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Hakuin's "Chant in Praise of Zazen"

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dookie On December 16, 2023
Foolish Bombu





, United Kingdom
#1New Post! Oct 30, 2020 @ 10:21:10
Apparently chanted daily in many zen monasteries, Hakuin's "Chant in Praise of Zazen" has the following line:-


"Like water and ice, without water no ice."

(Best heard or chanted while sipping cappuccinos in Costas)

Commentary by Albert Low:-

We live as though we are frozen. Our personality, what we call “myself,” is knowledge, memory, attitudes, beliefs, and judgments, which have become solid, and so have become like the bars of a cage.

It stands to reason that we live on a solid rock, immobile, the centre of the Cosmos, all things revolving around us.



The continual stream of verbiage issuing from the mouths of our so called "leaders" makes me dauntless in simply saying whatever I like. I have never felt so alienated from what is called the UK and the direction it appears to be taking. As for the USA.......
dookie On December 16, 2023
Foolish Bombu





, United Kingdom
#2New Post! Oct 30, 2020 @ 10:32:24
While I'm here, I still transform various posts into Blogs on my blogspot, "Dookie's Place - Ramblings of a Pure Land Buddhist" (NOT available at all good bookshops)

BLOG


Yes, here the golden opportunity to read again bits of various posts, with added illustrations courtesy of Google Images.

It really is a good game thinking up phrases to put into the Image Search and punching the "enter" button. Try entering the word "paintings" or "cartoons" after the original phrase. The images presented can sometimes turn ice to water.
Darkman666 On about 16 hours ago




Saint Louis, Missouri
#3New Post! Oct 30, 2020 @ 17:08:09
@dookie Said

Apparently chanted daily in many zen monasteries, Hakuin's "Chant in Praise of Zazen" has the following line:-


"Like water and ice, without water no ice."

(Best heard or chanted while sipping cappuccinos in Costas)

Commentary by Albert Low:-

We live as though we are frozen. Our personality, what we call “myself,” is knowledge, memory, attitudes, beliefs, and judgments, which have become solid, and so have become like the bars of a cage.

It stands to reason that we live on a solid rock, immobile, the centre of the Cosmos, all things revolving around us.



The continual stream of verbiage issuing from the mouths of our so called "leaders" makes me dauntless in simply saying whatever I like. I have never felt so alienated from what is called the UK and the direction it appers to be taking. As for the USA.......



Like water and ice, without water no ice.

A martini, shaken, no stirred.




dookie On December 16, 2023
Foolish Bombu





, United Kingdom
#4New Post! Oct 30, 2020 @ 17:50:39
@darkman666 Said



A martini, shaken, no stirred.







Once I'm done with the chanting, my main concern revolves around how to approach my cappacinno. Italian etiquette would seem to favour drinking the coffee without disturbing the shape of the chocolate sprinkles on the top. However, I tend to stir then slurp, which could well be striking at my street cred. This bothers me, keeps me awake at night.
Darkman666 On about 16 hours ago




Saint Louis, Missouri
#5New Post! Oct 30, 2020 @ 19:43:23
@dookie Said

Once I'm done with the chanting, my main concern revolves around how to approach my cappacinno. Italian etiquette would seem to favour drinking the coffee without disturbing the shape of the chocolate sprinkles on the top. However, I tend to stir then slurp, which could well be striking at my street cred. This bothers me, keeps me awake at night.




once awhile, I go to Starbucks. I ordered those moco with whipped cream.

I like the whipped cream, the coffee is ok. it relaxes me and get me sleepy.

And, I like the black tea at Starbucks.
dookie On December 16, 2023
Foolish Bombu





, United Kingdom
#6New Post! Oct 30, 2020 @ 21:46:45
@darkman666 Said

once awhile, I go to Starbucks. I ordered those moco with whipped cream.

I like the whipped cream, the coffee is ok. it relaxes me and get me sleepy.

And, I like the black tea at Starbucks.



Well, this is all a bit tongue in cheek, my weird sense of humour, but I do honestly find an hour or so in Costa's therapeutic. More and more the way of the wider world around me appears nonsensical, I can barely comprehend the words that pour out of people's mouths.

I wish I could buy you a cup or two.......
Darkman666 On about 16 hours ago




Saint Louis, Missouri
#7New Post! Oct 30, 2020 @ 22:15:56
@dookie Said

Well, this is all a bit tongue in cheek, my weird sense of humour, but I do honestly find an hour or so in Costa's therapeutic. More and more the way of the wider world around me appears nonsensical, I can barely comprehend the words that pour out of people's mouths.

I wish I could buy you a cup or two.......


I get turn off at Starbucks, charging four dollars for an ok
coffee.

I don't even like coffee.
dookie On December 16, 2023
Foolish Bombu





, United Kingdom
#8New Post! Oct 31, 2020 @ 09:04:59
@darkman666 Said

I get turn off at Starbucks, charging four dollars for an ok
coffee.

I don't even like coffee.



I'm taking time out from composing my "Chant in Praise of Costas" to reply to you....

Starbucks are a little bit cheaper here, £2.60 for a "Grande" Cappucinno, Costas £2.76. No VAT tax at the moment as Boris cares for us common folk. So I pay a little more just so no one sticks my misspelt name on my cup. But the ambience is far finer in Costas, even the babies cry in a softer tone.

Looks likely that another national lockdown is coming wednesday so drink up while we can.
dookie On December 16, 2023
Foolish Bombu





, United Kingdom
#9New Post! Oct 31, 2020 @ 10:12:54
The full beginning of Hakuin's chant:-

From the very beginning all beings are Buddha.

Like water and ice,

without water no ice,

outside us no Buddhas.

How near the truth

yet how far we seek,

like one in water crying ‘I thirst!’

Like a child of rich birth wandering poor on this earth, we endlessly circle the six worlds.

The cause of our sorrow is ego delusion.

From dark path to dark path we’ve wandered in darkness.

How can we be free from birth and death?


Listen to Donald Trump, to anything he says, read the body language, apply just the minimum of intelligence, and we surely must despair that a human being such as he has risen to what might be called "the top". What does it say of our "civilization"?

Look at the current alternative. Is Joe Biden any real "answer"? Where does it leave us?

We cry "I thirst". Yes, we do. Well, I do.

What to drink is also all around us.

Sometimes the temptation is to want to wipe the whole slate clean and start again. But I think we have to stay with it.

Anyway, here is Proust, from his "Remembrance of Things Past":-

"A pair of wings, a different mode of breathing, which would enable us to traverse infinite space, would in no way help us, for, if we visited Mars or Venus keeping the same senses, they would clothe in the same aspect as the things of the earth everything that we should be capable of seeing. The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is....."
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