Connected Field of Aliveness

 

Connected Field of Aliveness

So, you are this energy and this energy is connected, it is a connected field that moves when your body moves and keeps still as a connected field of energy when your body doesn’t move. When you stay still, this field of energy radiates like a star. It shines light or subtle energy just like a star. There’s countless little processes happening there but the main thing is that it is utterly alive, present and there is no sense of me, as an individual entity there so it is devoid of self. So you just sit there, totally alive, totally present, there is no ”me” having the experience and it feels great because it’s perfectly natural. Because it is natural is why it feels right and because of that it answers so many questions to those who need to get answers. But basically this aliveness happens by itself, is there or here by itself and that’s all. It’s not a big mystery or a thing that only sages on mountain tops have or are able to understand, no, all of us share it but it needs to be discovered though.

When we take this connected field of aliveness without self into movement and start expressing things artistically, oh there is nothing more delightful because it is our true undefiled being or true me expressing itself purely. This is ”zen art”. This is the view of zen art or spiritual art. And you can take it into anything from East Asian arts to sports to painting to writing poems; anything form of expression, any art.

As a unified field you play, move, bounce, draw a line, sing, dance, walk and simply exist without a self or a center. Awake and aware, nothing lacking, enjoying it all, without the notions of win or loss, victory or failure.

- Amrita Baba, Amrita Mandala Sangha

Dynamic Concentration in Pure Land Buddhism

 

Dynamic Concentration

in Pure Land Buddhism

See video first: https://youtu.be/l4IDayXV6r0

Yuki's comment: I did a bit of searching online and was surprised to find that this practice at Ichikukai was originally practiced with the name of Amitabha, e.g. was a form of nembutsu, just as described in your What’s Next book and just like we practice with our Gurus' name in Amrita Mandala!!! Story goes that the founder of this method, Inoue Masakane (b. 1790) learned this from a woman who was a practitioner of an esoteric Pureland Buddhism called “hidden nembutsu”. He had an awakening with this method, but due to his father’s dying will to penetrate into the meaning of Shinto prayer, and his later having a vision of a Shinto deity, adopted his awakening experience and the method for it into a Shinto practice, that has been passed on to this day at a place like Ichikukai. Some of his disciples actually continued practicing it in its original form of rhythmic shouting of Amitabha’s name, which they called “kosho nembutsu” (loud voice nenbutsu), and apparently was practiced as recently as 1990s and may still be practiced somewhere in Japan. I thought this to be a compelling story as I have heard of your strong connection to Pureland Buddhism and so is your teacher Terayama-Roshi”.

Omori Sogen Roshi's Awakening

Omori Sogen Roshi's Awakening

For eight years Omori Roshi (1904-1994) commuted between Kyoto and Tokyo. In 1933, finally, he ”broke through” and passed the koan Mu. About this realization, Omori Roshi says:

”My experience was not very impressive or glorious, so I don't like to talk about it but... One day after finishing zazen, I went to the toilet. I heard the sound of the urine hitting the back of the urinal. It made a splashing sound. It sounded very loud to me, and at the very moment I realized, ”AHA”, and I understood. I had a realization.

”I AM!” I was very happy. But it was not a showy experience. It was not even very clean. Sound is not the only thing that can trigger this experience. Yamada Mumon Roshi, with whom I trained, had a very different experience. He was walking down the hallway when he saw the red color of the autumn leaves, and suddenly he was enlightened.

When you are enlightened, you realize very clearly that you are right in the middle of Mu. This becomes a little theoretical, but according to Nishida's philosophy, it is stated that the infinite circle has infinite centers. In effect, what happens is that you realize that that center of the infinite circle is you.

When you are in the state of samadhi, whether you call it Mu-samadhi or another type of samadhi, you are unconditionally in the realm of Absolute Nothingness (zettai mu). At that time, because of some incident, when you break through the samadhi, you will attain realization. It is like ripe fruit on a tree. When the wind blows or the branch sways, the fruit will just fall from the tree. If the fruit is not ripe, though the wind may blow or the branch sway, the fruit will not fall.

You will realize with your entire being that you are at the center of Absolute Nothingness (zettai mu) and at the center of the infinite circle. To be at the center of the infinite circle in this human form is to be BUDDHA himself. You have been saved from the beginning. You will understand all these things clearly and with certainty.

Even if you are in the state of samadhi but do not have this realization, you are merely in that state. You will not feel that, ”I am glad I am who I am. A great burden has been lifted from my shoulders. I am content. I am saved”.

From ”Omori Sogen, The Art of a Zen master” by Dogen Hosokawa.

Kim's note: Omori Sogen Roshi was the teacher of my teacher, Terayama Tanchu Sensei.