Book of Equanimity Case 45
Preface to the Assembly
A manifest koan depends solely on right now.The absolute manner distinguishes only itself. If you try to set up gradations or intentionally strive, then all of this is painting eyebrows on chaos, or attaching a handle to a bowl. So how is tranquility achieved?
Main Case
Attention! The Sutra of Complete Awakening says, “Be at all times without deluded thoughts arising. Moreover, with regard to all deluded states of mind, do not try to extinguish them. Dwelling in the realm of delusion, do not add discriminating knowledge. When knowledge is absent, do not distinguish reality.”
The Verse
Sublime, magnificent, courageous, magnanimous;
poking your head into bustling places;
walking along in tranquil places;
Underfoot, string cut away – I’m perfectly free.
Stop cutting. The mud’s gone from the nose.
Don’t be disturbed.
A prescription on a thousand-year-old paper.
This is one of the rare koans that does not involve an encounter or a dialogue between a master and a student. Instead, we’re presented with a verse from an old sutra and humor, and the paradox is contained in the instructions in the verse that the compilers of the Book of Equanimity added onto the verse.
In a sense we can say that the verse presents us with a picture of post-enlightenment practice. What is that supposed to look like? What does it mean to practice after having achieved enlightenment? What would that look like? Or why would you bother, if you’re not seeking anything further?
The opening line of the preface says: A manifest koan depends solely on right now. Manifest koan is a translation of Genjokoan, which we’re familiar with Dogen, which means actualization in everyday life. The actualization of realization in our everyday activities depends on right now. The absolute matter distinguishes only itself. Nothing is being compared to anything else and practice is not a means to an end. It’s just what’s happening right now, how we’re manifesting right now, how our practice is manifesting. If you try to set up gradations, if you ask How am I doing? Am I there yet? Is this the real thing? Or intentionally strive, if you try to still get from here to there, try to say it must be something more than this, all this is painting eyebrows on chaos, like painting a mustache on a picture of the sky. It’s completely superfluous, ridiculous. Or attaching a handle to a bowl. Putting on something that’s unnecessary. You can do perfectly well without any extra handles.
So how is tranquility achieved? The whole idea of something to be achieved is what we want to throw out. The whole distinction between a picture of tranquility, of imperturbable equanimity, as opposed to whatever we’re doing or feeling or what’s happening right now – all that’s part of what’s to be discarded. It’s just not necessary, like handles on a bowl.
The sutra says, Be at all times without deluded thoughts arising. This is like the second of the great vows, with which I opened this morning’s sitting: Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to put an end to them. How is that supposed to happen? Are we going to extinguish them in the sense of, Well, I’ll never have that thought again. That seems, to put it mildly, very unlikely. But the great vows and this sutra try to present the paradox of a kind of ideal of practice that from one perspective is impossible and inhuman and completely distant and out of reach. And on the other hand, when the duck flips into the rabbit, it’s already here. It’s much more: You can’t miss, rather than You’ll never get there.
Don’t let deluded thoughts arise. It doesn’t mean you’re going to extinguish a certain kind of thought, but rather, the whole dichotomy between delusion and enlightenment, between deluded thoughts and whatever the other kind are supposed to be, you just forget about the distinction. Delusion is not a stain on your mind that you need to wipe out. When we see thoughts just as thoughts, as empty, as clouds in the sky or whatever metaphor you like, something passing through harmlessly, then there’s nothing to extinguish, and there’s nothing that we take out and say, Oh those are the good thoughts and these are the bad, deluded thoughts. I only want to have the good ones and get rid of the bad ones.
Just forget the whole distinction. Thoughts come and go. We don’t have to herd them and separate them into the sheeps and the goats. We don’t have to think which are enlightened thoughts and which are deluded thoughts. They’re just thoughts. They’re all empty, They’re all passing. Nothing whatsoever has to change. And that’s the second line. It says: In regard to all deluded states of mind, do not try to extinguish them. Already the idea of extinguishing them is making some categorization of these as the bad ones. I’ve got to get rid of them. Leave everything alone. Fix nothing. Extinguish nothing. Dwelling in the realm of delusion, don’t add discriminating knowledge. That’s what I’m saying. Don’t try to divide into good and bad. It’s just what's happening. When knowledge is absent, do not distinguish reality. Don’t try to set up this distinction between delusion and reality, to see how things really are. I’m going to see the reality behind the curtain of appearance. It’s just moment to moment appearances. We don’t have to constantly judge it, to say Oh – I’m going to see through all that, I’m going to be the only one who really sees what’s going on. What’s going on is a dream.
Verse: sublime, magnificent, courageous, magnanimous. Well, in a way this would make it all too nice, I think. It should have sublime and ridiculous, courageous and foolish. Right? Let’s rewrite it to contain the whole spectrum of all our states. Poking your head into bustling places is not a matter of finding a little peaceful place to retreat to, even when your head is filled with all sorts of stuff of day to day business. But what about walking along in tranquil places? What would it be like to not make that distinction? Oh, if I could only get out of the city and go off to some quiet country place. Joko always resisted the idea that they should move the Zen Center out of what was actually a very noisy suburb into some country retreat. Better to just practice with all the sounds of the street and all the people and the teenagers setting up their band across the street on the lawn and playing loud music at night during sesshin. That’s just what’s happening. Make that part of your practice.
Underfoot, the ropes are cut away and I’m perfectly free. Nothing is tying me down, nothing is binding me. So stop cutting. Stop this pursuit of a fantasy of freedom that treats all of our relationships and our jobs and our families as entanglements that somehow we should be free of. That’s the fantasy of the homeleaving monk: I will cut off all entangling ties. Well maybe the ropes like everything else are empty. They’re just what’s happening, and we don’t have to cut off anything, and if we find ourselves going off to a monastery, lo and behold it’s just as full of entanglements as every other place in the world. The mud’s gone from the nose. Don’t be disturbed. There’s no blemish, nothing that needs to be wiped off or cleaned up. I say to people, Sit as if you’re facing a mirror. Your face automatically appears. The mirror does all the work. You just have to see what’s there. Of course, our habitual way of looking in the mirror is to say, Oh, how do I look today? Do I have that little pimple on my nose? Can I cover that up? Can I make it go away? Don’t worry about it. You look just fine. Warts and all. The prescription on a thousand year old piece of paper: That’s referring to the sutra itself. This old prescription: Leave everything alone.