Search found 31 matches

by Ted Biringer
Tue Feb 22, 2022 2:43 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: This One Mind is You
Replies: 54
Views: 15785

Re: This One Mind is You

Ted, You cover quite a bit of ground, but I have a question about the first few paragraphs and it's fundamental. You state, The Zen masters insist that this mind – the very mind that hears and sees, that blinks and raises its eyebrows – is, as it is, Buddha, our own true nature. They assert that aw...
by Ted Biringer
Tue Feb 22, 2022 1:19 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: This One Mind is You
Replies: 54
Views: 15785

This One Mind is You

The Zen masters insist that this mind – the very mind that hears and sees, that blinks and raises its eyebrows – is, as it is, Buddha, our own true nature. They assert that awakening to, or “seeing” this mind is Buddhahood, is Zen, is enlightenment. The Zen founder did not come from India to China b...
by Ted Biringer
Mon Feb 21, 2022 7:45 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind
Replies: 49
Views: 16902

Re: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind

Ted, As I noted earlier (to Astus regarding Sengzhao), if “motion” (call it A) is equal to “unmoving” (call it not-A) and we apply the useful formula, then it would be “as right (or wrong) to say the ineffable is without rest as it is to say it is without movement - and I’m OK with that :)” And tha...
by Ted Biringer
Mon Feb 21, 2022 1:54 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind
Replies: 49
Views: 16902

Re: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind

Now that we’ve discussed capitalization, terminology, and my motives for raising a question, let me rephrase my question. How does the self-nature produce the ten thousand dharmas without movement? As you have acknowledged Clyde, words and concepts cannot convey the fact. Thus I assume you are aski...
by Ted Biringer
Sun Feb 20, 2022 10:21 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: the Zen promise is empty
Replies: 128
Views: 65993

Re: the Zen promise is empty

I jump here in between, having actually nothing to say... Again, reading here on another tread, the methods and words differ but what is not created nor fabricated needs no words like sameness or different, what would be subject about an object. A mind about a phenomenon. And as soon as these two a...
by Ted Biringer
Sun Feb 20, 2022 1:43 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind
Replies: 49
Views: 16902

Re: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind

Regardless of name or translation, how can the ineffable be “without movement” (function) and give rise to “the ten thousand dharmas”? The ineffable (one mind, Buddha, etc.) and the ten thousand dharmas (myriad things, phenomenal world, etc.) are nondual – not-two. The reasoning of the nonduality o...
by Ted Biringer
Sat Feb 19, 2022 7:41 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind
Replies: 49
Views: 16902

Re: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind

Ted, Thank you. I’ve heard and read from scholars and teachers that the Chinese word often translated as “mind” is best translated as “heart-mind”. Does this apply to “One Mind” (as “One Heart-Mind’)? Thank you Clyde. Yes. That is one of the Chinese words most commonly translated as “mind” (the cha...
by Ted Biringer
Fri Feb 18, 2022 11:34 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind
Replies: 49
Views: 16902

On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind

On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind Zen study is basically to reach the fundamental and clarify the essence of mind . If you don’t reach the fundamental, you live and die in vain, misunderstanding yourself and others. As for what this fundamental essence is, your features may differ as you die ...
by Ted Biringer
Tue Feb 15, 2022 8:29 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Sudden Awakening 101
Replies: 27
Views: 13539

Re: Sudden Awakening 101

Phenomena don’t even come and go, arise or cease, nor are they some separate thing from “mind”. When someone recognizes the nature of mind, it does not have the limitation of some kind of unchanging container that changing phenomena exist within. We can separate the two for convenience, but viewing...
by Ted Biringer
Tue Feb 15, 2022 8:23 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Sudden Awakening 101
Replies: 27
Views: 13539

Re: Sudden Awakening 101

What you are describing is the Shrenika false view of eternalism which Dogen refuted. Dear xabir, I am very familiar with Dogen's work and with the Shrenika view. If you read my actual posts (and not just the misrepresentations attributed to me) you will see that I am definitely not advocating the ...
by Ted Biringer
Tue Feb 15, 2022 6:52 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Sudden Awakening 101
Replies: 27
Views: 13539

Re: Sudden Awakening 101

. To recognize that objects of mind (phenomena, forms, dharmas) arise and cease endlessly, while mind itself neither arises nor ceases is not to deny the reality (Buddha-nature) of such objects – just the opposite in fact. It is, in truth, the very coming and going of all transient forms that allow...
by Ted Biringer
Tue Feb 15, 2022 6:46 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Sudden Awakening 101
Replies: 27
Views: 13539

Re: Sudden Awakening 101

That looks very much like a duality of a permanent awareness and impermanent objects. Then how is such an awareness not independent? see that while things (objects of mind) appear to come and go the essence of mind is intrinsically free from change. An unchanging subject, isn't that what is called ...
by Ted Biringer
Tue Feb 15, 2022 6:41 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Sudden Awakening 101
Replies: 27
Views: 13539

Re: Sudden Awakening 101

In my op I clearly pointed out what I meant by “mind” in the context of “mind is Buddha.” This was to distinguish its usage from the many other possible meanings that “mind” can have depending on the context, for instance as distinct from the meaning you apply above as “a common term for a complex ...
by Ted Biringer
Mon Feb 14, 2022 9:47 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Sudden Awakening 101
Replies: 27
Views: 13539

Re: Sudden Awakening 101

Nevertheless, I don’t see how you could confuse my explanation (quoted in your post) as suggesting it might amount to “mistaking consciousness for a self.” In fact, my explanation was meant to clarify that consciousness (that is, our fundamental consciousness, or awareness itself) is the Buddha. It...
by Ted Biringer
Mon Feb 14, 2022 6:39 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: Sudden Awakening 101
Replies: 27
Views: 13539

Re: Sudden Awakening 101

When the Zen masters use the term “mind” in the sense that “mind is Buddha” they mean mind as it is in itself , that is, our core-subjectivity, or awareness itself. In short, they do not mean thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, etc. – all of these are objects of mind or contents of awarene...
by Ted Biringer
Sun Feb 13, 2022 12:19 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: Sudden Awakening 101
Replies: 27
Views: 13539

Sudden Awakening 101

The reason or message of Zen is expressed here by Chinul in unambiguous terms: The triple world is blazing in defilement as if it were a house on fire. How can you bear to tarry here and complacently undergo such long suffering? If you wish to avoid wandering in samsara there is no better way than t...
by Ted Biringer
Wed Feb 09, 2022 10:16 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: the Zen promise is empty
Replies: 128
Views: 65993

Re: the Zen promise is empty

Thank you Clyde, While I think I get the point of your post, it may be a little muddled. That is, you seem to be conflating the conventional with the absolute – that is mixing the notions of an individual personality (a particular sentient being) with the One Mind (Buddha, Dharmakaya, the Unborn, Tr...
by Ted Biringer
Wed Feb 09, 2022 8:49 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: We Are All This Luminous Mind
Replies: 166
Views: 60129

Re: We Are All This Luminous Mind

Thank you Clyde, Thanks for posting this. It is a very good overview of the central role and elements of awakening in the Zen tradition. Of course, it is only an overview; each aspect – from the depth or shallowness of initial openings, to the life-long role of post-kensho practice – could be infini...
by Ted Biringer
Tue Aug 18, 2020 11:03 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Emptiness and the Diamond Sutra
Replies: 13
Views: 3758

Re: Emptiness and the Diamond Sutra

Numerous subsequent Zen records make frequent use of the Diamond Sutra’ s methodology to present the wisdom of emptiness, that is, insight into the nondual nature of reality. The gist of the Diamond Sutra’s methodology can be expressed by the formula A is not-A, therefore A is A; not-A is A, theref...
by Ted Biringer
Thu Aug 06, 2020 10:48 pm
Forum: Zen
Topic: Seeing your nature is Zen
Replies: 0
Views: 1016

Seeing your nature is Zen

Bodhidharma said: Seeing your nature is Zen. Unless you see your nature, it’s not Zen. ~Trans. Red Pine In Zen ‘seeing your nature’ is initiated and realized through practice-enlightenment grounded in Zen/Buddhist doctrine and methodology. Doctrine and methodology are nondual (not-two). Doctrine inf...

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