described as noticing being caught in
self-centeredness, emotion-thought, and “popping” into the present moment,
experiencing now.
The physicist John Wheeler has been quoted as saying, “Useful as it is under
ordinary circumstances to say that the world exists ‘out there’ independent of
us, that view can no longer be upheld (in quantum terms).”
“We are participators in bringing into being not only the near and here but the
far away and long ago.”
Wheeler taught that it was impossible, even in theory, to know both the movement
speed and position of a subatomic particle. Knowing one destroyed the ability to
measure/know the other. Subatomic particles and events, until observed, exist in
a sort of cloud of possibility that Wheeler sometimes called “a smoky dragon.”
This kind of thinking frustrated even Einstein, who asked Wheeler if the moon
was still there when nobody looked at it.
On the other hand, Einstein also wrote that “People like us, who believe in
physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is nothing
more than a persistent, stubborn illusion.”
Do you get this? Does it make sense to you? How so? How not? Do you believe
this, do you live this? How so? How not?
Morning to night, which is our whole life this moment, are opportunities to do
this life, to do this joyous aliveness of no-thing myriad form action.
When we do not live this, when we do not appreciate this, when we entangle in
all sorts of self-centeredness, we miss this life we are, miss what can not be
missed. As a result we go seeking after various attachments and beliefs with
resulting fear, anger and greed, suffering and harming.
This life moment is “to do” no-thing, being this - our energy this moment.
Nothing lacking, this whole universe right here – you are thus, no need to seek
thus, so please be thus.
No need to believe anything I say, no need to accept any physics analogy, no
need to accept Ancestors’ teachings - simply see what in your life results in
suffering and harm, what truly relieves suffering and harm, what nurtures your
compassionate functioning life. Being just this, compassion’s way.
© 2016 Elihu Genmyo Smith
on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl said Congress had not
granted the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) that power, and had instead chosen to specifically
exclude fracking from federal oversight.