By Mike Garofalo
Under the Water
of my mind
an unconscious Sea
of Memories
guide me through time
Keep me on a course line
send me some signs
become conscious at times...
freedom may a fiction be
controlled by unknown destinies.
Bring the Unconscious,
Sub-Conscious, ego, and Id,
Collective Unconscious figured in—
Over the waves of Consciousness
the flotsam of Unknowns are adrift.
The Fireplace Records, Chapter 48
Ungraspable Mind and Time
An old woman salesperson asked a knowledgeable scholar-monk, an expert in the Diamond Cutter Sutra, about some verses in that Sutra.
"I heard a statement from the Diamond Sutra that "the past mind is ungraspable, the present mind is ungraspable, and the future mind is ungraspable." Please tell me what this means. What Mind knows this?"
The monk paused, became a little uncomfortable, could not immediately frame an good answer, and said to the woman: "I don't have a good answer to your questions. What is your understanding?"
The woman then said, "I don't understand, you don't understand,. Maybe nobody can understand the ungraspable aspects of Mind. Anyway, would you like to purchase some rice cakes?"
The monk laughed and purchased some rice cakes. He smiled as he grasped his staff and started walking to a new Temple library. On the way, he tried to grasp the meaning of the ungraspable nature of Mind. His thoughts held him in constant reiterations and ruminations on time and mind. His stubbornness and diligence held him tightly to the problematic issue of "the past mind is ungraspable, the present mind is ungraspable, and the future mind is ungraspable." He could not release his grasp on these profound and disturbing ideas.
He finally gave up and let go of these ideas. He realized that "grasping" is only a conventional metaphor for understanding something, a figure of speech, a bunch of words, a stretch of the imagination. He gave up his research on the Diamond Cutter Sutra, gave all his books and manuscripts to the Temple library, and left for the mountains on a long retreat.
The Student's Considerations
We can grasp and effectively use the basic ideas of past, present, and future.
Maybe what is called "Mind" is a debatable topic and imprecise.
Let Go! Loosen your grasp! Demonstrate some detachment!
An expert acknowledges that there are subjects he does not fully understand.
"Time" and time are important topics in all philosopher's theories.
Maybe the Diamond Sutra's claims are false, incorrect, faulty, or shaky.
It is hard to grasp things with shaky hands and trembling minds.
Maybe the mind is ungraspable - so what! It still often works well for us.
What practical consequences arise from an "ungraspable mind" to provide meaningfulness?
Don't worry too much about grasping borderline problems.
Everything pivots on the Present - a tiny slice of Reality.
The Past Mind is more graspable than the Present Mind.
Is the "ungraspable mind" a meaningless intellectual diversion.
If you think too much, the fatigue may cause errors or mis-directions of one's thoughts and reasoning.
Indeed the mind cannot be grasped, unlike grasping a peach or a rock or a book or a staff or a rice cake, or your knee.
A brain is graspable, a mind is not graspable.
Sutras are NOT contemporary science or psychology.
Even the wisest persons can sometimes be humbled by ordinary people.
Asking a question is NOT making a statement or asserting a proposition.
Attach to Nothing! Don't hold on tightly to verbal formulas.
Time is the movement of things; we invented past, present, and future states.
Opening A Mountain: Koans of the Zen Masters. By Steven Heine. 60 Koans: Te-shan and the Woman Selling Rice Cakes p. 94
The Whole World is a Single Flower. By Seung Shan. Case 9.
Slices of Time
The Arrows of Time
never rest,
moving forward unrelenting
irreversible
from hot towards cold
from organized to disorganized
from past to future
from moving towards stillness
from life towards death.
Or,
so it seems,
to us,
with our little particulars,
with our homebrew views,
with our social habits a must.
The Spiderwebs of Time
are legion
multitudes of nows and thens;
Uncountable heres and theres
unhitched
from any eternal present
everywhere.
The Moments of Time
are a matrix of memories,
colored by fondness,
vaguer and vaguer by the day,
fading, cropped, mixed,
deleted, falling away.
The Times of Your Life
from birth to death,
can't be denied.
How did you live?
Where, when, why?
What did it mean?
Was a little a lie?
running out of time
for catching up
with the future
now
my mind grinds
my times
into memories
To dance at the still point
Of the Time beyond time,
Beyond pasts, within futures,
this Moment
Now and forever, beyond minds.
- M.P.G.
Hands, Grasping, Holding, Fingers, Touch
Subject Index to 1,965 Zen Buddhist Koans (PDF, 587 pages)
Caught on the Edges of the West: Highway 101
Poetry - Bibliography, Links, Resources, Guides
Uncle Mike's Cellphone Poetry Series
Meetings with Taoist Master Chang San-Feng
Shifu Miao Zhang Points the Way
The Fireplace Records, Chapter 13
The student asked, "One question that keeps cropping up in the Zen Buddhist koan literature is "What is the Buddha?"
I've read that Baso said, "This very mind is the Buddha." (GG 30, Sekida)
Nansen said, "Ordinary mind is the Way." (GG 19)
Baso said, "No mind, no Buddha." (GG 33)
Nansen said, "It is not mind; it is not Buddha; it is not things." (GG 27)
I've read that Nansen said: "Ordinary Mind is Buddha."
Pan Shan said, "There is nothing in the Triple World,
where can mind be found." (BCR 37)
Yun Men said, "Food in the bowl, water in the bucket." (BCR 50)."
"I am impressed by the catchy phrases, uplifted in spirit, but I am still a bit confused."
The teacher replied, "Don't agree with or believe in some of what you read. Don't concern yourself to much with what so and so said so in so. Some confusion can be productive around complex issues and concepts. Don't make up your mind right away about important Dharma matters. Mind your mind."
The teacher continued, "The Buddha is explained and expressed and symbolized in our ordinary lives through attentiveness, insight, dedication, compassion, gratitude, wisdom, enlightenment, being down to earth, following a spiritual path and practice, following the Precepts, seeing clearly, supporting others, etc. So, yes, I do oftentimes hear the Buddha Dharma revealed within our ordinary minds, ordinary deeds, and our ordinary words."
The student smiled.
The Student's Considerations:
A teacher is not necessarily a Master.
Mind my mind: Observe, Judge, Control-Act.
Don't let the mind get too closed.
Being open minded is sometimes temporary impartiality.
"Mind", mind you, is hard to define, comprehend, explain.
Act, when needed, quickly; otherwise deliberate first.
Pulling Onions Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo
Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans
Fireplaces, Stoves, Campfires, Kitchens, Pots, Firewood
Sparks: Brief Spiritual Stories, Dialogues, and Encounters
Matches to Start the Kindling of Insight
May the Light from Your Inner Fireplace Help All Beings
Zen Buddhist Koan Collections
Catching Phrases, Inspiring Verses, Hard Questions
Bibliography, Indexing, Quotations, Notes, Resources
Research by Michael P. Garofalo
The Fireplace Records
By Michael P. Garofalo
