Fishing for the Self

Last updated on: May 12, 2009 at 7:49 am by Dosho Port

Fishing for the Self 2009-05-12T07:49:00-06:00 Dosho Port

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From Stuart Davis to Bokusan to Bob Dylan (some say he’s got the blood of the earth in his voice) – an odd blog, indeed. Yet I’m hearing a similar message. Of course, it could just be me…but I offer you a few quotes about the self today.

By the way, my favorite line from “What Witness?” from the music video post yesterday is the karmically astute, “You did this shit, then shit does you.”

Moving along … here’s a few excerpts from Soto Zen master Bokusan’s Nineteenth Century commentary on “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self.”

In “One Bright Pearl” Dogen says, “Ceaselessly pursuing things and making them the self, pursuing the self and making it things.”

…It is essentail in the practice to “fully experience one dharma.” In whichever practice, it is good to solidly master one dharma. When we fully experience the self, it is not betrayed by myriad dharmas. When we fully experience myriad dharmas, the self drops off spontaneously.

…You need to study one side with great urgency. That is “to study the self.”

Now without getting all Bargainin’ for Salvation: Bob Dylan, a Zen Master? on you, I’m enjoying reinterpreting some of His songs in a Genjokoan-esque manner like “I and I” – so when he says “you” he’s talking about the “self.” In this light I’ve been listening to some of the songs on his new release, Together Through Life, over and over in the truck, especially “Beyond Here Lies Nothing,” “Forgetful Heart” and this from “This Dream of You:”

Everything I touch

Seems to disappear

Everywhere I look

You are always here

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May 11, 2009

What Witness?

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