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Measureless
by
Ven. Jinmyo
Renge osho
March 3, 1998
Right
here, right now, everything arises all around you. But nothing that arises
and falls is about you. Although all around you, everything is shining
and bright and rich, it cannot be measured from you to it. You and everything
and everyone, including this person speaking, are just arising naturally
and effortlessly as this richness beyond measure.
When we look out at everything from our ideas about who we think we are
and what we think the world is, everything becomes measured from the perspective
of the sense of a self that is doing the measuring. But this self is itself
measured against its ideas of how it measures up against its ideas of
what it should be and what the world should be. Me, you; us, them; 1,
2; good badeverything becomes a matter of opposing things. Even
body and mind become viewed as if they were matter and spirit locked in
mutual conflict. But mind and body, self and other are really just ways
that we have of speaking of some of the details of this richness.
When we take this sense of struggle that follows along with self-image
seriously, as if it really means something, then we get into such a mess
that it seems we cant find our way out. Up, down, front, back, what
to do next, what we should do , can do, are capable of doing, all become
incredibly complex problems.
We feel inadequate. Everything is too big, too hard, too insignificant,
too difficult.
Why should we brush our teeth? Forget it. Who cares. Too much trouble.
But when we meet someone we think, "Omigod. If I smile Ill
look like a geek!"
If we take care of what is around us, what actually presents itself as
the measureless richness, the Treasury of Reality, we only do so because
of what someone else thinks of us.
Or, really, what WE think someone else thinks of us and what we think
about that.
We measure ourselves against our image of how we think everyone else is.
We think, "Oh, they have it all together. They know whats what.
Look at them. Theyre happy and purposeful and sane. And here I am
afraid to smile because I was too busy with feeling stupid to brush my
teeth."
But let me tell you. From my experience of what I have seen about myself
and all of you (without naming names other than mine), we ALL tend to
feel like that.
Which of course means that everyones image of themselves measured
against everyone else is all the same old stuff. Just images, pictures,
stories, without substance.
Of course it all seems to be solid. Self-image is a contraction of attention,
a knot of Knowing that pretends to be a knower, so solidity is a major
preoccupation of self-image.
But everything is just open, just rising and falling.
This rising and falling, Zen Master Anzan Hoshin reminds us, does not
come FROM anywhere or go TO anywhere. It just rises and falls and there
is no "it". We are just dancing in freefall.
When we sit up STRAIGHT in zazen, we can feel the falling, the coming
and going of how we are.
We might want to say, "NO! STOP! How am I doing?!! Am I doing this
RIGHT!?!"
But it doesnt matter.
We just dont know.
Our image of how we are, of how we measure up to our idea of how we should
be is just more stuff. I recently spoke with someone who wanted to know
how long it would take to become Ino or Godo. What could I say? The person
wanted to know how many years this or that took. Trying to find my way
in the morass of these opinions and viewpoints I could only talk about
the importance of this moment. Perhaps this doesnt measure up to
what Bodhidharma, Dogen zenji or Zen Master Anzan Hoshin would say. But
I know that it is true.
Let us all start from right here, right now. From where we are. And uncover
who we are. Measureless, radiant. And awake.
 
© 1999-2000
White Wind Zen Community. All rights reserved.
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