Section 26-27 #10
Hello Folks in the Palouse, Prajna literally means before knowing. This is the mind of Bodhidharma. He was asked by the emperor, "What is the meaning of the greatest truth?" He replied, "Vastness, nothing holy or sacred." The emperor then said, "Who are you facing me?" The response was, "Don't know." This not knowing is not the mind of passivity or dullness but the mind of brilliant night spangled and jeweled with spinning galaxies, twirling stars, exploding solar systems and unfathomable reaches. It is what you are, although you are never the entirety of it. It is before knowing but includes knowledge, the intellect, language and speech. Prajna is also standing, sitting, walking and lying down. It is eating when you are hungry, sleeping when tired and being angry and filled with grief when hearing about slain children, recalcitrant republicans and shop-worn democrats.
In English, prajna is usually translated as wisdom and it is what you are, even when lost, even when anxious, even when scared. Hakuin Zenji said, "They translated prajna as wisdom. All people have it. No one's excepted. It's faultlessly perfect in each one of us...You never see it until your fingers let go from the edge of the cliff. Why? Don't pare your nails at the foot of lamp. You might get an inchworm to measure longs and shorts, but don't ask a snail to plow a rocky field."
In comparison to Hakuin's extroverted expression, Thich Nhat Hahn translates prajna as understanding. I have the sense he feels that 'wisdom' has taken on a meaning that is too sharp, too hard, maybe too masculine. Understanding is more allowing and accepting of what is. What do you think of this distinction?
Last year, when reading Shodoka (The Song of Enlightenment), I talked about the line, "The rays shining from this perfect mani-jewel have the form of no form at all. Clarify the 5 eyes and develop the 5 powers; this is not intellectual work." The 5 powers are faith which leads to applied effort to mindfulness to concentration and then to wisdom. In the 8-fold path, we start with right view or wisdom and move around the circle to intention, speech, conduct etc. and return to right view or wisdom. In the paramitas, the next word that Hui-neng describes, the 6th and last paramita is wisdom. Of course, in the 3 systems (the 5 powers, 8 fold path, 6 paramitas) each step contains the others. They are holographic rather than hierarchical or linear, however, it is wisdom or prajna which sits as the heart of practice. Wisdom is realization. And realization is intimacy, the intimacy of knowing all others as closer than your own body, as closer than your own breath. It is also being known. Intimacy is seeing through and being seen through at the very same instant.
Paramita has a dual meaning. It means perfection so prajna paramita is the perfection of wisdom. It also means to cross over. To be perfect is to be 100%. You cannot add to it, you cannot take from it. It is without gaps! Perfect is not divisible. There is neither 2 nor even 1. To come to the understanding of 'not even 1' is to have crossed over...to have crossed over to this buddha body here; to this very place now. It is to cross over to the sound of wind through chimes--ting-a-ling; to have crossed over to the jet moving across the sky of mind; it is to have crossed over to the bird singing from a branch of your own heart. To realize perfect understanding is to know samsara as nirvana, nirvana as samsara. It is to know cause and effect as buddha nature and buddha nature as cause and effect.
Hakuin says, "The Chinese for paramita means 'reach the other shore'. But where is that? Saying that is like digging yourself into a hole to get at the blue sky. Shrimps may wriggle and jump, but they can't escape the dipper. The place where the Treasure lies is near at hand. Take one more step!" He then says, "Is there a soul on earth who belongs on 'this shore'? How sad to stand mistaken on a wave-lashed quay!" You yourself are the nature of suchness. Each thing is the nature and expression of suchness. If you don't push away or grab at, if you sit with open hands and warm hearts even when afraid and freezing cold, you will see through to the reality of your situation and know from the beginning that the other shore is never further away than your next step.
Enjoy your Saturday morning together in the undulating meanderings of the Palouse...
Yours in the dharma,
Jack
I don't know how to say anything that will not make a mark on words that hold the dharma. But nonetheless...
ReplyDeleteWalking through the forest with Griff this afternoon I kept returning to "intimacy is seeing through and being seen through". I kept returning to "knowing others and being known." It feels like there is always this deep desire to be known, to be known as someone, as something. The reoccurring acknowledgement of selfness.
And yet when I look at what wants to be acknowledged, what wants to be manifest what comes is this particular colour of faded brown, decaying leaf on the earth. Or the heavy tall green fir tree that hangs against the sky. Or the soft palms of my hands. Or the way my right shoulder aches because it is held tightly just like my father holds his body in slight agitation. And how wonderful that is.
And I realise that the intimacy of being known, the deep desire to be known has always been the desire to know "others" all the way through. It is the ache of a bird calling through the wind. And this ache is an opening to the body of love which is simply whole heartedness.
So when I hear that ache now I will remember my whole heart and what she is.
Many bows of gratitude,
Tracey
Prajna Paramita= perfect wisdom...the ideas arise and pull me deep into the mud. Wisdom, understanding, perfection...all of it is a deluge of mud. But, this "before knowing", I like that. If I follow that, I start to emerge from mud and open my eyes. The question here is, if we play in mud, will it ever wash us clean? Maybe, only after the years of mud clog up every synapse in our head!
ReplyDeleteI don't know how to say anything that will not make a mark on words that hold the dharma. But nonetheless...
ReplyDeleteWalking through the forest with Griff this afternoon I kept returning to "intimacy is seeing through and being seen through". I kept returning to "knowing others and being known." It feels like there is always this deep desire to be known, to be known as someone, as something. The reoccurring acknowledgement of selfness.
And yet when I look at what wants to be acknowledged, what wants to be manifest what comes is this particular colour of faded brown, decaying leaf on the earth. Or the heavy tall green fir tree that hangs against the sky. Or the soft palms of my hands. Or the way my right shoulder aches because it is held tightly just like my father holds his body in slight agitation. And how wonderful that is.
And I realise that the intimacy of being known, the deep desire to be known has always been the desire to know "others" all the way through. It is the ache of a bird calling through the wind. And this ache is an opening to the body of love which is simply whole heartedness.
So when I hear that ache now I will remember my whole heart.
Many bows of gratitude.
I don't know how to say anything that will not make a mark on words that hold the dharma. But nonetheless...
ReplyDeleteWalking through the forest with Griff this afternoon I kept returning to "intimacy is seeing through and being seen through". I kept returning to "knowing others and being known." It feels like there is always this deep desire to be known, to be known as someone, as something. The reoccurring acknowledgement of selfness.
And yet when I look at what wants to be acknowledged, what wants to be manifest what comes is this particular colour of faded brown, decaying leaf on the earth. Or the heavy tall green fir tree that hangs against the sky. Or the soft palms of my hands. Or the way my right shoulder aches because it is held tightly just like my father holds his body in slight agitation. And how wonderful that is.
And I realise that the intimacy of being known, the deep desire to be known has always been the desire to know "others" all the way through. It is the ache of a bird calling through the wind. And this ache is an opening to the body of love which is simply whole heartedness.
So when I hear that ache now I will remember my whole heart.
Many bows of gratitude.