Description
What is the world? Just this! Eduardo Fuentes talks about the beautiful, mysterious lives we lead, and how “don’t-know mind” is hidden inside and underneath names and symbols. As recorded at Fall Sesshin, Friday, October 22, 2021.
Summary
KOAN:
Dizang asked Fayan, “Where are you going from here?”
Fayan said, “I’m on pilgrimage.”
“What sort of thing is pilgrimage?”
“I don’t know.”
“Not knowing is most intimate.”
Fayan suddenly had a great awakening.
—Pacific Zen Miscellaneous Koans, Case 62, & Book of Serenity, Case 20
Dizang is on pilgrimage without knowing why.
We live in a mysterious world about which we know very little, and it is constantly changing. A virus changes the world; a bomb, a power outage, climate disasters, the armageddons predicted by religious groups.
Contemplating the strangeness of “zero.” We don’t know. We will never know. How do we accept and live in “don’t know”?
Science is about wanting to know more. Know-how is prized in our culture, rather than “know-what.” We think we have to know. We’re ashamed when we don’t know.
Words define usefulness. But things just “are.” What is this? Just this! [holds up a banana] Even “Zen” is a concept. We don’t really know Zen! Names are useful, but any name falls far short of the infinite attributes that something has.
The wisdom of resting in and trusting the Dao: Without the heavy load of “knowing,” just LOOK. The “don’t-know mind” is a high teaching—seeing without naming.
Constantly, without desire, observe the essence.
The Dao that can be named is not the eternal Dao.
—Verses from the Daodejing
The world is lighter and more joyful. Thanks to life for the beauty of dualities, for tenderness, and for love. My song is your song—experience is our song.
Chilean song: “Life is giving and giving…always giving…”
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