📿 Musings from Monks
‘Musings from Monks’ is an occasional series that explores insights from the writings of monks, mystics, and martyrs. These short guided contemplations are designed to deliver meditations, prompts, and practices. May they help you (and me) reflect on what it means to live a contemplative life.
‘Accepting things as they are is predicated upon knowing that the present includes all those things we want and those things we don’t want.’
‘In general, the establishment of the mind and attainment of the truth rely upon the instantaneous arising and vanishing of all things.
If [all things] did not arise and vanish instantaneously, bad done in the previous instant could not depart.
If bad done in the previous instant had not yet departed, good in the next instant could not be realized in the present.’ …
From the perspective of nonduality, past, present, and future are present in this moment, yet at the same time, each moment must have the freedom to express its individual flavor.
In the example above, Dōgen describes how we are not trapped by unskillful behavior. He expresses the idea, by writing about the nature of firewood:
‘Firewood becomes ash; it can never go back to being firewood. Nevertheless, we should not take the view that ash is its future and the firewood is its past.’
+Adapted from Being-Time by Shinsu Roberts
Dōgen (1200–1253) was a Buddhist priest, writer, philosopher, and founder of the Soto Zen school in Japan.
Contemplation: ‘Being-Time’
“Time is behind us, time is before us, but in the present,” the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy observed, “there is no time.” It’s similar to Dōgen’s ‘being-time’; we have a past and future, but a fossilized past or future does not bind us.
We use our past experiences and future desires as tools for discernment.
If we can engage with the present moment in this way, we are free to respond unobstructed by motivations that might hinder a skillful response. A dharma position holds all ‘being-time’ — in this very moment. This is the complete nonduality of things, existence, and time.
Accepting things as they are is predicated upon knowing that the present includes all those things we want and those things we don’t want. We cannot reject anything merely because it causes discomfort or does not fit our idea of how it should be.
Dōgen does not deny that change is happening but emphasizes that it does not happen as we think. Here’s a practical example from Dōgen,
From the time we establish the bodhi-mind and direct ourselves toward training in the way of Buddha, we sincerely practice difficult practices; and at that time, though we keep practicing, in a hundred efforts we never hit the target once. … One hit of the target is by virtue of hundreds of misses in the past; it is one maturation of hundreds of misses.
We will never hit the target without realizing (and accepting) that our arrows are missing. Missing the target is not about being a good or a bad person; it is just our sincere effort to hit the target skillfully.
Our human life, the arrow, and the target are not different.
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
J.W.
P.S. New here? Catch up on previous volumes in the archive!