zen buddhism chapter 5 and 6 Flashcards
1
Q
sword
A
- soul of the samurai
- one with the samurai
- symbol of loyalty and self-sacrifice
- destroy anything that opposes the will of its owner and to sacrifice the impulses that arise from the instinct of self-preservation
- embodiment of life (not death)
- sword of life and sword of death -> zen master must know when and how to wield either of them
- object of inspiration
2
Q
when a man is at the parting of the ways between life and death, how should be behave
A
- cut off your dualism and let the one sword stand serenely by itself against the sky
- one sword -> not life or death -> the sword from which this world of dualities issues and in which they all have their being
- force of intuitive or instinctual directness
3
Q
sword and shinto
A
- connected
- an object endowed with some mysterious power
- samurai died with sword and child is born with sword -> most important
- prevent any evil spirits from entering the room that might interfere with the safety and happiness of the departed or the coming spirit
- animistic way of thinking
- sacred sword
4
Q
sword making
A
-swordsmith invokes the aid of the guardian god
-in order to invite him -> surrounds sword with consecrated ropes -> excludes evil spirits
-during ceremony of ablution and dons the ceremonial dress
-while striking the iron bar and giving it baths of fire and water -> smith and helper are most intensified state of mind
-exert themselves to the limit of their powers, mental, physical, and spiritual
-sword is a true work of art
-reflects something deeply appealing to the soul of the people
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5
Q
masamune
A
-swordsmith
-tests the sharpness of sword by placing it in river and watched how every leaf that met the blade was cut
-leaves avoided the masamune sword -> wasnt made to kill -> humane
-
6
Q
mushin
A
- no mind
- going beyond the dualism of all forms of life and death, good and evil, being and non-being
- all arts merge into zen
- unconscious
- dont think anything
- dont calculate/plan ahead
- automaton
- unconsciously conscious or consciously unconscious
- mind is flowing and filling every corner -> fluid -> no limit
7
Q
2 swords
A
- longer sword is for attack and defense
- short sword for self-destruction when necessary
- train himself with the utmost zeal in the art of swordsmanship
8
Q
suki
A
- one second you can lose your life or win your life
- space between 2 objects where something else can enter
- you cannot afford for your mind to “stop”
- you must relax and have tension at the same time
9
Q
ignorance (avidya)
A
-means the absense of enlightenment
-delusion
-abiding stage- the point where the mind stops to abide
-
10
Q
tomaru
A
- stopping or abiding
- delusion
- mind attaches itself to any object it encounters
- the mind stops with one object instead of flowing from one object to another
- ex. if the sword comes toward you you may strive to follow it but as soon as you do this you arnt a master of yourself and you will be beaten
- this is called stopping
- do not let your mind “stop”
- to not calculate
- the sword meant to kill you will become your own and fall on your opponent if you avoid this
- when your mind is concerned with the sword you become your own captive
11
Q
enlightened monk vs. samurai
A
- enlightened monk is free from thinking -> empty
- free from yourself ->
12
Q
prajna immovable
A
- possessed by all buddhas
- transcendental wisdom flowing through the relativity of things
- the mind itself endowed with infinite motilities
- mind capable of infinite movements
13
Q
Fudo myoo
A
- buddhist god, the immovable
- symbolic protector of buddhism-incarnating prajna immovable for us sentient beings
- destroyer of delusion
- immovability both of mind and body
- not to move means not to stop with an object (tomaru)
14
Q
Kwannon nosatsu (tomaru)
A
- 1,000 arms
- each holding different instruments
- if his mind stops with the use of a bow (for example) -> all the other arms will be of no use
- you should use arms without stopping -> one after another -> efficient
- we become kwannons when we understand this
15
Q
tree (tomaru)
A
- looking at a tree you see that one leaf if red
- your mind stops with this leaf
- you see one leaf and fail to see other leaves of the tree
- you must look at the tree without any preconceived ideas
- if your mind looks without stopping you can see hundreds of 1000s of leaves
- we are kwannons when we understand this
16
Q
highest stage of teaching
A
-body and limbs perform by themselves what is assigned to them to do with no interference from the mind
17
Q
2 ways of training
A
- spritual and practical
- spiritual-how one gives up ones own ignorance and affects and attains to no-mind-ness
- practical training is also important!
- 5 ways of posing the body
- technique and principle
- spiritual training and practical
- must have both…-> ri (li) and ji (shih)
18
Q
kokoro tomuna
A
-not to have the mind stopped
19
Q
kokoro tomuna
A
-not to have the mind stopped
20
Q
where is the mind
A
- better to keep mind in lower part of abdomen -> enable you to adjust oneself in accordance with the shifting of the situation from moment to moment
- BUT if you try to keep the mind in the lower region of the abdomen -> you are limiting it from moving freely
- you should let it fill up your whole body -> flow
- when you do this you can use your hands when you need them and your legs when you need them -> no time or extra energy will be wasted
- have no deliberation, no discrimination
21
Q
takuans letter to yagyu tajima no kami
A
-preserving the absolute fluidity of the mind (kokoro) by keeping it free from intellectual deliberations and affective disturbances of any kind that may arise from ignorance and delusion
suki
-around page 113
22
Q
kufu
A
- personal and individualistic
- develop out of oneself within ones own inner life
- to strive
- to wrestle
- to find the way out
- remove all the inhibitions there are (intellectual and emotional)
- bring out what is stored in the unconscious and let it work itself out quite independently of any consciousness
- involving ones whole person
23
Q
honshin
A
-original mind
24
Q
moshin
A
- delusive mind
- the mind intellectually and affectively burdened
- cannot move on from one topic to another without stopped and reflecting on itself -> obstructs native fluidity
- mind coagulates before making a 2nd move
- mind becomes conscious of its doing
- this is suki
25
Q
ushin no shin
A
conscious mind
- mind is conscious of its doing -> hesitant -> stopping -> suki
- opposite of mushin no shin- unconscious mind
26
Q
mushin story: woodcutter
A
- woodcutter is cutting wood
- satori (animal) appears
- animal reads the woodcutters mind
- woodcutter goes back to chopping wood and going into mushin -> the blade falls off the ax and kills the animal
- the telepathic animal couldnt read the mushin mind
27
Q
egolessness/muga or non-atman
A
- letting you natural faculties act in a consciousness free from thoughts, reflections, or affections of any kind
- cherish no egoistic thoughts, no consciousness of you own attainments
- spirit of sabi-shiori
28
Q
if you understand emptiness
A
-you are enlightened
29
Q
angya
A
- monks travel on foot to experience hardship
- for swordsmen its called musha-shugyo- training in warriorship
- this is a form of training
30
Q
emptiness
A
- absolute
- doesnt change
- eternal
- enlightenment
- mind fasting
31
Q
kara
A
- rakusu
- symbol of monkhood
- carried by zen monk over chest
32
Q
enlightenment
A
-you must seek inside yourself not outside
33
Q
perfect swordsman
A
- avoids quarreling or fighting
- always alert -> not indulging in thinking
34
Q
nirvana
A
- samsara (death) is to be transcended
- birth
- attained only when it is not desired
- unconsciously conscious
- consciously unconscious
35
Q
myo or myoyu
A
- something defying the challenge of mans thinking powers
- mode of activity which comes directly out of ones inmost self without being intercepted by the dichotomous intellect
- direct act
- immediate
- impulse
- important in art
- = freedom = creativity
36
Q
thought
A
- there should be no thought concerning life, death, or nirvana
- limits it
37
Q
swordsman struggle
A
- between life and death
- chose a solution to the problem and go with it without thinking of consequences
- dualistic idea
- no positive or negative thought
38
Q
buddhist stuggle
A
-on the plane of conceptualism
-nirvana
-samsara
-
39
Q
sunyata
A
- state of emptiness
- no attachment
- no inhibitions
- no stoppages
- fluidity
- no consciousness
40
Q
ego
A
- without ego there is no moral responsibility but the divine transcends morality
- ego makes it impossible to accept everything that confronts us
- must have no ego rigidity to wield the sword that gives life instead of taking it
41
Q
sword: death
A
- swordsman has no desire to kill
- the enemy appears to make himself the victim
- the sword kills
- the sword acquires a soul in a spiritually skilled swordsman -> Art
- the sword is an extension of the arm
- mind and body move together with no influence from thought, intellect, or emotion
42
Q
heijo-shin
A
- mind that is no mind is the last stage in the art of swordsplay
- to be of no mind (mushin) means the everyday mind (heijo-shin)
- when this is attained everything goes well
43
Q
fudo-shin
A
- immovable mind
- the moon reflection in the river -> river always moving but the moon is constant
- mind moves in response to 10,000 situations but remained ever the same
44
Q
mind fasting (shin-sai)
A
- highly unified state of consciousness
- in hearing do not use the ear -> use the mind (kokoro, hsin) -> do not use the mind but ch’i (spirit)
- when you use the ear the hearing stops there and the mind cannot go further than the symbol
45
Q
ch’i
A
- spirit
- something empty and waiting
- seeing and hearing with ch’i -> idea is to trenscend the centripetence of the ego-consciousness for as long as there is one thought of it in the mind
46
Q
metaphysics
A
-working of tao and the harmonious cooperation of yin and yang in their cosmological movements
47
Q
tao
A
- truth
- above learning but one cannot reach tao without learning
- tao is reached when ones mind is entirely emptied of delusive thoughts and intriguing feelings
- when you have realized tao you have knowledge of all things
- knowledge is meant to be forgotten
- he is the learning itself -> no separation of learner and learning
- learning gained is learning lost
- moves automatically with no conscious efforts
48
Q
meigin
A
- genius
- mind is perfectly unaware of its own working with the self vanishing nowhere anybody knows
- art of swordsmanship attains perfection
49
Q
idea
A
- becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it
- diseases (obsessions) that swordsman has to get rid of:
- desire for victory
- desire to resort to technical cunning
- desire to display all that he has learned
- desire to overawe the enemy
- desire to play a passible role
- desire to get rid of whatever disease he is likely to be infected with
- when any of the desires/ideas obsesses the swordsman he becomes it slave and loses freedom
- desire to be free from desire is desire itself
50
Q
kufu
A
- discipline or training
- when enough discipline is accumulated they will be removed by themselves without ones being conscious of it
- escape desire without the desire to escape
51
Q
spirit
A
- controlling agent of our existence
- without spirit of tree there is no bloom
- sword is a symbol if the invisible spirit keeping the mind, body, and limbs in full activity
52
Q
sword of taia
A
-possessed by everyone
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