December Meeting Musings

        The following excerpts are food for thought leading to the December meeting:

Reconciling Non-attachment but still Working for Change

        "When non-doing appears as inaction it is peaceful, silent, and still; when it appears as action it is thoughtless, reflexive, and intuitive....This apersonal momentum is what moves the fingers of the pianist; it seems as if no one is deliberately playing the piano, as if the player has become the instrument and the music is making itself." Griggs, The Tao of Zen

"When an archer is shooting for nothing

He has all his skill.

If he shoots for a brass buckle

He is already nervous.

If he shoots for a prize of gold

He goes blind

Or sees two targets -- He is out of his mind!

His skill has not changed. But the prize

Divides him. He cares.

He thinks more of winning

Than of shooting --

And the need to win

Drains his power." - Chuang Tzu

        “He who gives up action, falls. He who gives up only the reward, rises. But renunciation of fruit in no way means indifference to the result….He, who….is without desire for the result, and is yet wholly engaged in the due fulfillment of the task before him, is said to have renounced the fruits of his action…..When there is no desire for fruit, there is no temptation for untruth….Take any instance of untruth or violence, and it will be found that at its back was the desire to attain the cherished end.” –Ghandi

        "May I give an example of the perfect act? You are walking to the station with a friend. Someone in front drops his umbrella, and as you come to it, you pick it up and hand it to the man who dropped it. You then walk on, still talking to your friend, and in two minutes have forgotten the whole incident. Here is the perfect act - no motive, no desire for gain, no thought of self. The right time, place, and means - you have forgotten it." - Christmas Humphreys, A Western Approach to Zen

         "Th[e] Taoist sense of virtue shares with Zen a standing aside from self so that things are left to do themselves. Detachment from doing permits doing to arise thoughtlessly and spontaneously, without the labored self-involvement that imparts ulterior motives. Such doing, consequently, becomes something more than ordinary doing because it is allowed to happen within the flow of a larger, selfless wisdom. The highest form of doing in Taoism and Zen occurs without any interference from a deliberate or contriving self. The doing is happening but no one is doing it." –Griggs

        “Spiritual practice must be carried out quietly and calmly {do you hear mindfulness, acceptance, “letting go,” non-doing?....Bob} because a passage to freedom opens to you only when you deal with right now, right here. So under all circumstances, whatever feeling, emotion, or idea your dualistic human consciousness has produced, just accept it. Then next, don’t attach to it, just let it go, let it return to oneness. Then you can return to oneness. This is nothing but practice in action. {Wu-Wei} This practice is naturally pure and clean.” –Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe.